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When Jim Uber sent me the email about the end-of-year fly in at Smith’s Field in Cambria, I told Liz about it and we decided that it would be a great little trip for a Sunday morning. I actually didn’t know what to expect since the field no longer has an identifier. I like to find out as much information as possible about an airport before I fly there, but with Smith’s Field, what do you do? I couldn’t check airnav.com like I usually do, I couldn’t get a nice kneeboard format view of the airport from the AOPA website. I was lost!
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 I went to Google Earth and looked up the area that I thought the airport should be. Jim’s email said that it was on VanDusen Road in Cambria so that helped. Unfortunately, the resolution on Google Earth for that area wasn’t very good. I was able to get exact coordinates of the airport however and I used them to draw an “X” on my sectional chart. The airport, in case you’re interested, is on the 345 radial, 17.5 NM from the BUF VOR. This was enough information to allow me to find the airport, but it still would be nice to get a better idea of what it looked like.
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 I knew that MSN.com has their bird’s eye view of certain areas so I went to msn local and did a search on Cambria, NY. Sure enough, the site had some great shots of the airport, from 3 different directions! Now I was all set, I had a real good idea where the airport was and an excellent idea of what it looked like.
I wanted to get an early start and had planned on getting up at around 6:00. Normally this is not a problem for me being the early riser of the family. For some reason, I didn’t wake up until about 8:30 so the best laid scheme’s went right out the window. The sky was looking a bit overcast anyway (I thought) so my expectation of actually making the flight was already diminishing. My normal routine before any flight is to use AOPA’s flight planning software and enter the route of flight. The planner automatically gets the DUATS weather for your route and advises you of TFR’s and NOTAM’s that you may encounter along the way.
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The Buffalo weather was indicating 2500 broken moving to 3500 broken later in the day. Niagara Falls was even better at 3500 scattered. Wait a minute, this flight could actually happen! I told Liz that the weather was fine and that we could go so she got ready. While that was happening I called Flight Service for a briefing. I told the specialist that I was heading out from Buffalo-Lancaster and landing in Cambria. “What is your destination airport”, he asked. “Well, there’s this airport with no identifier on VanDuesen road in Cambria”. We settled on NY25 which is actually a bit north, but at least he had something he could enter into his computer. He confirmed the good weather and the fact that President Bush would not be joining us for breakfast. Liz was now ready (in record time) and out the door we went. When all was said and done it took 1.5 hours to get ready. I’m not complaining about that, that was excellent!
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We arrived at the airport at 10:30 and I started the preflight. About two weeks ago I had broken two ribs so I haven’t flown an airplane in quite a while. I was anxious to get back behind the yoke as PIC. The light winds were from the NE so Runway 8 was indicated. I called Buffalo Approach on the ground and told them of my intentions. I asked for a transition through Charlie airspace and got my transponder code. Approach asked me for my destination and, the same that I did for the briefer, I told him some field in Cambria. He said to advise him when I had my landing area in sight. Sometime I wonder what the controllers think about pilots like me.
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 After about 15 minutes I had the airport (thanks msn) and terminated VFR advisories. The Airboss for Smith’s field was on 123.45 so Liz tuned in that frequency and I called 2 miles south, landing. The Airboss had me in sight and clear me for runway 6. He told me that I was cleared for a low approach and I declined. In retrospect, perhaps I should’ve agreed. I guess that it is somewhat of a tradition that everyone flying in makes a low speed pass. He cleared me to land and once again told me that a low approach was approved. Again, (sigh) I declined.
When I said that I didn’t know what to expect, I wasn’t kidding. The field is in fairly good shape, about 2000 feet long and maybe 40 feet wide. You land between the rows of grapevines. And a portion of the runway has trees on both sides. Once I landed there were a couple of CAP personnel to tell me where to park. I recognized Jim Strong’s Flybaby and was parked right next to it.
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 This, to me, is what flying is all about. A grass strip, Vintage aircraft on display, people with powered parachutes, ultra lights, a crisp September morning and pancakes! Life, indeed, is good. Although we got to the airport at about 11:00, just in time for the end of breakfast, we were fortunate enough to get the last two meals served! Liz only got one sausage, but they only charged us for one breakfast so no complaints here.
Chapter 46 was well represented. Dan Maloney was there with his RV4, I saw Jim Strong. John and Carol Palesh drove there with Steve Yuhaz. Nelson Faso was there as well. I didn’t get the chance to walk around much and the fact that we got there rather late means that I may have missed some 46’ers. My apologies if I missed you.
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 If you like looking at vintage aircraft, if you want a wonderful pancake breakfast at a very reasonable price and enjoy being in almost a barnstormers frame of mind, don’t miss this fly-in. It harkens back to the heyday of aviation. Especially when I watch planes like Jim’s Flybaby taking off I can almost see him in his leather helmet and goggles, with white silk scarf flying in the breeze! I loved every minute of it. If you missed it, keep it in mind for next year.
When things were wrapping up and we were getting ready to leave, Dan Maloney asked Liz if she would like a ride back in the RV4. Naturally, she agreed! Dan said that we would fly formation back to Lancaster. I told him that I didn’t think his plane went that slow. He assured me that it did and it would be a great opportunity for some air-to-air photos. I never had anyone take my picture from the air. This was too cool!
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I took off first and planned to hang around north of the airport until Dan took off. The airboss cleared me for takeoff and once again asked if I wanted to come back around and do a low speed pass, once again I declined, I’m starting to feel inadequate! I climbed out and headed north. I then watched as Dan did an almost 45 degree climb-out! Liz told me later that Dan had lifted off the runway and flew level down the field gaining airspeed (which doesn’t take long in an RV4). He then pulled up into the steep climb out. The airboss asked if he would do a low approach and Dan said “Sure”. Now I DO feel inadequate. Oh well, an RV is more impressive that a 152 any day.
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 The formation flight back was a riot. I got 3-4 pictures of Dan and Liz and Liz got a bunch of me. Dan let Liz fly the formation and she did quite well. Once we got close to Lancaster, Dan said that he was tired of going so slow so he was going to break off by pulling ahead of me as fast as he could. If you’ve never seen an RV4 go from 95 Kts. to 180 Kts. At about 2000 feet MSL it’s an impressive sight to say the least. He headed south east to have some fun with Liz, and I turned west to land at Lancaster. The last I remember, he was climbing at what appeared to me to be straight up. My concentration turned back to landing and I plodded along back to BQR. I landed and waited for my better half to get back.
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 When she returned, she was definitely an RVator. She told me that she did an aileron roll and a bunch of steep turns. Dan said that she’ll never get back in a 152 again (I think she will, she’ll HAVE to if she wants to fly!). Then he asked me what I was hoping he would ask, “Do you want to fly it?” No hesitation, of course I do. He would do the takeoff and landing but I could do everything else. This was great.
I had actually been looking forward to flying Dan's RV for quite some time. My son Tom flew with Dan to Oshkosh in August in a formation flight of 3 along with Liz in Mark Croce's SR-22 and Bob Miller's 210. We got some real nice pictures of that. Now my wife was telling me what a wonderful plane this RV-4 was. Dan just wanted to show off the great job he did building it and give me more incentive to start on my RV-7A again. I must say, his plan was working.
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 The plane, even with two fairly large men and full fuel, climbs at about 2000 fpm. We were at about 500 feet by the time we were abeam the terminal building at Lancaster from the end of runway 8! We headed south-east and climbed to 3500 once we got past the Buffalo C airspace. Dan asked if I wanted to do a roll. He pitched the nose up and pulled the stick left. The plane is very responsive! We were thru the roll in about 5 seconds. Now it was my turn.
I had never done a roll in any airplane before. I pitched up and rolled it as Dan had instructed. My only mistake was rolling too slowly. When you stay in the roll too long, you come out in a rather steep dive. I asked if I could try again and this time I was a bit more aggressive with the stick. I was very happy with the result.
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I knew that Dan had to get back so I cut my lesson short. I flew back to Lancaster and flew the pattern all the way to short final. Dan took over and landed. I can’t thank him enough for the opportunity he gave Liz and me. It’s really a wonderful airplane and provides even more incentive for me to get my AIG and get the RV-7 done.
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All-in-all it was a good day. Breakfast with friends, looking at airplanes, formation flight and aileron rolls for dessert.
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