Windy Ridge RC Flyers Aerotow June 1-4 2017

[lenb]

Must be great, everyone is too tired to post pictures.
Tons of flying in bright blue sky

[blake]

Some photos I took. Will have to do until Jeff puts his up.


Beautiful Salto




Busy!



Guess who's trailer?



Cool shot



Kevin Ks cool looking plane



Kevin's tug with bridle

[blake]

More shots
You can click on them to make them larger....




Len's big bird coming in to land.



Motley Crew



Nice sky



More nice sky



No glove, no love!



Cool kids have cockpit covers!

[JimD]

A few of our pictures.

[Tom K]

All, On behalf of the Windy Ridge RC Flyers, I want to thank all who came to our AeroTow event. We certainly lived up to being " Windy Ridge " . Other that the grass clumps on the runway due to mowing in the rain, ( a BIG thanks you to all who raked it off ) Please let me know any thoughts good or band or ideas how we can improve.

Thanks again !
Tom Kennedy event CD

[Jeff D]

Well, another great Windy Ridge event is in the books. The field lived up to its name with breezy conditions the first 2 days. Excellent if you needed to brush up on your cross wind landing techniques - or provide entertainment for the crowd (many 10's would have been handed out in my book for jobs well done). Sat was the pick of the group witnessed by the large turnout of ships on the line and the need for 2 tow planes at times.

Many thanks to Jim, Tom, Steve, Kevin and the host of others that supported them. Food was outstanding with the culinary staff living up to Jim's promise of 3 squares a day. The field is a great place to fly with plenty of room for cars, trailers and campers. Thanks to those who lended a hand with the occasional required extraction of campers compliments of the preceding monsoonal weather (sorry Jim, I missed getting a picture of your 40 footer being pulled by that huge tractor - I decided to fly at that time).

Great time with great friends. Meeting new people each time. Several people maidening new ships to boot.

Many photos to go through now and have to finish the Salem album first but here are a couple of quick shots, including what happened when Jim D decided to switch to economy mode on tow with his brand new Bidule #2 by converting the DA 150 to a DA75..... Both planes returned safely.

Thank you again to all.

Later,
Jeff D

[ARUP]

That last picture...ouch! Man, there sure were a lot of fliers and sailplanes! Thanks for posting the pictures. Looks like a good time! I'm gonna have to get up there next year.

[Stew2]

This event ROCKS!!! The Windy Ridge club members are outstanding hosts and the field is outstanding. Yup, it was a bit windy at times, but the thing is, this field is perfect for learning and honing windy flying skills. It is long and wide so you can land diagonally to lessen the crosswind angle or you can swing it around and work the slips and cross wind control to bring up the rudder skills. On top of that, it has yet to fail in delivering big lift! With the, literally, hundreds of wineries around, the non-flying accompaniments have a bunch of stuff to explore in one of the most beautiful scenic areas of the country, the western NY finger lakes region. And the culinary skills of the Windy Ridge guys make it like there is a gourmet restaurant AT THE FIELD!! The only problem with this event is the damn sun kept going down every evening or we would have just kept on flying and dining! Tons of fun, tons of friends, tons of room, tons of food, tons of flying, what the heck else could you have?!!??!!! Can't thank the Windy Ridge guys enough for all their work and support! Boy, if we went there twice a year.......

[lenb]

A leisurely drive to a fantastic event, what could be better?

This Windy Ridge event has grown nicely over the last 3 years and should continue to grow in the future, mainly because of the people who host the event. Add to that a first class setting, the owner of the property being so giving and allowing the use of his property AND full scale hangar for overnight storage, PLUS really good lift. Wanna eat? Well that's not a problem either. Jim Smith and his culinary squad will make sure you are comfortable and fed.
Thank you to all the club members who come together as a team to put this event together, you guys and gals did a knock up job.
As for launching sailplanes, another great job by the tug drivers. NEVER did the tugs stop! Scot, Jim, Steve and Kevin worked non stop putting the "long wingers" into the sky. Other than the mighty Bidule chewing up and spitting out a DA-150, ( while climbing out with a glider in tow) there were no major tug issues considering there was hundreds of takeoff and landings completed in less than perfect conditions at times. Great job guys.

Saturday was beautiful and sailplanes dotted the sky all day long, it was quite a sight.


Thanks guys.

[Stew2]

It was really neat to see 8-10+ gliders in the air at once. Then Ghostrider really did have to hold, as the pattern really was full!!!

[DanR]

Yes many thanks to the folks running the event. As mentioned the food was great, the flying was great, the tow pilots were great and the people ARE great!
Little did I know during my drive up from Florida that Scot was bringing a plane for me to BUY! Turns out he had acquired a Hangar 9 ASW-20 from Michael (ARUP) and had it up for sale. So after sleeping on it I bought the plane Friday morning and flew it Friday afternoon (and Saturday). What a great flying plane. I love it. Thanks to Scot and Len for helping me set it up, thanks to Jim for taking it to Cumberland for me and thanks to ARUP for building it for me. I now have my first big boy glider!

The 1150 mile drive was worth it. Those of you in driving range of Hammondsport, NY need to attend this event next year.

[hello82]

yes another awesome perfect event at Windy Ridge, the 3rd I believe! Everything was really great and love to always go there and look forward to the next time and seeing everyone again. The late nite camping by the pond was a real audio treat. Thanks to the whole club for the awesome job, the killer endless food and laughs, and all the tow guys again too. Hopefully one day I will have storage space enough to add a tow plane and join this crew....it looks like a lot of fun and really sharpens your flying skills.

Good to meet you Dan and some other new faces.

Here's a few of my shots

Matt

[Csessa]

I have a few photos of the event, but first let me do my comments.

This is a premier event as everyone is saying. The location is great, the hospitality is great, even the drive out route 17 is pleasant. Chef Smith kept us feed with 3 meals a day, all different and all well executed. Evening meal at the field allowed for flying until the sun went behind the hills. The best part is the excitement from the local club members. It really is a joy to hang out with these guys.

Must thank the tow pilots for all they do to keep us glider heads in the sky. The equipment all ran great, well except for that explosion, and I know that takes time off the field as well. It seems the towing gets better every event.

I noticed that even in the most chaotic times with multiple gliders and tow planes landing and taking off everyone was calm and controlled and supportive.

Thanks to all the club members for making this a great weekend.
Thanks to all who were there for your companionship.
Thanks to Steve Kramer for selling me that Ventus, I am sooooo happy.

Lets do it again and again and again.

Now I will see about uploading some photos.

[Csessa]

I put the few photos I had together into a short video. I am having trouble getting photos onto the site. Maybe my browser or maybe me. Anyway....

[gunny11]

Wow, another great event at the Windy Ridge event. The rainy weather stopped Wednesday just before I arrived and stayed away for the next 3 days. Flew my Blanik (18 flights) there on Thursday and Friday. Saturday was 2-33 weather.... There were a lot of sailplanes up in the "severe clear" morning.
Food.... I have to remember not to go grocery shopping for the RV for this event. Jim and the windy ridge gang kept us well fed in the morning, noon and night. I actually like this because it brings everyone to the field early because breakfast is served at 8:00 am and flying starts usually around 8:30. 😀
Dinner at the field is great too. It keeps us there longer and flying continues well after dinner. 😀😃 then after, we don't even need to take our planes apart. We just go up with our sailplanes, release and start walking down to the other end of the field where the full size hanger is and land them there and tuck them in the hangar for the night. What more can we ask for! Great Place and Great fun.
Oh, what happens at the night time camp fire stays at the camp fire. Just kidding, us campers who stay at the field huddle around the fire and swap stories and catch a satellite going across the crispy clear night sky. Ahhh, heavy sigh!

Arcus and I would like to thank all the tow pilots, the host of the field and the club members of Windy Ridge. Ha ha, Arcus is my dog. Lol

gunny