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     As the morning of Saturday, June 19th, 2004 dawned, a grand adventure was unfolding. Randy, Troy, Jim and Mark arrived at Whisper Field just before sunrise on a bright and beautiful day. We prepared for our planned trip to Edgefield County Airport for the Trenton Flyers' annual fly-in there ... a distance of about 35 miles.  A short time later, Karl flew in from Corporate Airport. 

    About 7:00am, our 4 planes (Mark with Jim) departed for Trenton. From the ground, the weather looked fine.  However, as we climbed out, a hazy white layer appeared below us, somewhat like looking through milky water, but visibility was fine just above it, and it presented no real danger.  We expected that it would burn off quickly from the rapidly rising sun. 

    As our trip progressed, we began to notice some light wispy clouds passing by us ... and getting more numerous as we passed the quarter way point.  Troy was well ahead of us in his RANS S-9 and reported about halfway that a ground fog obscured the ground past that point towards Trenton.  Consequently, he did a 180 ... and so did Karl, Randy and Jim soon afterwards. 

    On the way back to Whisper Field, we experienced a grand, but rather disconcerting, spectacle. The sun shining through the haze cast a magnificent rainbow colored ring ... and multi-colored hues in various directions. The scene evoked memories of the song "Silver Wings" ... shining in the morning sun. While it was pretty, the "white out" effect made visibility below more difficult. 

    Upon our return to Whisper Field, we called our friends at Trenton who informed us that the field was "socked in" ... but that the sun appeared to be "trying to break through". Consequently, we refueled in anticipation of a second attempt. About an hour later, our friends reported that the ground fog conditions were subsiding rapidly, so we started on our journey a second time.  This time, we experienced bumpier air, but at least, we had no ground fog!  We arrived around 10:00am.

Randy Berry is shown above with his Kolb Firestar just after arrival.

    Talk about relaxed ... check these guys out!  Shown above are Mark Williams (far left), Karl Fields (in the struts), and Jim Summers (in the chair).   It was so hot by mid-afternoon that this is about all one could manage!

Flight line photo #1.  Jim's Twinstar is on the far left end.

Flight line photo #2. Troy's S-9 (front right), Karl's Spitfire (2nd left), and Randy's Firestar (4th left) are in this group.

Flight line photo #3.  The guys from Carolina Sport Flyers were in this group ... 3 Challengers and 1 RANS S-14.  The plane on the far right is an N3 Pup from Greer, SC.

A beautiful Skybolt attended from Goose Creek, SC.

Also, a very nice RV attended from Goose Creek.

    Above, a view of the Trenton Flyers' clubhouse area .. where most of the activities were held.  The air conditioned lounge was a popular hangout during the hot afternoon.

    Bob McConkey, Bob Ethridge, Ron Lindsey, Chris/Jamie/Clarissa Yanesh, and Diane Summers drove up.  Thanks to Bob McConkey for carrying the fuel for our return trip and to Bob Ethridge for returning it the following day.

    Shortly after 4:00pm, fly-in activities were mostly over. Therefore, Jim, Karl, Randy and Mark (with Jim) departed for Whisper Field about 5:30pm. Troy left his plane there in order to work on his hangar back at Whisper Field.  The flight back was a bit bumpy, but we managed. Further adventures awaited Jim, Karl and Randy upon their return, but then, that's another story.  It was a very satisfying day ... the kind that we pilots love.