Opening Day 2004

Saturday, June 12th, 2004

We had near perfect weather for the event with temps in the upper 70's and calm winds. The food was also something special with chicken & ribs and they were very good! Thanks to John Gallagher for the idea and doing the legwork for getting them. Unfortunately John wasn't able to get to the "food" part of the picnic and missed out. There's always the picnic in September John.

Ed Berchtold organized some "fun" events. The first was dubbed the 3-BEE. The idea was to launch (either ROG or handlaunch), fly either 3 circles, loops or rolls and land. The person doing that in the least time wins the event. Top 5 finishers were

Tom Speelman @ 15.8 sec

Bob Scott @ 17.7 sec

Ed Berchtold @ 21.0 sec

John Kukon (tie) @ 41.5 sec

Nick Maggio (tie) @ 41.5 sec

The second fun event was a Limited Motor Run All Up Last Down (LMRALUD?) Contestants were given 30 seconds to climb at which point they shut off their motor/engine and glide. The plane staying up the longest was the winner. This event was interesting in that Ed Berchtold managed to catch a nice thermal with his zagi. He came down with a time of 4:50. Later John Kukon flew is X440 glider in the event and caught another nice thermal. He stayed up for 6:27. Final times for this event:

John Kukon @ 6:27

Ed Berchtold @ 4:50

Tom Speelman @ 2:19

Dave Schoen @ 1:39

Bob Scott @ 0:46

Thanks to John Gallagher for obtaining and prepping the food, John Kukon for doing the grilling and Pete Zaremba for assisting with the cooking chores.

The pictures...

John Kukon manning the grill. Great job on the chicken & ribs!!!

Calm winds and blue sky. Note the new anemometer atop the flagpole.

Art making a point.

The crowd...

...and more

The better half of the club.

Wayne keeping watch on the activities

Wayne and son, Nick prepping the Aeromaster for a flight.

Bill & Willie. This shot should be an advertisement for O.S. Engines. Actually I think they were checking out a cicada stuck in the engine.