Despite the forty feet of snow in the mountains above our home, despite this week’s northeastern snowstorm, despite the fact that it is mid-March (and my upper midwestern roots and sensibilities say that snow can easily fall into May), the fact that I attended my first gathering of planes of the season is a harbinger of spring, as certain as that first confused Robin back when I grew up in Minnesota!
The informal gathering at Inyokern, California has been organized by a friend in the experimental aircraft community around his birthday each year for the past few. Although it seemed a little earlier this year, that worked to everyone’s advantage, as aviators (mostly RV’ers, but a few Rockets, Lancairs and Glasairs as well) found pleasant temperatures and smooth air as they came in from all directions to the northern reaches of the Mojave desert to talk airplanes and eat ice cream.