Corkey's Plane Talk

I didn’t discover I was going to OSH until three weeks prior to the big show. The Fury was supposed to be in FL with our people building the Kit Furies. I was perplexed at this trip as last November the OSH show chairman called me and confirmed that I would be there to fly in the show. In January I was told that the Fury would be needed in Sebastian, FL to assist the Fury kit builders so I called OSH and canceled the Fury performance. Now I was headed to OSH, not to fly in the big show but to display the Fury with our good friends of DeltaHawk. If you have never looked at this diesel engine, do it. I want it for the Fury. I can imagine how fast the Fury would be at 15,000 FT. This engine produces more torque than its 200HP gas engine, burns 40% less fuel and carries 100% HP to 18,500 FT. I’ll try it, but the one I really want to try is its big brother, an 8 cylinder 450 HP diesel in development. OK, so I’m a fighter pilot and want all the HP I can get. Is there ever enough HP? At 15,000 FT, burning 6.5 to 7 gph indicating 170KTS, WOW the 2% per thousand rule would have me going 220 KTS. (251 MPH, 4 statute miles a min.) Man, that’s 30 MPG.

With the weather drowning OSH I wasn’t sure when I would get there. I planned to go up the Friday before but that was not to be, I don’t mess with thunderstorms. I knew I had to go part way on Saturday because weather was predicted over my route Sat. afternoon. Launching early Sat. morn I breezed into Mexico, that’s Mexico, MO, never seeing as much as a cloud. The big man was with me, for out of Dallas and all the way to DeKalb, IL, I had a 45 KT tail wind at 7,500 FT. I saw ground speeds of 230 KTS. I was about 30 miles north of Mexico and decided to play with the Intuition iPod system RJ developed. There is a neat feature that allows me to listen to TV or weather. At a later date this will be SAT TV/weather. Anyway, I scanned different channels and got a severe weather warning. I thought I was picking up some weird broadcast until they mentioned the counties I was flying over. They described large hail, high winds and to take cover. It was clear as a bell in front of me but looking behind me—WOW the sky was black with lightning flashes everywhere. These storms came out of nowhere. At OSH I talked to people that got stuck there because of them. I landed at DeKalb and checked the weather at OSH, the airport was shut down and unless you had a hard surface reservation you couldn’t go in.

Sunday morning I called RJ and the DeltaHawk people. The info they gave me had me wondering if I would get there today. I decided to venture north and give it a try. I hit Rip on approach, followed the instructions and 5 miles from landing all airplanes were turned away due to congestion on the taxiways. I headed to Juneau, WI. I had flown the Mustang and Bearcat at shows there in the late 60’s. The Juneau airport looked like OSH, airplanes were tied down everywhere and the pattern was loaded. I taxied in, shut down and was hit with questions about the Fury. I went out front of the FBO for privacy and called Rip from DeltaHawk explaining my situation. I asked Rip to go to Aeroshell Square, find the line chief and ask if anyone knew me there. They did. Rip called me as one of them called the tower and asked the same thing. The line guy put his cell on speaker and a voice said “hi, Corkey, you in the yellow bird?” I said yes through Rip’s speaker. He said “fly 20 miles due south of 36L and call us on freq XXX.xx” I said thank you sir and saddled up. I gave them a call as told and they got me right in. Weeeeee I was there at last. However that was only the first part of the journey, we now had to push the Fury to the DeltaHawk booth. I knew it was far but it was further than I thought. I think we pushed the Fury 27 miles from Aeroshell Square – well you weren’t pushing hahahahaha. OK, it was still a long slow way, better than an hour and a half because the cars were on the hard surface and we had to keep getting them moved, the grass police were out and no one could park on the grass till it dried. With the Fury in place, unloaded and locked up, I kissed her and decided I’d clean her tomorrow. Ohhhh she was dirty with bugs, thank GOD for SpeedCoat.

I was staying with friends, Earle Boyter, Gretchen Jahn, and several others from Remos, a great LSA aircraft. It was one of the most pleasant stays there could have been. They had a nice house, the other guests were excellent company and we fast became friends. I would leave with them after the show and go in with them in the morning. Thank you, Gretchen and Earle. Monday I cleaned the Fury, set up the Fury display and met DeltaHawk people I hadn’t met before. As I said, these guys have a fantastic engine I would love to try in the Fury. Go to their web site and investigate their diesel, you’re gonna love the smell of jet fuel when you fly. It was a great week displaying the Fury in DeltaHawk’s booth; they made it interesting and comfortable, thanks Dianna, Dennis, Rip, Stonie and all the others.

Visitors, oh yes there were many and it was great to see them all. Let’s see, Tom P. and most of the show performers came by to say hi, talk and ask why I wasn’t flying in the show. The Fury and I were supposed to fly in the show but canceled when it was decided the Fury had to be in Sebastian to help with the certification and Fury kit plane project. Three weeks before OSH it was decided that we could turn the Fury loose to display at the DeltaHawk booth; we’re working several projects with them. We will also install their Diesel engine in a future Fury. Then there were several families and people who come by every year. A family from Canada who have three girls and a son came by and took a picture of their girls and I. They showed me the pics over the last four years and BAM, the girls have grown. The oldest is taking flying lessons in one of their airplanes and the second daughter won the Fury model last year. I made a deal with the oldest girl, it was that when she got her license I would take her flying in the Fury and then she had to take me flying. She loved the deal and came by many times to make sure we really had a deal. Seeing her reaction I also made that deal with a 15-year-old boy who has been by for the last three years. Like her, he went crazy and returned the next day with several adult friends to confirm the deal, as they didn’t believe him.

There were also many many many many, ok you get the picture, who came by for Fury talk. Where is certification, how is the kit coming along, do you have the information packages here, when can I get the information package, when will the kit be available, how much will it cost, can I take a picture with you, can I get you to sign this? Yes that sentence is long but that’s how my day was, non-stop questions and Fury talk. It was great, hahahahaha. Then there were dear old friends like Clay Lacy, wow he and I were talking and people gathered around to listen to us tell stories of movie projects we worked together. He was telling people that I was the only person ever to fly the closest to him in formation, that if the canopy would have been open I could have touched the belly of his Lear. Eric Lindberg walked up and had him tell it again. I also had my very interesting talk with Mike Dennis the founder and inspiration behind Oregon Aero. I love our talks. Mike is a genius. Hearing about his new projects is most interesting and when he asks my thoughts of some project he is thinking about, well we go off into never never land. He had several that I think will work. Jim Bede came by a few times, he knows how to get me excited by talking about some of his ideas and always entertains before leaving with great jokes. He is the best joke teller, hands down.

There were also lots of people asking for Curt and David LoPresti, and a surprise was how many people came to me asking for Dwayne, one of our evidently better know sales people. Way to go Dwayne. There were also people I wanted to see and some to see more. I missed my friend Carroll Shelby, Rudy and Tom Frasca, Joe Engle, and didn’t get to spend enough time with Jennifer, Karen and RJ. I had one guy that brought me an old airs how program from Albany, GA. He had two of them and had me sign one. Another friend brought two 16×20 pictures of my Bearcat; yep one was for me if I signed the other, wow what a picture. I know it was a good show for I was out of Fury pictures and information by the end of the day Friday. I went through two Sharpies signing pens, yep, ran them bone dry.

Sunday morning would be a challenge. I had arranged with Mike, the chief lineman, to have a few pushers at the booth at 8:30. At 8:00 three young guys showed up and we pushed the Fury the 27 miles—like before hahahaha it seemed like it, from the booth to the flight line for my flight back to Dallas. We were stopped twice by security for moving the Fury but a call confirmed we had permission. I thanked the kids, buckled in taxied out and was sent off by ground control with “Corkey fly safe and why didn’t you fly in the show?” I keyed the mike and said “It’s a long story” and took off. I did realize one thing, going to OSH and not flying the Fury was like going to a fine restaurant and not being allowed to eat.

Next on the schedule is a trip to Sebastian then to New Iberia, LA for the air show the first weekend of October followed the next weekend at the Wings & Waves 75th anniversary of Embry-Riddle air show in Daytona, FL. If you make either, come on by and let’s talk.

Check 6,
“Corkey”