Horizon Hobby AeroTow 2018

[lenb]

Finally.......

After three aerotows where the weather pretty much sucked we finally have great flying weather.
The day Wednesday was one of those magical boomer days.
Specked out a glider from 200 ft to 2000 ft in 10 min,

Lots of guys flying all sorts of different sailplanes and having a blast.

A bunch of us ordered Mexican food and ate at the field last night while watching a lightning storm 30 miles or more away light up the clouds. Pretty awesome..

Watching Ali flying the ASH-31 is RIDICULOUS..... He is soooo smooth and puts the 31 through stuff I won't do with the DG 800.. ... ALI,,,,,, You da man!

Some glamor shots of my new additions..

The Cmelak and the Swift..... ( sounds like a Disney movie )

[BobM]

Pictures from Thursday.....

[gunny11]

Nice pictures guys! Len, 200 ft to 2000 ft? That's quite some brick lift...... Whew ;-0

[BobM]

Pictures from Friday........

[rexrogers]

Here's some video from Thurs:

[ARUP]

Thanks for the vid... that was fun and I am sure a lot of work to get done!

[Mark9]

Thanks for putting up the video. Saw some quick glimpses of some flying buddies. I have never been, but I'm stoked to try and make it next year. Like TK I too have had to have some very important surgery. Mine was not optional and could not be delayed. I have had no flying since mid April. However, I'm on the mend and plan to be back flying in time for the Mickey Sullivan in September. Now where is that flight sim?

[French1]

Got back home just in time for fathers day diner, best of both worlds; been with the gang for 4 days and enjoying the family after that.

It has been a busy 4 days trying to get every one to flying the ASH-31, helping here and there and maidening my New Janus (big thanks to Len for the help provided to finish this sailplane friday night).

Weather has been awesome, some light thermal allowing plenty of landing practices, the line never got very long thank to the coordination of the tow pilots running two towplanes most of the event.

Big thanks to the Eli Field club for organizing this wonderful venue, especially Ali M., Craig G., Pete H., and of course the Goldsmith that have started this wonderful adventure.

I took some pictures, they are available in my Flickr account below, enjoy!

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmnwnDKK

[Al_M]

Many thanks to Ali, Peter and Caroline, and all of the Horizon Hobby organization for making this year’s aerotow an event to be remembered. I made many new friends, and renewed many friendships from past events. Summing it all up, it was great.

My journey home to Michigan took me north on I-69 past Muncie, so I took a small detour and visited the AMA Museum. I hadn’t been there since my product engineering days when I was affiliated with the Muncie Transmission Plant. Sadly, the plant was demolished several years ago. It was painful to drive past the former plant site, now just vacant acreage surrounded by a perimeter cyclone fence. I spent many days, nights, weeks and months there on program launches and troubleshooting events.

Pulled in the driveway about 7:00 PM. Good to be back home, but chores await.

Setting my sights on Owatonna next month. Those SledWorks folks would not take no for an answer!

[BryanB]

What a great time! Met many new acquaintances and was great to put faces to names from the forums. What a great community! This was my first aerotow and it didn't disappoint.
Everyone was extremely helpful and again many thanks to Len for spending so much time getting my setup squared away to make the event so enjoyable. The Horizon staff and team was outstanding.


Bryan

[BryanB]

A stitched panorama from I think Friday and the Tug line up from Thursday.

..And I forgot to shout out to all the tow pilots and especially the linemen hooking everyone up to keep things rolling! Great job!

[BobM]

Really wonderful to be at the Horizon Aerotow this year. So great to see so many people that I have gotten to know here on the forums. Had a great time getting to fly together and catch up on all the news.

Thank you to all that towed....Peter, Ali, Rick, Len, Larry, Jim, and Pete......you guys make it possible for us to fly.

Really fun the have the chance to fly the new Horizon Hobby ASH-31mi...........it was great to see so many people trying it out, flying it in every way possible.........from easy relaxed flying to pushing it hard.....it was up to the task..........it is a winner !

Many thanks to all the people of Horizon Hobby for all the work they do to make this event possible......Ali, Craig, and all the staff go out of their way to make sure everyone is having a great time. Many thanks for the fantastic raffle prizes !

A special thanks to Peter and Caroline Goldsmith for all you both do.......the BBQ dinner is always amazing !

Looking forward to next year.

Bob

[ARUP]

+1 I couldn't say it better!

[Asher Carmichael]

+1 on what everyone has already said. My highlight is always seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Thanks to HH and MMM for making this great event possible. At the least, we owe a debt of gratitude to them for bringing us all together in such a special way in an awesome place. In Rusty’s words, “it was most deluxe”. Hope to be there again next year.

[lenb]

Without beating a horse into the ground, the event was probably the best one ever. Its a fitting tribute to the possibility of loosing the field and moving the event to another location next year. If in fact its the last event at the glider port, it went out with a bang.
The field was beautiful, the corn actually great a foot and a half while we were there, ( ask Ed ) and the bean crop made a soft place for those few pilots that couldn't resist the lure, ( ask Ed )
Luckily we had the Drone with us for those "out landings" and recovery was swift and efficient.

Thanks to Peter, from the MMM club, he is the president and represented the club well.
All the line shaggers and tow pilots who stood in the heat and humidity without complaint.
and our gracious host Horizon Hobby for the over the top generous raffle prizes and making everything work out great.
Lastly, Pete and Caroline Goldsmith, house two are the nicest and easiest people to hang out with, from room and board to a huge lobster and steak BBQ at their house to a Sunday evening relaxing dinner and watching a movie, what could feel more like home? Thank you.

Raffle? Well that finally worked out just fine. After years of winning a t-shirt here and there, I was fortunate to get a Maule and a certificate!! Thank you Craig, Ali and HH.

If you have never been to the Midwest and love scale soaring, this is the place for you.


Len

[Ali Machinchy]

Wow! What an event.... My body is still trying to recover.

Way too many people to thank, and its all stuff you have read before and am sure will read again? Keep them coming. There are alot of people who gave up their time, effort and even money to make HH Aerotow 2018 what it was. Thank you from those of us behind the scenes. We greatly appreciate all you did to make it possible for all of us to have fun.
A special thanks to you guys and ladies that drove out, to hang out with us and make the event as fun as it was.

Craig and I are already discussing HH Aerotow 2019 so stay tuned. It will happen, we are just not sure where yet?. Our local field of Eli is pretty much ruled out. As great as a venue as it is. We are a little worried that for an event like Aerotow, it might be a little cramped? We are kicking about a few other options and we already have a solid alternative. Stay tuned and leave a week open in 2019. It wont be the same without you peeps.

Regards Ali

[Swiss1]

Thanks to all the tow pilots and everyone at HH for putting on this great event. As usual most of my time was taken up with filing orders and collecting them from the warehouse, don't get me wrong, i'ts a good problem and I thank every one of you! Unfortunately I had to call an early end to the event on Friday evening as John Bradley and I headed to Clover Creek to celebrate John Schroeder's life, I will post more of that on the other thread. And if Missie did come out on Saturday, I am upset for not seeing her It was great to meet new faces and the old ones too, looking forward to Cumberland

Jeremy
SCCAAA TT TN