The next meeting and fly-in of Illini Skyriders will be held this Saturday, August 19th at the airstrip of Hank and Gretchen Perry at 1193 County Road 2125 East, St. Joseph Illinois.  The location is 4 miles south and one mile west of St. Joseph, IL on the Sidney road.   They are located on the corner where the Sidney road curves back south after jogging west one mile.

The east-west runway is nearly 2000 ft long and has power lines marked with orange balls on the east end.  Come anytime after 1:00PM and the meeting will be about 4:00PM.  The GPS coordinates are North 40-3.25 by West 88-3.80.

Hank said they will provide all the refreshments, but we are welcome to bring food contributions if desired.  There is a chance of rain on Saturday so we have set a rain date for the next day on Sunday August 20, same time.  If there is any doubt about the weather call Hank at 688-2269.

The July 15th meeting of IIlini Skyriders was held at the Gustafson airstrip near Danville Illinois.  About 20 people attended and there were 7 aircraft flying.  It was Curt, Dan, Tom, Mark, Hank Perry, Hank Krabbe (from Danville) and our host Gary flying his GT400.  We had great weather, excellent flying conditions and good food.  There was no formal business meeting.  It was a fabulous weekend for fun and flying.

There are a couple of new planes in our club and a change of ownership.  Rob Steiger has recently acquired an Eipper GT400 in excellent condition.  It’s 503 powered and he plans to grandfather it in under the Sport pilot rule.  The color scheme is black with red and orange trim very similar to Gary Gustafson’s GT400 originally owned by Carl Bleichner.  Gary has just sold his GT400 to member Gary Buck and he has acquired a single seat clipped wing Challenger.

For small club of barely 20 people we are an active bunch.  Over a third of our members attended the annual convention and airshow at Oshkosh.  I made a list but can't find it anymore.  Three of our members flew their planes at Oshkosh.  Mike Ostrander and I flew our ultralights in the UL pattern most of the week.  The crowds were light and there was some rain but we still got in a lot of flying.  They have a special session twice a day exclusively for single-seaters.  At times there were only 10-12 planes in the single seat pattern so Illini Skyriders were about 20% of the show during those times!  Our third member was Dave Patrick who flew up to Oshkosh in his Kitfox.  The most exciting airshow performance was by the F-22 jet fighter.  With thrust vector technology it is capable of some amazing maneuvers you have never seen before.  The most unusual entry in the UL area was Gene Smith’s Backyard Flyer which was powered by a 4-stroke V-twin Generac engine with a homemade belt reduction drive.  Mike Ostrander was shocked to find that the tow hitch on his motor home had broken and almost came off while towing his ultralight trailer up to Oshkosh.  Fortunately the maintenance department there at EAA was able to fix it better than new.

This past weekend Dave Patrick and I took a trip in the Paxton club Warrior airplane to the Galt airport near McHenry for their annual FLYERS and TIRES gathering.  It had airplanes, cars, and motorcycles.  There was an airshow in the afternoon and it also featured “burnouts” and drag racing on the main runway.  Quite a few exotic and expensive cars and airplanes were seen there.  It was a very nice event with food and musical entertainment.   Galt is a cool airport with a long and interesting history.

On the way back we stopped at Dekalb for brief visit and then on an impulse we also dropped in at Hinkley which has gliding and skydiving.  That place was really hopping with activity.  There were lots of skydivers having much fun.  They had just done a drop from 22,000 feet in a twin Otter.  That plane had taken up 24 loads of skydivers on that one day. Dave and I were very lucky to each get a ride in the co-pilots seat on a drop.  It was one of the wildest rides I've ever had in an airplane.

All jump planes and glider tow planes have only one mission once they have discharged their load.  That is to get back to the ground as soon as possible so they can pick up the next load.  The twin-turbine Otter can climb about 2000 FPM and can come down almost twice that fast.  The deck angle on the way down was thrilling to say the least.  Sometimes they beat the skydivers to the ground.  The owner Greg and all the folks at Hinkley were really great.  The place has showers, food, camping, beer, and a vending machine for Red Bull.

My ride in the Otter was at dusk so I got to see the Chicago skyline at night at 10,000 feet and experience night VFR in the Warrior on our trip back to the Paxton Airport.  It was a great trip for me.  Thanks Dave!