Dave Klages and I flew up to Rosamond for brunch at the cantina, where Gary briefed the flight with the rest of us. Scott Bilinski was there as well. We took off as a 6-ship formation, initially forming up as an arrow. Paul was #1, I was #2 (left and aft), Fred was #3 (right and aft), Gary was #4 (behind Paul, forming a diamond and starting the tail), and Dave and Scott formed the tail of the arrow. We flew over the service once like that, then Dave and Scott broke off. Gary went over to the right to form fingertip strong right, and then next time we flew over Fred did the pitchout as the missing man. Paul and Gary and I flew by once more in the V with the missing man. From what Paul was told later, "it left many folks with many tears, and it was VERY much appreciated by his family and friends." I had never done anything like this, so as I said I was honored to be a part of it.
After the final pass over the service, we flew over to Agua Dulce and met several other RV pilots from the area. It's always interesting at L70 on a weekend...the low fuel prices draw all sorts of folks out of the woodwork.
Anyway, John "Yellowtail" Hughes was up there, and I had the pleasure of flying back to Chino with him. I was pretty wiped from the formation flying earlier, so I quickly offered to fly lead. Lead has an easy time usually...just keep it steady and do all the radio work. Noooo es problema.
I got these shots of John off my right wing.
Another weekend of fun flying with great folks.