A day I will always remember!

[ksandrew]

Hi Folks.

Not sure how to do this but I will try to load the video.

Today after almost four years of work I made the first landing at Grand Oaks Plantation.

This all started about ten years ago, wanting to land at home. Normal folks drive to the airport. Not me.

About five or six years of investigation, checking Google Earth every night looking for such a place. Four years ago the stars were aligned and I found the perfect place, providing I could purchase the neighboring property.

After almost four years of hard work, clearing trees, grinding stumps and fighting pig week, I was there. Today was the day.

This day has been planned for a week or so. Rolled the runway and did test drives in the pick up. Visited other grass strips to try and compare. All was set.

So this morning was the day. All went well until a rain storm hit me just before landing. I landed anyway and all was fine.

I can not unload the video on here, try facebook under Ken Andrew.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rj4Q_N9Nro

Life is a barrel of fun.

Ken

 

[carllee]

Re: A day I will always remember.

Re: A day I will always remember.

Good news! Do you have a hanger there?

 

[ksandrew]

Re: A day I will always remember.

Re: A day I will always remember.

Carl,

I do not even have a tie down. Just lots of grass.

I keep looking out of the farm office window every couple of minutes to make sure she is still there. It is a weird feeling . The Commander looks so out of place sitting in front of the house rather than at the airport.

Hangar is the next project.

life is a barrel of fun.

 

[dbrickey]

A day I will always remember.

A day I will always remember.

Just watch looked great

 

[alandotson]

Re: A day I will always remember.

Re: A day I will always remember.

Excellent! Congratulations on a lot of hard work and an obvious success. The up side of taking so long to complete is the turf is not too soft in the rain...

 

[carllee]

Re: A day I will always remember.

Re: A day I will always remember.

Cool! Sounds like the hard part is done. It'll be nice to be able to go out back and crank her up any time the spirit moves you.

 

[davloose]

Re: A day I will always remember.

Re: A day I will always remember.

Carl,

I do not even have a tie down. Just lots of grass.

.....

Hangar is the next project.

life is a barrel of fun.

Maybe a large tent will do as a hangar?

 

[Sherman]

Re: A day I will always remember.

Re: A day I will always remember.

Ken-Sure you feel a GREAT SENSE of accomplishment, satisfaction and we'll deserved sense of self pride! Congratulations and keep up the great work! Think David's suggestion of a tie down under a tent is a great interim idea! Sure you can choose/find an 'Andrew Tent' somewhere!

 

[gmores]

Re: A day I will always remember.

Re: A day I will always remember.

Congratulations Ken. A great memory created.

 

[Pat]

Re: A day I will always remember.

Re: A day I will always remember.

Ken,
Great News
Do you have a date for the OPEN HOUSE?
Or OPEN TENT... There is a guy in Georgia that does a great job with canopies for all occasions. Good Guy and he has a Commander.

 

[dgeib]

Re: A day I will always remember.

Re: A day I will always remember.

Congratulations Ken! It's great to see a dream come true.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Pete]

Re: A day I will always remember.

Re: A day I will always remember.

Great video, congratulations, lots of hard work.

 

[mcgrathm]

Re: A day I will always remember!

Looks nice... As far as a hanger, I looked into these guys once when I was looking for a temp solution.http://www.portableshelters.com/airplane_hangars.htm If I remember the quote was about $4500 for a fully enclosed hanger.

 

[N4843W]

Re: A day I will always remember!

That is beyond totally cool, Ken. When are you open for visitors?

 

[Mdavis]

Re: A day I will always remember!

Great story and fulfillment of a dream. Congratulations!!

 

[janderson]

Re: A day I will always remember!

Sven was sending down the rain for you, Ken.

Judi

 

[Airotto370]

Re: A day I will always remember!

Congrats Ken, the place looks great! 82J looks right at home!

 

[klevins]

Re: A day I will always remember!

That was just beautiful!

 

[ksandrew]

Re: A day I will always remember!

after the landing in the rain on Sunday I have been taking it easy, to a certain extent.

Due to the wine celebration I did not fly anymore on Sunday, plus a couple of inches of rain came down with fairly high winds. The runway handles the rain very well, a couple of hours of soaking it in and it was OK to taxi. I did not want to try a departure until it dries some.

It will be the first departure from Grand Oaks so I want it to be right.

The picture is sitting at the bar by the pool, was quite a shock to keep seeing 82J sitting there. She looks so out of place and when I think about it I have never seen her anywhere but at an airport, or in the air.

Today I started sharpening the nine blades on the finish mower, time to get some new ones. My finish mower has been fantastic, after I bought it I replaced blades, bearings etc etc and it has been trouble free. 17' wide at 4 mph really covers some ground.

I still have a lot to do, the next project is a wind sock.

Thank you for all the kind comments.

Life is a barrel of fun.

Ken

 

[Planecents]

Re: A day I will always remember!

Ken added it later to his post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rj4Q_N9Nro

Ken, I could see it taking many glasses of wine sitting there looking at your great accomplishment and admiring that beautiful airplane of yours.

Congraatulations!

Can someone post a link for the one or two non-FB users amongst us?