Pine Crest Air Park started in 1979 as a 3.5 acre chunk of rock and sage. With a lot of work it became a bit less of both.

Andy n Nita decided to get a cow and some turkeys. The cow (named “moo”) was in a small fenced area and the turkeys ran around uncaged.

One day Andy tells us it’s time to elastrate Moo. So I say I will tackle and hold Moo down then Andy can work the tool and rubber band. I had seen videos of cowboys doing 3 second tackles of this sort of thing so I was game. Andy and Nita got years of laughing memories from seeing me being dragged around end to end of that fenced area. I was getting beat up and busting a gut laughing as well.

The turkeys loved to join in the haki sack games. The game involves a bit of jumping while using the feet to keep the sack in the air. Those turkeys were sneaky. Their goal and success (usually 2 or 3 times an hour) was to wait until the perfect opportunity and Blitz Kriege to intercept the sack and run away with it. Then it became a game of chase with all the pilots running around in circles all around the break down area trying to get the haki sack back.

Most memorable haki game was when a couple of swedish female pilots were visiting for a few days. By the 2nd or 3rd day they were feeling quite at home and decided to go topless (like at home) during the usual after flying beer time. Of course on seeing the tops come off someone immediately got the haki sack and asked the girls to join the game. Usually there were 3 or 4 pilots at most in a game but this time there was at least a dozen. And the pilots were very accommodating by passing the sack constantly to the girls to keep them busy jumping and learning the game. 15 minutes of this went by before Nita decided to exit the mobile home to investigate all the noise and laughter. She pointed a finger and waving it back and forth including verbal instructions, it meant the shirts had to go back on. Imagine 25 pilots in the LZ collectively groaning a big “aw” like whiney kids who were just told by their parents that play time was over.