W10 Saturday Social (And Fly-Out?), May 5

Come fly with us!  As part of next month's W10 Saturday get together (May 5th), let’s try a fly-out! 
We hope to make this a monthly event through the summer, weather (and about a dozen other factors) permitting. We will pick a destination to fly into, have another cup of coffee, lunch, malt or whatever.  There is usually food involved, but not a requirement, just an opportunity for a W10 group to fly somewhere off the Island for a bit of fun.  If things don’t work out on any given day to go flying, we will hang at The Muk for a bit, do a little ‘hangar flying’, chat, have coffee.

Some possible destinations could be Bremerton for carrot cake, Jefferson County for malts or pie, Friday harbor for ice cream or lunch, Orcas for the Brown Bear Bakery (plus many other options), Darrington for some “simulated mountain flying” or whatever. 
 
Dave Bennet has volunteered to organize things this month (thanks Dave!), and has picked Friday Harbor is a good destination this time as the farmer's market is up and running.  It is a short walk into town, about 10 to 15 minutes from the airport.  The market is a happening place with great food off the grill. 
 
You don’t have to have an airplane to participate.  We can do a ride match to extend the fun (to the extent that seats are available).  So, we will plan to meet at 10:00 AM at Mukilteo Coffee, wait a few minutes for stragglers (but please don't straggle), then briefly discuss the particulars of Friday Harbor airport and getting there, safety, the days weather, safety, etc.  We should be leaving The Muk, and walking to the aircraft ~10:30 AM.   
 
In order to help with the orchestration, and ride matching, an RSVP for both pilots and passengers is greatly appreciated.  Pilots, please state number of seats available to share (only if you are comfortable doing so).  Please contact Dave Bennett at <hidden>. 
 
Disclaimer: W10 is suggesting this activity, and Dave is helping to coordinate, but this is not a 'sanctioned' event.  Each person is responsible for their individual participation.
 
Some highlights from the April Saturday Social (as recalled from Sky several weeks after the fact – to be taken as rumors and gossip only) include:

• One of our neighbors here on the field is about 90% complete with his Sonex, that he is building at home.  We look forward to seeing that on the field soon.
• Aaron, one if the airport regulars, often seen building time in Scarlette, has been absent for a while.  We learned that he has left the state to pursue his commercial pilot career.  We will miss him and his enthusiasm, but wish him well.  Please come back and visit!
• Scarlette (the red Cessna 150) was also absent for a while, but is back from an annual and an engine rebuild (did they call it an annual because it took nearly a year to complete?), and has been working double time with Fred, getting people airborne.  In order to support this activity, Fred has decided to convert start a Flying Club with the aircraft.  This will provide more people with access.  I know that there have been a few people on the field (ourselves included) that have been interested in starting a flying club, so we will all be watching how it’s done.

 
And some other random items of note:

• You may have noticed a car driving up and down the runway this afternoon.  This was a DOT contractor performing their periodic runway condition evaluation.  The final report will be out later in the summer, but the initial comment is that the runway is doing well, although the cracks that were patched last year continue expanding. We will continue to fill them periodically, but there were no other significant items noted.  The final report will provide a recommended maintenance schedule, and some long term maintenance projections, that will help our planning and maintenance budgeting.
• The Crawford Road Association has been working hard to get on top of some significant road maintenance items.  Expect to see significant portions of the paved road between 525 and Lake Leo re-paved in the coming weeks.  There will also be grading of the dirt section north of Venturi, as well as some ditch/culvert work to hopefully fix some of the underlying water issues that are at the heart of the problem with that stretch of road.  There should also be a commitment coming for some regular upkeep to prevent things from deteriorating as they had in the past.  Many thanks to the Crawford Road Association for their hard work on this issue.
• Gary put a great new ‘Welcome Pilots’ sign up at the top of the trail from the field to the roaster.  If you don’t usually take that route, I suggest wandering out of your way to check it out.
• Jerry coaxed the Whidbey Island Conservation District to come out and help us evaluate the grass.  We learned a lot, and will be doing soil samples to help tailor our turf maintenance regime.  Appropriate grass seed has been selected that does what airports need grass to do (including tasting bad to deer), and we should be ‘shovel ready’ soon to rehab the sections below the roaster, and in the NE corner.  Please watch for signage or areas that are cordoned off as we do this work.

 
  Blue skies!
  -Sky & Tara
   [email protected]
   360-321-0510