Saturday flying report for August 4th, 2012

I arrived at the field on Friday afternoon Aug. 4th 2012, and set up my canopy and dropped off my plane hauler / slash / camper at the field and set things up there with my grandson Alex. From there we left the field and went to town to get supplies and such for the camping and the Saturday BBQ. Upon returning to the field there were several members already there preparing for the Friday night club meeting. After a generous amount of socializing with several members and their family members the meeting got underway. Upon finishing the monthly club meeting at the field, which by the way, is also a first for me in my short tenure as a member of this great group, and I thoroughly enjoyed holding it at the field, and am looking forward to having it there again much more often too.
 After the meeting more camaraderie and social hour was enjoyed by all in attendance until the very late hours of the night, under the beautiful Colorado star filled sky, joined by a large bright full moon. Upon retiring to bed for the night, some few short sleep-less hours later, I came to realize the air mattress in my trailer now has a slow air leak in it and it turned into a very long and restless night of no sleep. And yet the grandson slept like a baby he reported. Grandpa was up and down all night long keeping the mattress inflated as best as could be done. I finally gave up and just deflated the mattress completely and tried to rest laying flat down on the deflated mattress. Guess how successful getting any rest that way was happening???....NOT!!!

As the morning sunrise broke Saturday, it also brought a steady heavy wind into the 25mph range until about 9 AM Saturday morning, when the winds started to try to lay down enough to attempt a couple of flights.
Kenny and Terry were chomping at the bit visiting  under the shelter of the buildings out of the wind and as the winds died out we all started breaking out our aircraft and prepping them for flying. Steve, Kenny, Terry, Ron and myself all started getting in some flights, and soon here comes Dennis out to the field to fly also.
Next thing I knew and Bill stopped back by the field after taking his wife Joann to an appointment, and returned to get in some flights with his Hog-Bipe tan biplane also.
 Numerous folks came to observe and visit and spectate all morning long, and there was no shortage of fine flying being put on by a large number of pilots, including Kenny doing a VERRRRRRRY fast inverted pass down the runway at no more than 2 feet off the deck heading East bound, followed by the coolest tight roll out of inverted and up and away he flew.....I noticed his shirt puffed out quite full as he was doing that spectacular fly by,, not from his heart pounding out of his chest, but rather he said the breeze was blowing is why that happened, and all that he noticed was his mouth went dry as could be, as he was doing that stunt.....HA!!!
 It came time to fire up the grill and everyone started hauling out the shared food for a feast of very large proportions, to be shared and enjoyed by everyone in attendance, including some of our visitors and spectators. Hamburgers, Polish sausages and hot dogs, with all the trimmings were on the menu for the grill, and there were tons of salads of all sorts, along with deserts, cookies, potato chips and beverages of all sorts that everyone brought to share with the members.
During the feast there were still people flying and socializing everywhere that  I turned and looked, along with some several individuals that will remain anonymous <ahem> ribbing and razzing Steve into trying to fly inverted down on the deck like Kenny did. A very successful high speed, low to the deck inverted pass, and Steve came back from the flight line grinning a mile wide grin also.
I am sure I am probably missing reporting on parts of the event no doubt, and anyone else that would like to, please share with the rest of the folks what all was going on for this great event.

I apologize that I did not take any crappy washed out cell phone pictures this weekend, as I was enjoying myself immensely visiting and flying, and later on cooking up some great shared food for everyone.

Thanks to everyone for the support and sharing, and I sincerely hope the outdoor club meetings can be brought back more often, and enjoyed again.

Mark J. Sullivan