RivetBangers.com

Yep that's right, started off what was to be a perfect evening by ground looping Aurora on RY27 in HLN. but now the good news. no harm was done and the evening progressed as planned.

OK I guess I should start at the beginning. Kris had to work Friday until 4 in Helena and had to be at another job at noon on Saturday. I had to work part day friday and saturday afternoon also. I got someone to cover my on-call hours and dashed out at noon. Dogs to the sitter, I'm running late but load the plane and blast off for Helena. 15minutes later I'm cleared to land 27, no delay, inbound traffic for RY9'r. got there made a sweet landing even short. rolling out I didn't notice anything, but when I turned on Taxiway Echo. I wasn't paying attention and my normally very responsive rocket link tailwheel was in full swivel mode. I was doing maybe 5mph, full rudder deflection, but not enough brake (right foot not fully on the brake) so ended up doing a 360. Nothing other than spinning around, was actually kinda fun. Pulled up to my old FBO where I was picking up Kris, she wasn't there yet. I borrowed a wrench and a bench. Pulled the tailwheel and cleaned the detent pin. Whew easy fix and back together as Kris drives up.

Of course that has never happened before! haha I have a whopping six hours in tailwheel and have already experienced a ground loop. The funny thing is I asked my instructor if he (with 14000 hours tailwheel time) has ever let a student ground loop? He thought about it for quite awhile and said not that he could remember. We were working on three pointers when I let it get away from me and he couldn't save it. No damage done, we kept it on the runway. Very interesting experience!

All good, so Kris and I launched for Polson(8s1). 45minutes and a bumpy ride later we were tying down. My friend Neil had gotten here earlier and already had the keys to our room. Dropped our bags and we walked along the waterfront to an excellent Mexican dinner. Flathead lake was like glass. Later we wandered around and found huckleberry ice cream with our name on it. Neil headed to his room, but Kris and I were enjoying the evening so we sat out on the pier until well after dark.

almost full moon, warm air and dark lake, we didn't want it to end.




Next morning was the the Polson Fly-in. There was about 60 planes, 5 RV's. Lots of taildraggers and float planes



Bad news, we both had to get back for work. Lots of smoky haze from the fires we even went to 11500, no joy. 0.6hrs later I landed at HLN, dropped off Kris in plenty of time for her shift. I headed for Townsend for my slave work.

Amazing little machines. In a 20hr time period, we left our work behind, had a romantic getaway, met some nice airplane people and back. Driving would have taken almost 3.5hrs each way and we wouldn't have even thought about doing it.

Refreshed to say the least! YMMV

Sounds like a very cool experience (not the ground loop). Keep the stories coming

- Spike

Very cool Brian!! Looks like a nice fly in!

Glad to hear your first (hopefully ONLY) ground loop was "fun"...

Nice trip Brian, glad there was nothing serious to repair.

Nice "E" Ticket ride! Tell me, do you put "ground loop" in the logbook? I would! May as well!

All is well that ends well, Brian.

Glad everything turned out ok for you!

Could have been much worse.

CJ

I didn't log the G-loop.., but maybe I should. Just so I'm in the club.
It really wasn't a big deal, but did catch me off guard.

A fellow pilot was taking pictures at the Polson Fly-in and sent me a link to his pics. He had several nice shots.

Kinda cool taxi view


At lift off



close up of Kris and I as we were leaving

Those are great shots!

I've said it before, but that really is one of the best looking RVs out there. Super jelly.

Thanks Ian, I am truly blessed. probably don't deserve the life I have...but hey I'll take it.

You need to finish yours up so you can experience the joy too. Keep pounding them rivets.

Wonderful that you could have that getaway! I'm looking forward to doing the same with my wife soon. Baby steps.

And the guy taking the pictures is really good!