Airmarking - October 9, 1999

What an awesome day!! Not everything went exactly as planned, but then when do they ever. We went with great enthusiasm to paint large letters in yellow. But in fact when we got there we discovered we were painting a huge blue and white, twelve point compass rose, with the 99 symbol in the middle.

Nichole Smith, Elaine Lueders, Diane Forbes along with her daughter Amanda, Mary Fowler and I piled into the Aztec at Johnson County Executive under cloudy skies, a little drizzle and rather brisk fall temperatures. After a short 30-minute flight we arrived in Topeka to sunny skies and the wonderful sight of at least 15 plus NE Kansas Chapter 99's hard at work. (We were a little late - imagine that)...

Sondra Ridgeway is a superwoman, she had marked out the compass rose along with an engineer on Friday. So we were able to jump right in and start painting. What a delightful way to spend a Saturday morning. My only regret was that I did not take shorts, we baked in the fabulous sunshine standing on tarmac with lots of white paint.

We stopped for lunch at noon, and feasted on yummy cheeseburgers, BLT's, and huge amounts of coke and water in the restaurant on the field. Our last job was to complete the 99's in the middle of the compas rose (which always makes me go completely cross-eyed). Many hands make light work. I think we were all amazed that we were finished, cleaned up and back in the plane by 2:15 ish and back at OJC by 3 pm.

So, if you are looking for a fun place to go fly, Topeka Billard field (KTOP), the food at the restaurant is very good and right outside their window on the apron is our wonderful compass rose.

Caroline

Join us for the next airmarking! The Greater Kansas City and the Northeast Kansas Chapter of the Ninety-Nines are planning an airmarking at the downtown airport (MKC) on Saturday, May 4, 2002. Everyone will gather on the west side of the AeroCenter around 8 am. The rain out day will be May 11.
Come join us!

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