Well, another successful Cessna 195 Convention has come and gone. This year’s event was held September 29th to October 2nd at Lee’s Summit, Missouri. My journey to Lee’s Summit Airport (KLXT) was a little circuitous to say the least. Since CF-MLB is still under rebuild, I needed to find another way to get to Lee’s Summit. Kurtis and Christina Arnold suggested I jump on an Air Canada flight from Calgary to Toronto and travel with them in CF-KCS. Works for me! Nothing like flying 4 hours east in an A320 then another 5 ½ hours southwest in a C195!

After filing our eAPIS and contacting US Customs we blasted out of Guelph Aerodrome (CNC4) on route to Oakland County Airport (KPTK), Pontiac, MI to clear US Customs. 3 ½ hours later we landed in Kirksville Regional (KIRK) to spend the night. After a $30 cab ride into town, pizza and a cold beer we settled in for the night.

Thursday dawned with a beautiful clear day with the forecast of increasing winds. The cab ride to the airport was another exorbitant $35. FYI, the local FBO said there have many complaints over the cab fare to/from the airport and you are better off to rent a car even for a couple of hours! Normally they charge $15/person, but we were given a deal. Say what…??

After a two-hour flight we arrived at Stearman Field (1K1) in Benton, Kansas to be greeted with turbulent, gusty crosswind! The forecast was correct! We made it down safely without incident as did at least 13 other 195’s. I believe that there were numerous puckered “cheeks” after that landing experience! Sharon Brown, the newly widowed wife of Cessna’s Chief Test Pilot, Mort Brown, surprised us all by hosting lunch for everyone and also graciously donated some of Mort’s memorabilia to the 195 Club.

An uneventful flight back to Lee’s Summit officially began our fly-in. After landing and finding our parking spot it was time to get down to some serious socializing. These events can best be summed up – they are just like family re-unions. You get to see people that you genuinely like and share a common interest. Seeing old friends and meetings new ones is such an awesome experience it’s hard to describe. What a great group of people! After a no-host dinner that evening, we crowded around a high table in the hotel lobby with a tub of beer and continued with the story telling and lying!

Friday, another beautiful clear day, just perfect for flying! The fly-out that morning was to Branson County Airport (KPLK) where new adventures awaited us. The airport, also known as Point Lookout, is situated on top of a hill with large dropoffs at each end of the runway – no room for overruns! Since Branson Airport (KBBG) is only 6 miles to the south one has to be careful you don’t try to land at the wrong airport and endure a phone call to the “Authorities”. I think about 14 aircraft made to Branson where we jumped onto a bus to take us down to “The Landing”. After wandering through numerous shops and getting some food a number of people boarded the boat for a leisurely cruise along the river.

Kurtis had other plans for our afternoon and decided we should head out to Gaston’s Resort about 35 miles southeast of Branson. Located on a one way 3200’ strip in the White River it is quite a place. A curving approach is made into the valley and finally at the last moment the full length of the runway comes into view. We wandered around for about half an hour and then headed back to KPLK to meet up with everyone for the flight back to Lee’s Summit.

On the way back to Lee’s Summit two groups of aircraft got together for some formation flying. One group consisted of Dave Ramsey, Mike Harr and Bill Milton. After getting a bunch of photos of them we caught up to the second group of Mike Larson, Stan Sweikar and Vern Waltman. This formation was little tighter than the first group and we joined them for most of the way back. I managed to get a lot of really great photos. What a thrill to have four planes in such close quarters! All four guys worked really hard to maintain the tight formation – not an easy task!

That evening everyone relaxed and enjoyed the dinner and live band hosted by Lee’s Summit Municipal Airport. The airport crew did everything they could to accommodate all our needs and provided tie downs and chocks for all those that needed them. The local EAA Chapter 91 graciously let us use their hangar for the Friday evening dinner, Saturday’s maintenance forum and the Saturday banquet. Friday evening once again ended in the Hampton Inn lobby with more stories and libations.

Saturday morning clear skies and a light breeze greeted the 21 aircraft who flew into Kansas City Downtown Airport (KMKC) for breakfast and a visit to the National Airline History Museum. Breakfast was great and the tour of their Constellation and museum was very interesting. One late arriving aircraft had a very tired crew on board and that likely led to the master switch being left on during breakfast and the tour. Thank goodness they had access to booster cables or Kurtis would never have gotten his airplane started!

The afternoon maintenance forum was again chaired by Bill Milton and this year’s theme was about preserving our aircraft for the years to come. Much was discussed about not waiting until parts and systems became so worn out that they need to be replaced instead of rebuilding. We only have a limited supply of some parts and the better we manage our supply the longer we can keep our planes flying.

When the forum ended it was time for some good old low passes and formation “runway inspections”. Marvin-Eddie and Mike Larson were the first ones up and were quickly joined by Kurtis Arnold who said he needed to practice some right seat flying. After three plane formation passes they determined that the runway was in fact usable and others could use it. Jeff Pearson and Darren Butcher were up next with their demonstration of formation skills. Kurtis quickly refueled and joined them for a few passes. Their last pass with a stunning peel-off was a great finish to the evening’s flying.

Saturday evening many door prizes were handed out to the lucky winners and it looked like nearly everyone in attendance won something. As usual a bunch of us tried to empty the beer bucket and wine at the hotel. I finally left around 1 AM while others continued on. I think there were a couple of noshows at the morning breakfast meeting. Sunday morning the official breakfast meeting was relatively short affair with the election of new club officers. Some aircraft departed before the meeting and the rest left shortly after.

Kurtis let me fly KCS from the left seat and I managed two legs without scaring him or Christina. We landed in Marshall, MI for supper and fuel and two hours later cleared customs in Kitchener-Waterloo Airport. A short 10-minute flight at 800’ and we were safely down at Guelph Aerodrome where we had started this wonderful adventure five days earlier. What a great time we had! I can’t wait until next year!

A lot of people contributed their time and energy into making the 41st International Cessna 195 Club Fly-In a success. By my count there were at least thirty-four 195’s, one DHC-2 Beaver and one RV-4 in attendance, pretty good turnout by any standards! Next year’s fly-in is in Frankfort, Kentucky September 27, 2012. Maggie and I hope to be there with our airplane!