Dan Dawson accepting check for his toy from J.D. Stewart.	A little bumpy so tighten everything down real good.
O.K. Let's do it.	He's off, and in only a few feet. That wind sure helps takeoff.
Dan ponders on what he has done... Like a child that leaves home.

My quest for a new Challenger is over.  I found a very nice 96 C-II at Erie Airpark and drove over this weekend to fly it back.  I'll post some pictures later.  I can't believe all the stuff I got with this plane.  It truly was a deal.
        You've probably heard about all the storms, tornados and flooding
in the Nebraska/Iowa area in the last few days.  I had an interesting flight
back home yesterday.
        Got home at 8:15, 10 hours after I left.  It would normally be a
6 hour flight.  I had 35mph headwinds all the way until I dropped down to within 10' of the ground.  Flew through most of Iowa that way and got the
headwind down to 25mph.  I once climbed up to 4000' and got a ground speed of 32mph.
I have never been so bounced around.  Wished I had a kidney belt.  I got
my head knocked a couple of times on the side, but fortunately not the top.
I was strapped in pretty good.  My tailbone hurts pretty bad, though.
    I found out how long I could fly the plane with 10 gallons of gas.  2
hours and 5 minutes.  I was within 10 minutes of my next stop when I ran
out of gas. :>(   I glided down to a field and made a beautiful landing even
though the grass was a foot tall and there was 2" of water at the bottom.
Lots of Iowa is flooded and this place was really soggy.  I fueled back
up with my spare gas can and taxied over to the driest end of the field.  It
took 2 tries, but I finally got out, carrying a bunch of grass with me.
I flew over the town of Maxwell, where easily 1/3 of the town is under
water.  I saw trucks with water up to their headlights.
    For some reason it's using more than 5gph at 57~5800 rpm's.  I stopped
at 1:45 the next time and had a couple cups of gas left.  That stop was on a
300' rocked driveway where the house wasn't built yet.  I had a rollout
of about 20' with all that wind.  As soon as I got out people started
stopping by to see what's up.  I had quite an audience by the time I filled from the gas can.
    My last stop was on Onawa, IA.  Nobody there, so I walked to the
country club next door and the bartender got me some gas out of their tanks for the golf carts.  I was afraid I was going to have to spend the night there
otherwise.  I bought some more 2-stroke oil at the previous stop so I
could fill one more can.  I was about 20 miles out from home when the headwind finally got below 10mph.
    I rearranged all the stuff in the hangar, and now realize I need a
bigger toy box!  :>)  That, or a major garage sale.

J.D. Stewart
UltraFun AirSports
www.ultrafunairsports.com
Challenger List and Website administrator
http://challenger.inebraska.com