I’d intended to go to the Simsbury Fly-in in Connecticut for several years, and this year I finally did it. After all, Simsbury is where I bought my Talyorcraft 46 years ago.

The fly-in was on Sunday, September 15th, but being concerned about being delayed by morning fog, I decided to fly down Saturday afternoon. Conditions were excellent; a high overcast made for very smooth flying.

This was a somewhat unusual flight in that I found myself on a collision course with two different biplanes over southern Maine, when its unusual to encounter any airplanes at all. Near Limerick, a Christen Eagle finished doing aerobatics over the deserted airstrip, then headed directly for me. He eventually turned left and passed behind me. Not long after I found a Waco at the same altitude, on a collision course to my left. I dove and let him pass overhead. He probably never saw me past his big round engine. By now I had to take a leak, and it just so happened that a big new grass airstrip, not on the charts, appeared. I didn’t wait for an invitation. There was nobody around.

The rest of the flight was uneventful, and when I landed at Simsbury, I pretty much had the whole place to myself. I wandered around, helped put up banners, pitched my tent under the wing and brewed up supper.

It was a cold night. In the morning I was hungry, and shivered, waiting for the sun to rise over the ridge to the east. They didn’t start cooking their pancakes until 8am. I needed three.

While sitting under my wing, a fellow about my age wandered up and introduced himself. He recognized my “N” number. He had flown this plane back in 1966, before I bought it.

The only flying event was a demonstration of formation flying by four RV’s. The biggest part of the show was the 500 odd antique cars and street rods.

In the afternoon people started leaving. Around 2pm I got in line, too, and wing walkers guided me out to the end of the runway. Upon take-off to the south, I made a quick left 180, and headed north, below the ridge line that sheilded me from Bradley Int’l radar.

I diverted a little to the west to inspect my old alma mater, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

It was a beautiful flight back, with sunny skies and light wind.