Quite some time ago, my wife and I decided that we wanted to have our first child. It was a time that both of us had discussed for a long time, and we had gone through great lengths to learn about raising a child, how to take care of babies, how to hold babies, how to feed babies, how to change babies....ad nausium. Now, you have to know my wife, she is very...."
o r g a n i z e d". She had
EVERYTHING planned for having our first born. We had the name picked out if it was to be a boy, we had one for a girl, the colors of the room, the furnature, the teddybears, the rocking chairs, the feeders, bouncers, sleepers, clothing (his and her). She had everything set up....except for one thing...actually getting pregnant.
Sun-N-Fun fly-in was coming up, and I haven't missed the annual fly-in for the past 5 years at the time. My father and I make this fly-in our annual father / son time together where we go and...you know...smell the metal and feel the gas! We drool all over the homebuilt planes that are there, we eat all the over-priced crappy food, and then we walk our feet off through the entire airport at least 100 times daily. We usually flew there in our Beechcraft Slow-downer, I mean Sundowner, and set up camp at the west end of the fly-in at the camping area. It is a pile of fun.
Well, this year was no exception. The day came for us to fly out. We loaded up the plane with all our gear, kissed our wives goodbye, and departed for the Fly-in. We arrived there 45 minutes later, about 8am, and began to unload the plane, set up camp, and pay our outrageous fees for the week. We then began all the fun in the sun. We did the usual, took thousands of pictures, talked to everyone, watch all the planes come in and land, then critiqued the landing, bought all we could afford and then some, ate all the crappy food....hey, but at least it was over-priced, then we headed back to the camping area to settle in for the night. I had my tent all set up on one side of the plane, and my father's was set up on the other side...so I didn't have to listen to him snore all night.
I finally got my shower, and was settled in my tent about 9pm. My feet were killing me from the day's 10 million mile trek when my cell phone rang...."Hello"...."Honey, it's time!!" a frantic woman said on the other end. "WHAT!!" I said, "I am 4 hours away from home, the airport is closed, and I am exhausted!". To which she said, "I am at the front gate of Sun-n-Fun, come and get me."
Now, suffice it to say, I am not going to tell you the rest, but understand that Sun-n-Fun fly-in, at 10pm in the camping area, out in the middle of the airport, with old men passing gas and snoring all over the place, was definately not the romantic evening interlude in which I was hoping to conceive my first child. I had visions of candle light, flowers, light music, romantic lingerie. Not in a dirty field, in a tent, as melodious sounds of farting and snoring filled the air. As matters have it, we did not conceive. And I was reminded many times over, how my wife drove 10 hours (I thought it only took 4 hrs) to get to Sun-n-Fun (which she hates mind you, she calls it Scum-n-Fun) just so that we could have our first child. Hmmmm, since you put it that way!
Then I brought the plane in for a major refurb. I changed the cowling out for a Sam James cowling, which was significantly lighter, and had the round air intake openings. I then put a Sam James fiberglass plenum chamber on and installed the Sam James fiberglass wingroot fairings. I installed the Van's pressure recovery wheel pants, then made really slick upper and lower gear root fairings along with fiberglass gear fairings. I followed this by a new paintjob. The decrease in weight was really significant. The next time that I flew along side my father's RV6, I had to throttle back considerably, because I was leaving him in the dust! The plane flew a good 15 MPH faster.
