51st Annual Cumberland, MD Fall Soar for Fun ~ November 1-5, 2017

[lenb]

Amazing day on the mountain today.
T-shirt weather all day today with calm air sporting some spotty lift, but neutral air over the slope. Fun day and tons of flying.
All you can eat pizza lunch today to top it off.

Lets do it all again tomorrow!

[JimD]

Day 3 ~ Friday, November 3, 2017

Variable conditions through the day, but a lot of flying from foamies to slope to giant scale aero towing.





The best part was the decision to have dinner at the field. Jeremy, Tom, Dave, and Darrel took control. They made a market run and prepared dinner for everyone...thnak you guys it was great!!!





Then we topped it off with a camp fire and S'mores.

[French1]

Great first two days.

Bunch of flying that explain why there is no pictures.

One of Len’s pass

https://flic.kr/p/214gx3q

Some of my pictures on my flickr account

https://flickr.com/photos/42220010@N07/sets/72157687915625571

[gunny11]

Great pictures French1! I see Swiss1 is wearing his Swiss socks. Lol

[ARUP]

Nice pictures, Stephane! I see a lot of coats, long pants and hats. Must be too cold for me, i.e., below 70F.

[Tango Juliet]

I noticed that too. I was riding my motorcycle in short sleeves yesterday.

[pete914]

I arrived Saturday around noon and flying was in full swing. Len brought out his giant DG 1000 which is always fun to watch. Lots of flights and challenging conditions with light winds coming from the SE. It's fun to try find climbs on the eastern side of the mountain. Around 2pm we watched a rain cloud approach us and shut down flying...Must remember to take off full week for this event; it's always worth it! Thanks Jim!

[Al_M]

Many thanks to JimD and his wife for once again hosting a world-class event! It is always difficult to head west after a fabulous four days of flying and friendship at Cumberland. On the way home, just east of Cleveland, I encountered one of the worst thunderstorms I have ever witnessed. It lasted for 80 miles, almost to Toledo. Farm fields adjacent to the Ohio Turnpike looked like lakes, with what appeared to be six inches of water on them. Arrived in Brighton after playing dodgems with Sunday evening Detroit area traffic. Question: why are the most stressful driving situations always at the END of a long trip, when you are tired and just want to reach your destination?

A final note of thanks to Len for bringing my "new" Salto to the event for me. The little uHaul trailer did its job, and the aircraft arrived safe and sound and most importantly...DRY! I put the Salto in the storage unit last night and dropped off the uHaul trailer at the local dealer. UHaul has a really neat online program for returning a rental after hours. It utilizes one's smart phone to confirm you are at the dealer, then you photograph the inside to prove it is clean and photograph the outside to prove it is where you say it is and then you are done. No hassle.

Today marks the commencement of Building Season!! After I unload the truck and put the Minimoa and my foamies away I will descend to the balsa dust-ridden confines of the basement. Order of business: finish the Skybench SkyBird then start the 1/4 scale Schweitzer 2-33. That should take up most of the winter months. To combat Old Man Winter I recently acquired a Binford Super Power, Supercharged Atomic Snow Blower. I finally have relented. Shovelling that wet HEAVY stuff at the end of the driveway really does not agree with these old bones. The Binford Super Power, Supercharged Atomic Snow Blower will make mincemeat of the wet stuff...and the dry stuff too!

So with those thoughts now down in writing for the ages, I want to wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas and I look forward to seeing all of you again at the top of Knobley Mountain in the spring.

Now where's that bottle of CA I just bought?

[French1]

Cumberland is an event I am always looking for,
the scenery, the kindness of every one and the especial flying conditions are making a perfect combination of must go to event!

This edition has been very successful despite a slight lack of wind for the slopers, aerotowing took place every days, and I have been glad to be towing and been towed in such a pleasant and interesting environment.

Thank you Jim for that treat, and thank you to every one that helped the event, it is always very much appreciated and help Jim having a more relaxed event...

Also big thanks to every one that helped with my temperamental engine on my valiant, nobody gave up and we finally been able to get it to run, will keep you posted after rebuilding the carb.

Last thank for Scot to help me stepping up with a new trailer... the gigaflux capacitor is in good hands Steve...

Not be forgotten my appreciation to Len, for pushing this trailer in the way and his constant support to the community.

See you in spring


P.S. Last pictures uploaded

https://www.flickr.com/photos/42220010@N07/albums/72157687915625571

[hello82]

thanks again Jim, volunteers, repair crews and tow pilots! Always a great event, so much fun and warmth! Met some new friends and hope see them join our traveling circus on a regular basis.

Thanks for photos all....A few pictures from my phone. Putting next years 3 events into my calendar now too !

Matt

[JimD]

Day 4 ~ Saturday, November 4, 2017

Chilly morning soon gave way to a beautiful calm weather that remained until 3:00 pm when the rain came. The new sailplane hangar really saved the day giving everyone a quick place to get their planes in out of the weather. During the reprieve, Stephane was able to fly his new Valiant a few more times and then even got in several tows with it!

Day 5 ~ Sunday, November 5, 2017

Started out wet and stayed wet until late in the day. most people either departed Saturday evening or Sunday morning...however, later in the day Sunday, conditions improved and we got in about an hour of great aerotowing followed by a breathtaking sunset.




Dan got the very last flight of the day!




Jay and Dave stayed over until Monday and were treated to some final flights for the year at the HighPoint Airfield.

[lenb]

SAD BUT TRUE.
That puts a wrap on the 2017 Aerotow schedule for the North Eastern US. What a year it was.
Thank you again ( seems like a recurring statement ) Jim and Marcy for allowing our band of misfits to invade your property one again. We are blessed to have a place where we can go for a long weekend and call it home.
This falls event was quite a bit different from the past events. Wind was not the topic of conversation this time. It was more about aerotowing than sloping.
Thanks to Scot, Stephane and Jim for helping to keep everyone in the air, not to mention helping with repairs. Stephane finally figured out what the problem was with my DG1000 spoiler and fixed it for me.. You da man!!
Congrats to all those guys who acquired new toys and trailers. Commerce is alive and well in West Virginia.

I was thrilled to maiden the new DG800, affectionately called the ORANGE EXPRESS. Its quite striking how the orange color shows up in the air, even at 170 mph. ( not 180------ YET )




6m CARF DG800


DG 2400 ?







Getting out of the rain.





Trying to figure out what profile to put on the trailer





Don't do it Matt.... It's not worth it.. It'll get better.







Jeremy's portable disco van.

[JimD]

This event was almost like three events strung end-to-end. The first people arrived on Tuesday, October 31 and the last to leave were on Monday, November 6. A number of pilots came for just two or three days and those days were scattered over that seven day time span.

The final tally was 39 registered pilots with 33 being there on Saturday.

[ARUP]

That's a lot of fliers! Is that an unofficial record for a scale soaring event?

[jgallacher]

Congrats Jim sounds and looks like another good one.

[JimD]

And everyone loved seeing your pin in the map!!!

[Swiss1]

Well, what another great event to complete the year! My thanks to Jim and Marcie for hosting us and all the Tow Pilots!
Many thanks to all of you who had ordered from The Model Box or made a purchase at the event. If you need anything for the building months ahead please let me know, in today's brick and mortar environment every little makes a difference.
I thought I would touch on Sunday's events which started as a very cloudy day and the fog rolled in and out until about 3pm, that is when Jim and I decided to make the first tow of the day! It ended up being a relatively short one as we ended up in the clouds pretty quickly, we both turned and luckily both planes appeared again
So between me and Dave we had about 8 or so tows, unfortunately Darrel was doing and FPV video when he flew out of range and lost the quad But after all of that we were treated to a spectacular sunset

[jgallacher]

Thanks Jim I just wish I could actually be at one of your shindigs.