The International Cessna^® 170 Association

OK 170 members, its time for one or more of you who attended Reklaw to give us a report on the happenings there. How many planes, people, 170's, weather, etc.

Ole Pokey, you ask and you shall receive.

We left Arlington about 0800 on Saturday, arriving around 0930 to a pattern that had 4 birds in it. I don't have a total number of airplanes there, but all the area around the pond and to the west of the runway was clear full. The right side of the runway had planes 1/2 down and I parked 3/4 of the way down on the left. Almost the entire left side of the runway was full by Saturday noon. Wx Saturday was great! The winds were nearly calm which did create a couple interesting "runway change" situations. I think I counted 7 or 8 -170's. Thank God the smoking An-2 Colt wasn't there. Big iron included a T-28, T-6 and Beech 18. Two gorgeous C-195s were also present. There was a line of T-Storms that formed north of Dallas that slowly was working it's way SE throughout the afternoon. That caused a rather large exodus Saturday afternoon/evening.

Lucklily no bent metal, at least three prop strikes though. 1 taildragger that taxied into the taxiway sign by the airboss stand shredding his wooden propellor and 2 nose draggers that couldn't figure out how to taxi slowly or with their yoke in the aft position. Don't worry though. After both shutdown to confirm that they really did turn up dirt with the props and curled the tips, they fired them back up and left.

About mid-night the rains arrived. Not much wind or lightning but heavy rain for a few hours. It was enough to wash the previous days dust of the plane and make you realize why good tents are a great investment. Low ceilings Sunday morning but by 1100 they picked up enough that lots of people were headed home. It was fun to meet people and see all the young kids there still enthusiastic about aviation. Yes there were a few idiots, but you will have idiots in all aspects of daily life that you have to watch out for. After 4 years of trying to get there, this was my first real Reklaw and I am thankful to have experienced it. Next year my work schedule won't allow for me to fly down from Washington state, but I look forward to Arlington, and BCP fly-ins in the Pacific Northwest.

Jughead

Hey Jughead when you headed North?

Might have another April flyin at Freedom Springs


W.

W.J.Langholz wrote:Hey Jughead when you headed North?

Might have another April flyin at Freedom Springs


W.

W, Not sure. Still awaiting a class start date with the Big Eskimo. Hopefully by late Nov/early Dec.

Jug

Frank-
You were missed this year! I did not see one 172 taidragger. I was able to talk to several 170 owners but as usual, I can't remember their names. Everyone was out and about most of the time so it was hard to find owners with their planes. I called George to see if he was planning on flying in after dark as usual but he wasn't able to go this year.

Fredericksburg had a good Cessna taildragger showing with 6 planes flown in, 2-180s, 1-185, 2-195s, and a Birddog. We all flew in Friday around noon and got great spots next to the touchdown zone for 02. We were surprised at all the planes that were there early. Many planes had already been there a day or two. One guy from Fredericksburg had arrived on Tuesday with his travel trailer.

The conditions were perfect for flying and camping, light winds, cool temp, no bugs, and clear skies. Friday night the caterers served 225 meals. They were lined up for an hour and a half.

Jughead, too bad we didn't run into each other. I walked down the line on the west side of the runway Friday afternoon but not on Saturday. We left around 1:00pm on Saturday afternoon and had a nice flight back to Fredericksburg at 8500' in smooth air. Glad to hear the storm Saturday night did not cause any damage, I watched it move thru Reklaw on radar.

Richard, Did you have the 170 or 195 there?

I was in the yellow and white 195.

Okay, We saw and admired the plane Richard, but never saw you around. I did stop and watch your departure though.

Jughead, no telling where I was, I walked the entire field at least once trying to look at all of the planes.

On departure I had to wait on the 8-ship RV formation flight that was fogging the field for mosquitos. I love that runway, over the river and thru the woods. The 10" wheels on the 195 took it all with no problem, Cessna engineers really knew what they were doing.

I would post some pictures but this website won't take iPad pictures, they are really much too big anyway.

hilltop170 wrote:I would post some pictures but this website won't take iPad pictures, they are reaaly much too big anyway.

Yes the forum WILL take IPad and IPhone pictures. The problem is your IPad and IPhone are now taking pictures in a size once reserved for professional photographers and expensive cameras. All you need to do is reduce the size of the photo and the easiest way to do that is email them to yourself and select a smaller resolution.

Bingo! Bruce, you are a genius.

Thanks to you guys for the Reklaw Report! It appears it was another successful one and one I hated to miss. Thanks to Dave, Marcia and their volunteers for putting on such a enjoyable event.

Frank

Here is a link to one of our members departing on Saturday.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fgzicek71c42s ... .35.33.mov

Frank, the crowd this year was a good one. Sorry to see your camping spot taken by a stranger, too. Met a few new (to me) members and had a great time, as expected.

Anyone who has not been owes it to himself or herself to go.

Great pictures, Richard, but that 172 overhead in the first shot is a little unnerving. I recall flying with my dad to breakfast at a private field about 8 years ago. About halfway through the morning, a 172 came in and the pilot was behind the airplane the entire time. He made the decision to go around and ended up drifting over a row of parked airplanes (where our 170 was parked) slow and at a high angle of attack. It was a hairy few moments, but the guy eventually got some airspeed and was able to circle back around and land normally.