Why
PowerPulse? 
Well,
it was that time of the year, OSH time. Back to Mecca, to
the home that has protected aviation and our rights. However
I had to meet Rj in West Bend, Wi first for several demo
rides.
A pleasant flight as usual in a Fury, just sit back and
follow the line on the Bendix/King GPS, listen to my tunes
on the Intuition system and roll it every 50 miles. Arriving
in West Bend I was greeted by some of the friendliest people
on earth. I need a place to put all the stuff I carry in the
Fury and met Peter and Rick, great guys that opened there
hangar to me for storage. Peter and Rick operate the
Maintenance hangar for
West Bend
Aviation.
I was excited to give these rides for they were for Rj’s wife, Karen and his friend, Todd Miller. I gave a safety briefing to Todd and Karen, strapped Todd in the chute and explained our flight profile. I told them that after we reached cruising altitude I would let them fly the Fury if they wanted to (hahahahaha who doesn’t want to fly the Fury!) I further told them that if they wanted to do aerobatics we would do them but they had to promise to tell me if they started feeling funny. If they did I wanted them to fly the Fury again, this usually settles a person down quickly. I never, ever scare people in an airplane and have no respect for those that try too. As Todd and I boarded I told him the chute was for decoration unless needed.
Todd and I taxied out for take off and upon running the engine up for it check I selected the right mag and BAM BOOM BAM – I thought it was coming out of the cowl. A quick look toward Todd reviled a pail face fast loosing color. I calmly said “Todd, were going back, I believe we lost the left mag.” As we taxied back not much was said but I was glade to see the color coming back into Todd’s face. I ran the Fury up again in front of Peter’s Hangar, the popping and banging brought him out of his office in a hurry. I shut it down and Peter and Rick we already there to shove it into their hangar. Now if I was to loose a mag anywhere on earth, West Bend was the place. Rick is a mag master, he isn’t a parts changer but a true mechanic. This guy has a private stash of Slick Mag parts, everything plus the tester. Thank you GOD!
Rj, Todd and I had a quick meeting and decided to try again tomorrow. Rj., wanted me to go home with him however I wanted to stay with the Fury. The Fury and I are close. To me she does have a personality and when she has a problem my presence is required. I really wanted to go to Rj’s place for several reasons, I love his company, wanted to see his toys and Karen is very pleasant on the eyes, a delight to be around and gourmet chef.
Rick and Peter did their magic, fixed the problem and we were ready for the next day. I was worried that Todd might not want to go, he has little time in small aircraft and the banging even scared me. Both Karen and Todd were ready, so was I. Karen went first, she strapped on the chute like a pro and climbed in. Taxing out she set the Intuition Ipod to classical music and off we went. From the minute we lifted off the ground her face showed an excited smile, like she discovered something new. I let her fly it around and answered her questions; she got the hang of it pretty quick, the smile never left her face. She wanted to try some acro, I started off with a barrel roll and jumped when she shouted at the top “This is great.” We went on to more strenuous maneuvers as she kept up her excited dialog. She was so comfortable that during the maneuvers from 0 to 3+G’s we were talking and pointing out landmarks While inverted she said “Corkey” look there’s Milwaukee, I’ve never seen it upside down.” As I started back she wanted to do one more maneuver, so we did “Peggy’s Tango” a maneuver I created in honor of Peggy LoPresti. Three maneuvers in one, tight, fast and classy, 1/2 reverse 8, slow roll followed by 1/2 Cuban 8. I love it when I can make the ladies laugh, and Karen was laughing.
Todd was up next and he was ready. We climbed out and I turned the controls over to him. He was full of questions about the Fury and asked for a little instruction. He adopted well and remarked how easy it flew, how light the controls were and that it was more than he expected. The Fury is so well balanced and smooth, it’s a pleasure for anyone to fly. I believe he asked every question a pilot would ask. We did some acro but he seemed more interested in the potential of the Fury, if he found it easy and fun then everyone would. After we landed we spent time talking about the Fury, yes more business questions. Those were easy to answer, all I had to say was, “That’s an Rj. Question.” Todd is a very smart businessman, seems to be a financial wizard. I spent the night in West Bend and headed to OSH Saturday morning.
I usually fly into OSH the day before the craziness starts but due to the mag problem I was given no choice. I must admit that it was the easiest arrival I have ever had. The wind was out of the west at 25 Knots, they were landing everyone on 27 unless you chose 36 with the cross wind warning. Yep, I went for 36, the Fury and I have made several arrivals and departures with 40 Knots cross wind. Don’t believe it hahahaha I wouldn’t if I hadn’t done it. It started in SC. Where I had no choice, it was either be stuck in a hail storm with no hangar or get out. With the help of the great ground crew, we placed the Fury in our booth. I whipped out my fantastic electric scooter, an Rj. Toy, and headed to the main building for our passes etc. My scooter is supped up hahaha Rj style and fast! With my hat on backwards I zipped along not knowing the OSH security was chasing me. He was a little upset saying he had been chasing me and couldn’t catch me. BAM I was busted, it seems my scooter was not allowed at OSH. I was informed this was a walking convention. I got our registration packet, folded my scooter, walked around the building and, yep unfolded my scooter and zipped away.
Once back at our booth I was busted again, NO SCOOTERS.
With a heavy hart I packed my scooter away but with the satisfaction of knowing I out ran them hahahaha. Oh I’m a bad boy but a good man.
I wish I could tell you all the wonderful thing, aircraft and people that were at OSH but the truth is I never got to really left our booth. With our booth set up I was constantly talking with people about the Fury and sending serious people over to Earle so they could try out the new Mock-Up Fury. The Mock-up Fury demonstrates the new width being 4 inches wider, the big luggage area and other Lopresti innovations like the Intuition Ipode system, camera and roominess.
I
guess I should explain,
Earle Boyter is
our Fury sales manager. He has probably more experience
assisting people in purchasing aircraft than most anyone
else. A great guy, I enjoyed working with him. The only
person who can tell a joke any better than Earle is Jim Bede.
If your interested in purchasing a Fury get a hold of Earle, he can be reached at LoPresti’s main office. The few times I did get away from the booth were to give an appreciated talk to the Piper Comanche group and my aviation career talk at the Honda Main Pavilion. I was saddened to miss my usual visits with my friends like Tom Poberezny, Bob Hoover, Caroll Shelby, Clay Lacy, Mike Dennis and others. I did get to talk to Paul P. He came by to see me, yes, I did thank him for his fantastic work and founding the EAA.
Late in the week I did fly the Fury acro show, that is always fun. It seems people think that’s the work part of my job hahaha but truth be known, that’s the easiest part. The Fury and I just play, we dance through the sky with the Ipode playing our rocking tunes and laugh.
As Sunday arrived it was time to head to Big D. I had enough fuel for an hour with reserves so I flew an hour south for fuel. The weather people were predicting head wind at all altitudes but as usual I try different altitudes to find the winds I want. At 3K I had head winds, 6K head winds, 9k ohhhhhhh real bad so I went back to 4.5K where I thought I had passed through an area of favorable winds. I was right! Here I had an outstanding tail wind. The flight time for the 800 KT. miles was 3.6 hours giving us an avg. ground speed of 222.2222222 Knots (255.55555 MPH) with a total fuel burn of 34.3 GALs. I couldn’t have driven from OSH to Dallas on 35 gallons.
In late August I head back to FL. I can’t wait to listen to Wayne Boggs talk at LoPresti first event in Sebastian in our new hangar. Wayne is the Airboss for OSH, SNF and many major airshows. He has controlled all the classy and un-classy hahaha airshow acts in the industry, I know it will be great. I will also do three aviation magazine interviews and flight test plus let one of our Fury purchasers from OSH fly the Fury. An interesting guy who I spent time with at OSH, an avid aviation enthusiast; oh I can see the beach up side down already.
Check 6,
First
Saturday Fly-in Event will be held Saturday, Sept 5th at our new
facility in Sebastian. LoPresti Aviation will guest host
speaker 
You
know every now and then you run into something and you say, "Oh.
Now I see what he means!" This is usually accompanied with
a head thump. This is what happened to me at AirVenture.
For months my friend RJ was saying that he had found the
Perfect Pilots Thermos and that we needed to share this with
all our our customer.
