A collection of photos from the October, 2005 Fly-in at Porterville, CA (PTV)

Much to my regret, I did not attend a WAMM Fly-In. Thankfully, the following report and was e-mailed by Bill Vandersande, while Michael Harms made a considerable effort to take and send the photos (only some of which are shown here).

[Dated 05 October, 2005]

Hi Dave:

We had another successful Fly-In, in spite of your absence. Michael Harms will email you the pictures.
14 people signed in. Here they are:
GIL GILBERT, flew into Fresno and drove to PTV on Thursday. I was there on Wednesday already, to get the hangar clean and organized. Gil and I had dinner at La Fuente on Thursday nite.
MICHAEL HARMS flew in on Thursday nite, late, in his 182 RG.
ERNIE BUENTING flew in on Friday morning in his Mite.
DAVE MAZZOLA flew in on Friday afternoon in his Mite.
DAN BELTRAMI, likewise (his first visit to a PTV Fly-In).
TONY TERRIGNO flew up in his Piper.
ROBBY ROBINS drove up in his Audi.
DON DEATON was there of course.
MICHAEL MAGNANI arrived on Saturday with JON STARK flying a beautifully restored Stinson 108.
BOB KATZ arrived on Saturday with JACK NORRIS in a Piper Comanche, but did not stay very long.
TONI GUTTMAN arrived in his Mite on Saturday afternoon.

On Friday, we had all three meals at the airport restaurant.
On Saturday, we did some air-to-air photography. Tony's Piper was the camera ship, with Gil the photographer (Michael's camera). Don't know how well they came out. After that we went to the Rustlers for the 2-Taco luncheon. At nite, we had Pizza and lots of beer at Pizza Hut. The restaurant had made a mistake and brought us 2 extra pizzas, we didn't want. We had a lot of fun.
On Sunday morning everybody left after breakfast at Michel's, except for Gil and Michael Harms. Michael has had his first harvest from his Almond ranch, would you believe 50,000 pounds and he brought a big sack full to the fly-in for everybody to sample.
Don Matthews has completed his hangar next to me and got it inspected and signed off on Friday. That's all. See what you missed !!!
Bill.

Quality and convenience meant that Michel's All American Grill at the airport got a lot of patronage from the WAMM gang. Clockwise around table: Bill, Tony, Robby, Gil, Ernie, Dave, Dan and Don.

The two-taco lunch special at Rustlers. Are you getting to know these faces by now?

Dan Beltrami and Dave Mazzola over the flat fields near Porterville.

Michael Harms apparently requires the drag of his landing gear in order to match his speed to Tony's Piper. Another nifty trick of his was to take this photo.

Speaking of nifty tricks, you will notice Don Deaton uses a string to retrieve the wheel chock from the cockpit after hand starting.

Gil Gilbert, Dave Mazzola, Ernie Buenting are pleased to welcome Dan Beltrami who flew his Mite down from Oregon.

Don Matthews big new hangar now stands beside Bill's.

Tenting is a long-standing and respectable form of accommodation among Mite owners. These belong to Dave Mazzola and Dan Beltrami.

Bob Katz flew up from Santa Monica and Robby Robins (shown here with Amigo) drove up from Fallbrook, CA

All photos by Michael Harms.