| [Wings 'n' Things/Aviation...column 349... Apr. 11, 2005] by Judie Betz
WOODS AND LAKES GUYS FLY At least three days a week if you're listening to 122.9 you'll hear a lot of activity out of Woods and Lakes Airpark. The flyers living along both sides of the runway out there in Ocklawaha are active airmen. Really active! And they're sociable as well, so they gather together and go flying, combining the best of the two worlds that brought them to living in an airport community in the first place. It's a given that there'll be a group going to breakfast on VFR Tuesday mornings, usually to Ocala International Airport to see Sam, and then the guys fly to DeLand Municipal Airport for a hamburger lunch on Wednesdays. If they don't go to DeLand they may go to High Jackers Restaurant at Flagler County Airport in Bunnell or the Dairy Queen at Crystal River. Then, not wanting to leave the spouses out, they make a couples pilgrimage on Sunday morning for breakfast, heading off to varying destinations. A few weeks ago there were 24 Woods and Lakesers filling tables from wall to wall in the back room of the Greek restaurant, the Olive Tree, a short walk north of the airport in Crystal River. The regulars bring their spouses to this one, plus those working during the week or having other plans at the mid-week fly-out times seem to be eager to get in the air on Sunday mornings. The regulars come in all sorts of planes and consist of Charlie and Donna Bell in their Piper Pacer or their Fairchild 24, Dwaine and Pat Berry in their Cessna 150, Jim and Bev Bishop in either their Yankee or their Piper Seneca, Dennis and Vanessa D'Angelo in the Cessna 182, Jack and Mary Formear in their Cessna 172, Ritchie and Kathy Krause in their Citabria, John and Connie Parziale in their Cessna 172, Jim and Jane Plake in their Chipmunk, Irving and Linda Schwartz in their Cherokee 140, Jim and Diane Schilling in their Rans 7, Tom and Joyce Schulke in their Heinz 701, and Jack and Wilma Turner in their RV-4. The Schillings' plane is on amphibious floats and soon the Schulkes' will be, too, so these two couples can make a water arrival somewhere when their friends are tied to a land strip! They've already been nicknamed the Wood Ducks (to go along with the Berrys' Captain Duck)! The breakfast bunch on Tuesdays usually consists of the Bells, Berrys, Bishops, Formears, Plakes, and Turners. If they get rained out they go on Thursday instead. Not everyone attends every fly-out, of course. The Wednesday fly-out lunch is just the guys, and is enjoyed by Berry, Bishop, Krause, Plake, Schilling, and Turner. Berry reports that sometimes "The Love boys, Ollie Washburn and Bill Metz, come along too." According to Berry, "The men go alone because the women are off to Quilt Club." In other words they wouldn't be fed lunch on Wednesdays because the gals are off doing their own thing. And not to be outdone, the ladies have a very good grip on doing their own thing! Every afternoon at four o'clock a quilt is hung out in front of someone's house along the strip. That signifies "wine time" and marks who the hostess for the day is. If you're looking for any of the women in the late afternoon, that's how you'll find them! These folks know how to have fun!! |