Last weekend was the infamous New Mexico Pilots Association back-country work party at the Negrito airstrip.
This is the site of much pain and suffering. I hope a memorial is setup one day.
A few years ago, it was rocks (here). We spent the weekend digging up big rocks from the parking areas and moving them ‘away’. Then we walked up and down the runway picking all the smaller rocks and moving them ‘away.’ I’m not sure I have recovered from that experience yet.
This weekend, building barbed wire fence.
Have I ever mentioned being lazy??
I am.
Perhaps I am very lucky that I chose software as my career path. There just isn’t a lot of hard labor in my typical workday. Sure, I have to occasionally bend over and pick up a pen or something I dropped. Sometimes I even have to pick up a ten pound computer. Other than those things, it is pretty ideal for a fat & lazy guy.
Come to think of it… maybe it is the career that has made me fat and lazy???
Anyway… I received a fine education in fence building at Negrito. I generally learned that:
- Hauling big spools of wire is work.
- Hauling bundles of t-posts and stays is work.
- Driving metal t-posts into the ground is work.
- Using a pick to dig out old fence posts is work.
- Pulling out old fence posts by hand is work.
- Securing the wire to the fence posts with wire is work. Well… my fingers were tired…. Ok?
All in all, the whole thing felt like work. I suppose that makes sense given the name of the event – “work party”… See the trickery involved there?? Using the word “party” to make “work” sound less bad.
Thankfully, lots of folks showed up to help so the work was spread out nicely. We accomplished all fence building & repair that was planned and the world is now a better, safer, happier place due to our efforts.
You may notice the complete absence of any photos of me building fence. I realize that without these, my story is highly suspect – especially the part about me ‘working.’ Allow me to suggest that the lack of photographic proof is sort of proof itself that I was actually working and not wandering about taking photos. 🙂
I typically fly in and camp at these events. However; this year I had some other responsibilities so I chose to fly in Friday morning, fly home that evening, and repeat on Saturday. The weather was perfect so this worked out nicely. Both days I made the flight with my friends Mike and Jan and in their RV-4. A fine opportunity to do some formation flying!
While at Negrito I took the time to get some more high density altitude take-off performance numbers. Density altitude on this day was between 10,000′ and 10,500′ – nice and HIGH!!
Getting off the ground required about 1,400′. Getting off the ground and accelerating to a comfortable climb speed of 80 kts required about 2,800′. Why “about”?? Mike recorded some excellent data for me, handed it to me on a slip of paper, and I put it in my pocket. As soon as I arrived back at home, I dropped my dirty-dusty pants into the wash machine. Yeah… that nice slip of paper did not survive. 🙁 I can only blame all the physical labor – I must have been physically exhausted which prevented my brain from working/communicating.
After landing from this data gathering exercise, some folks were looking at my cowling. I strolled around to find blood and feathers on my airplane!!
Bird Remains – Yuck!!
It turns out I had a bird strike and I had not even noticed. I think it was a pretty small bird. Thankfully! No damage but a good bath was required.
In spite of all the work, it was a fun weekend. Meeting and re-acquainting with pilots from around New Mexico is always nice. We usually seem to get a good bit of aviation discussion in no matter what we are doing.
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