2004 Holiday Picnic

Holiday Picnic By Vicar Hernandez

On Sunday, December 5^th, 2005 our club celebrated its first membership Holiday Picnic, which I hope will become a yearly tradition. The weather was excellent, the flying could not be better with an easterly breeze straight down the runway, many of us were accompanied by our own family, and to top it all, food and drinks were plentiful.

 I want thank everyone who helped make this event the success it turned out to be but I know I will forget to mention one or more of you, so in advance I beg your forgiveness. Please see the accompanying pictures for a better image of these folks.

Tom Caldwell conducted a very fast and efficient fun-fly event with great accent on the FUN. He came up with the idea of running a “dead-stick spot-landing” event where four planes went up in the air and one at a time came down for a try at hitting the spot. This made the event run fairly fast, leaving the runway open for those not participating. Also, Luis Alvarinas who helped Tom with all the measuring and event running even after his plane had suffered an uncontrolled encounter with dirt. See Tom’s comments below for additional event details.

The kitchen, what else can I say about the kitchen but excellent job. First, Mrs. Scott Henry prepared a HUGE batch of bratwurst which were delicious. I have been on a diet for a few weeks and could not resist breaking it and having more than my share of the German delicacy. Then there were the ladies who helped serving and keeping the chow line going - please forgive me for not taking the time to make a note of your names.

And last but not least, the CHEFS, Wally Crichton (our esteemed President), Mike Laughlin (our newly elected President) and Jeff Roberts (big moustache). These guys attacked the grill like there was no tomorrow. Burgers, hot dogs and bratwursts kept coming out at a perfect pace. No one had anything to say about the cooking abilities of these wonderful friends.

 This was a day of camaraderie, family, and full enjoyment of our hobby. By the time you read these lines, the holidays will over so I hope you all had wonderful holiday cheers and hope to see you soon.

Happy Landings!

Fun-Fly By Tom Caldwell, VP

Thank goodness the Club choose Sunday, December 5th, for the fun fly and cookout; the weather was great with a moderate easterly breeze (Note: Vicar is mistaken, it was an easterly breeze) right down runway 9.  If we had chosen the day before it would have been a "no-fly" event because the crop pickers were in the farmer's fields in mass and no flying could be done.  The goals of the fun-fly were to have fun, of course, and to do as much flying as we could while making the event last no longer than an hour so that general flying could resume.

 The selected event was a spot landing contest which required each contestant to climb to altitude, cut off his motor, do 2 loops or 2 rolls, do at least a 180 degree turn and spot land as close to a target on the field as possible.  Where the airplane stopped was measured.  There were 2 rounds; the distances measured were added and the contestants who had the shortest total distance were the winners.

There was a good turnout with about 15 contestants.  Luis Alvarinas and Harry Hawthorne provided able assistance and took charge of measuring the distances from the stopped planes to the target--and believe me, in some instances that was a long way!  In order to speed up the fun fly a bit we had multiple planes in the air at the same time; once one pilot made his spot landing attempt and his distance was measured, the next pilot, who was flying around waiting his turn, cut his engine and made his attempt.  We tried to keep 3 or 4 planes in the air all the time.  This method of running the fun fly saved a lot of time; each pilot made two attempts and the whole event took only about an hour.  Luis and Harry's hustling while measuring also helped to move things along--thanks guys!

Several pilots "spot landed" their planes off the runway among the crops; after retrieval some planes were seen with green beans hanging off the airframe--don't complain, it could've been the dreaded okra.  The closest distance to the target was achieved by the eventual winner of the contest, Nick Schur, who ended up only 11 feet from the target on his first attempt.  The greatest distance from the target was ....we didn't have enough time or tape to measure that far!

After all was said and done, and to be sure more was said than done, we had 3 winners who were, in order, Nick Schur, Tony Fandino and Doc Leidner.  Nick won a nice cordless drill from Harbor Freight and the others were awarded tools or supplies, also from Harbor Freight.  It seems that everyone had a good time with the fun fly and fortunately it was concluded without any significant damage to any plane.