FlyStrong Fly-In

What a day!! I was in rally mode to score some big airtime Saturday and mark the day fittingly. Larry had already beaten me up the regular ridge at Kahana and was setting up at high launch. We two Coasties studied it a bit before he politely let me take to the air first. Although, I think he really wanted me to be the wind dummy!

My PTT wire disconnected and fell off during my launch, but Larry exercised his old Search and Rescue skills and found the wire on the hill -- thanks! I top landed for the retrieve, and then helped him off into the blue yonder. About that time, Mad Dog arrived on the scene and joined the aerial party.

The rising sun slowly burned off more of the gray ceiling, but it stayed around 1,900 feet, just high enough to skim along the bottom. Allan C joined up with Mad Dog and they crossed the bay with ease, but couldn’t salvage much lift over there. At approximately 700 feet, I heard them radioing they were bailing to Swanzys beach park.


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The skies kept filling up: Travis, Waianae Jim, Duck, Berndt, JD, Scrappy, Steve, Harvey, Chandler, Bon Bon, Jeff, Don, Sharky, Brazilian Ray, Louise, Sidehill Thom, Kevin, and several visiting Japanese pilots. High launch needed a signpost that read, “30 minutes wait from this spot.” The queue was starting to look like the H1 at rush hour. It was a sight to see so many wings in the air. AirBoss Alex ran things from his ATC outpost on the beach and kept our visiting pilots in check.

I tried out my new monopod to test out some boom like camera angles. It’s probably easier with a tandem passenger doing the work, but I managed to get off a couple unique shots. Duck and Allan C peeled off downrange for an XC hop to parts unknown. And I made a couple attempts to cross the bay, and eventually took the right line to put the exclamation point on the day! That felt pretty good. I finally came down after 4.5 hours to join the party. Thanks to Jeff for the grinds, and to Duck for the beverages, and to everyone else for coming out and celebrating with me.

That week marked 3 years of “FlyingStrong” through cancer. I just might be the only guy that’s ever flown with a chemo needle sticking into his chest and a pump inside his flight suit. But the therapy of soaring beat chemo any day. Thank you guys for standing by me while I gave it hell. It was a close one. I couldn’t have done it without ya. We all fall down from time to time, in one way or another, but this family of flying monkeys is always there to dig you out of a tree, lug your gear down a hill, or even push you through the Big C. Now let’s seize the day and fly! Enjoy life. This is not a dress rehearsal.