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Eleven years ago, (one year after hurricane Andrew) on the
anniversary of our Country’s Independence, we opened our
field for the first official flying and its been going
strong ever since. This gives new perspective to the 4th of
July… not only is it a National Holiday, but it’s a
significant date in our Club’s History. That’s why we pull
out all the stops and “party hardy” on this weekend each
year.
 This
year was no exception, and even a few thunder showers
couldn’t dampen (pun intended) our spirits. As you will see
in the pictures, the skies were dark and ominous all
morning, but it only rained for a few short periods. We just
moved under the shelters and waited it out. When the rain
stopped, we resumed flight operations.
Many
members just flew for fun, but fourteen signed up and
participated in the Fun Fly events. We had two contests to
test the skills of these intrepid souls. First was the
“Climb and Glide” where each contestant was given 20 seconds
to climb their plane as high as they could, cut the throttle
then glide to a dead stick landing. A landing off the field
or an engine run longer than 20 seconds resulted it a
disqualification. There were a few flights where engines
wouldn’t shut down or ended up in the tall grass, but most
made perfect engine cuts and landings. Every one thought Doc
Leidner would take first place with his super light fun fly
airplane, so the competition was to see who could get second
and third. Much to everyone’s surprise, Scott Henry beat out
Doc, by 22.8 seconds, with his brand new Ultra Stick. It was
powered by a 4 stroke two cylinder engine and it climbed
straight up. In 20 seconds it was really high. Doc ended up
in second and Mike Hunt took third.
 The
second contest was three touch and goes in three minutes.
Concentric circles had been painted in the center of the
runway and a touch in the smallest circle resulted in 10
points then 6 points for the next and 3 points for the last.
A touch anywhere on the runway outside the circles earned 1
point and that’s where most touches occurred, but not all.
Tony Fandino was the only pilot who put a wheel down in the
inner circle. With a 6 and a 1 on his other touches he won
the contest with 17 points. Tom Caldwell took second and the
intrepid Mike Hunt came in third in this event also.
 We
were still flying the final rounds of the second contest,
and I was doing the scoring, when the food arrived. Everyone
else jumped in line ate up all the food before I had a
chance to get any. No! That’s not true. We had enough food
to feed an army and we all ate until we were miserable.
Clark Hopkins had at least ten helping of roast pork and
only stopped because he ran out of holes in his belt! You
could tell from the grin on his face he really enjoyed it.
On the menu was whole roast pig, baked chicken, moros, yucca
(with mojo… umm) and chocolate chip cookies for desert.
After everyone had eaten their fill there was still lots
left, so anyone who wanted took food home with them.
We’re
always pleased to have family members join us at the field,
and this event is designed with them in mind, so much to our
delight, we had a great turn-out. Wives, girlfriends and
kids were all present and seemed to have a good time. Maybe
we can get them to come out more often.
Several of Cathy Henry’s “Wing Dings” hats were seen around,
so it looks like they’re gaining in popularity. If you don’t
know what a “Wing Dings” hat is, go back to last months
newsletter and look at it in the Wings Over Miami article,
also see page 4 (Web Master Note: see
July 2004 AMPS newsletter for
above mentioned article).
 Vicar
Hernandez is the Club’s Events Coordinator and is
responsible for seeing that all events sponsored by the Club
are properly scheduled and that there are budgeted monies
available. He is not responsible for running the events only
seeing that those who do, follow Club procedures. However,
the 4th of July party is the one event he personally runs.
He does all the planning, arranges for the food and designs
the fun fly events including procuring the prizes. This year
Clark Hopkins of Hobby Nut worked closely with Vicar to
obtain them.
Every
year Vicar says he won’t do it next year, but he does. As
usual he did a great job again this year, and as usual he's
saying he won’t again. We’ll just have to wait and see. All
I can say is, he’s done a great job every year and I hope he
continues. On behalf of all the members, Thank you Vicar!
Your hard work and dedication does you proud and we’re all
grateful for it.
Let’s
hear it, “Three cheers for Vicar!!!”
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