April Fun-Fly and Pot Luck lunch

This event was scheduled to honor our long time member Bill Worthen, Sr and boy  was it a great success in spite of the near gale force winds that struck at noon.

Enjoying the activities are Cloyce Mann next to our guest of honor Bill Worthen, Sr.
Seated behind them is Roxanne Prewitt, daughter of our VP Ron Prewitt.
Standing behind them is Joan Worthen. Joan brought some terrific pasta salad to share.

Speaking of Joan Worthen, Buzz Haviland put up another windsock, one of many fabricated by Joan for the club. The club really appreciates the effort.

Joan's windsock got quite a workout  today with  high winds and  gusts.

The climb and glide contest

It got started shortly after the scheduled start time of 10 AM.  The event was to see how long a plane could stay in the air after a 30 second powered climb. It was decided to throttle back to idle rather that killing the engine. The weather was beautiful and the winds were light and from the east. Dennis Sporing was the first to give it a try and he put in a great performance with a total time of just over three minutes. It was obvious that Dennis was the guy to beat in the fueled engine category. But by the end of the competition Ed Vincent beat Dennis by just a mere 17 seconds.We had seven competitors and we would have more but the wind kicked up around 11:15AM and the contest was getting difficult. All but Kenny flew trainer type planes; Kenny flew a low wing Super Sportster which was at a disadvantage. Also Mark Putzer's Cub had "tundra tires" that certainly hurt its gliding aerodynamics.

Ed and Marlowe time Cloyce's Climb & Glide  

Photographer Mark Putzer caught my LT-40 coming in for a
"dead stick" landing

Final Competition Results

Fueled Engine Category:

1. Ed Vincent  3:19.32
2. Dennis Sporing  3:01.91
3. Marlowe Cassetti  2:24.59
4. Cloyce Mann  1:46.43
5. Kenny        1:43.15 

Electric Motor Category:

1. Buzz Haviland  2:42.29
2. Mark Putzer  1:20.50

Club's Donation to Starpoint

After the competition we awarded a $100 check to Starpoint Adult Services. Several of the Starpoint folks, led by their director, Ron Hinkle, came to watch us fly and join in on the award. Our photographer Mark Putzer snapped the photo below which will appear in the papers.

Before lunch, our newest member Hannah Worthen is in the picture below getting some hands-on stick time in on her dad's Stick. Bill Jr. is looking for a Kadet Sr. for Hannah. Please contact Bill Jr. if you have one you want to sell.

Bill and Hannah Worthen enjoying R/C flying together

And wouldn't you know it, but just as we broke for lunch, the wind turned nasty on us. But that didn't deter us. We were treated to homemade (by Beth Vincent) hamburger patties, with lots of goodies to go with it. I think everyone brought a pot luck dish to share with others. Special thanks went to Cloyce Mann who brought two homemade (by Terri Mann) cherry pies, one for the group and one for Bill Sr. to take home. A good lunch was enjoyed by all. 

I want to thank all who participated in this event and to Mark Putzer who took all these wonderful photos.

Last Saturday's Fun Fly event coverage and pictures

If anyone would like to share some thoughts and or pictures of the fun fly this past Saturday please post them on the web site here. The turn out for the climb and glide was quite good I thought, even though I did not enter the contest. It was quite exciting to watch too.
A very well attended turnout for the charity donation to the Star*Point Academy from the Academy and also club members too. I would love to see the large group photo's that were taken of this part of the days fun also if anyone could please share them with us here.
The cookout and social time with Bill Worthen and his family was in my estimation priceless, and I for one am tickled that I was able to enjoy the companionship and great times that everyone seemed to be enjoying.
Please if anyone has pictures of any part of the event or would consider writing up some thoughts and memories feel free to do so. We would all love to see them and hear from everyone, and it is certainly appreciated also. Thanks again to everyone for a most enjoyable time last Saturday.

Next Saturday's Fun Fly news

 We will be having the monthly club fun fly event this coming Saturday April 13th, 2013 beginning at 10:00 AM at the flying field. In addition to our scheduled competition event of "Climb and Glide", we will also be holding a "photo-op" for the charity donation of a check presentation to the Star-Point Academy. They will be supplying a large oversized check to use for the presentation and pictures also. We would like to see as many members of the club present for this charity donation picture also, as we were informed that the folks from Star-Point will probably be bringing other kids with them to this event to enjoy the flying and such also.
  In addition to the competition event and the photo-op, we have also voted at this past month's club meeting to hold a club pot luck event to honor our very long-time member Bill Worthen Sr. who is going through some medical issues at the moment and wants to spend some time at the field with his fellow club members.
  The club will be supplying the hamburger meat, the buns and also the refreshments, and we all would appreciate others bringing various condiments and dishes to share with fellow members and guests at this fun fly coming up.
 Please contact myself or any other club officers with questions or information of what they would like to bring to the event.
 If memory serves me correctly, at the New Years Nitro Chili-Burn event held on New Years day our attendance count was 28 persons. One of the other events held last year garnered around 35 or so persons in attendance. This may help give folks a better idea of the amount of food consumed.
 I have volunteered to again grill the burgers and could use some assistance setting up, serving the food, and the clean up of the day's events too also.

Thanks again to everyone for their very generous charity donations and also for their support of all of the club's activities and events throughout the entire year.
 Also if there are any other past club members that would enjoy getting together for this event please by all means do contact them right away with the information on this event to spend some great time with Bill Sr. and his family.

Mark J. Sullivan
719-240-6805

P.S. I added these two pictures of Bill Worthen Sr. on the right side of the picture along with his Son Bill Jr. and also his grand daughter taken at this past Friday nights monthly club meeting.
 Bill Sr. and Jr. both wanted me to pass along their profound appreciation of everyones kind thoughts and prayers during Bill Senior's medical issues also.

News and a request for Bill Worthen, Sr.

I got the following from Bill Worthen, Jr.

Marlowe,

I want you to know something if you don't already know. My dad is terminally ill. He has a brain tumor, and has only weeks to months to live. He is not allowed to drive anymore. I'll get him out to the field as often as I can. Pass this along to other members. I work 8-4 Monday thru Friday. If anyone can find it in their heart to take him out with one of his planes sometime, I would greatly appreciate it. He may need to be on a buddy box. Not sure yet. This is something he has loved doing forever, and I hope we can keep him flying for a little longer. 

Bill Jr.

___________________________________________________________________

Bill,

I for one will do whatever it takes to help your dad out. I'm sure many in the club will also want to do the same. We will discuss at this week's meeting. Let your dad know that we will help him. 

Marlowe

Our newest member

Today I met Taylor Spinuzzi from Woodland Park and signed him up up as our newest member. Taylor has been flying R/C for about one year and has developed good flying skills. He attributes his success to doing a lot of simulated R/C flying on his computer. Taylor works at the Victor mine and he and his dad know Kenny McMullen. Kenny brought then out to the field a few months ago where I first met them.

Taylor Spinuzzi

In addition to his Simply Magic, Taylor brought out a Big Stick 60 which flew like a dream. Very positive and undisturbed by the wind. We were met by Jim Aultman who was running errands and came by the field to see who was flying. I too had to run errands and I left Taylor with the field to himself. Since he was off of work for a few days, his goal was to fly as long as the weather cooperated. I think Taylor was bitten by the R/C bug!