Southeast Regional Aerotow 2016

[Turbine]

I have to agree with everything that has been said. It was a picture perfect event. I had so much fun. Perfect weather, nice people, super good food (Thank you Asher for all the cooking) and a ton of flying. I could not resist to share the shot I was able to take Saturday. It shows Len take on some night flying in front of a star filled sky..... Unbeatable.

[Swiss1]

That is one cool picture Christian.

[BStaley]

I've got one video done-this is the first flight Sat. morning. I'll get some more on ASAP.. Bill

[Max Wensell]

What an awesome way to start the season! Great weather, great place and great people! A special thanks to Asher for all the great meals he cooked. Hope to see every one again soon. Happy soaring and strong thermals to all. :-)

[RLake]

What a great event!! Highlights? Len slipping the surly bounds for over an hour with the big Duo! Watching the big KA-6s make their 30 second "high speed passes"! The golden retriever, nice dog! Asher's cooking! Watching the fog lift over such a beautiful field while listening to the birds sing! The full scale Cub "airshow"! Being around flyers whose only concern was fun!
Words I'm glad I never heard: "points", "winner", "trophy"
A great effort by all and thanks for bringing such beautiful sailplanes from such far places.
BTW, I hope Pete G's sunburned tonsils heal soon!

Rick Lake (the tall, smart one from NW Florida!)

[RLake]

[lenb]

Back home.

It was a long drive, but well worth the effort.
We arrived back home in CT last night about 10 or so. The traffic through Atlanta was awful on Sunday afternoon and it cost about an hour and a half just there. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.
This year's event was off the charts, and considering this event only began last year the turnout was exceptional.
Meeting so many new pilots and making new friends is what makes these aerotow's so special.

Thanks to everyone who made this event work. Asher Carmichael is on the top of the list as chief wrangler. Getting the event together, organizing the food ( probably the largest task of any event)
working and/or assigning someone to registration, keeping the rest rooms stocked and towing TOO.... What more can anyone ask for?

Andy Griffith is always there to help out and make things run smooth...as well as towing up gliders. It's a good team and we sure did miss Kris this year, although I did talk with him on the way home and he's recovering well from his heart surgery.

As for the production towing, Scot stepped in with his new Bidule and showed us all how it's done. Towing for hour's at a time while breaking in his new ZDZ 180. The plane was maidened on Wednesday and by Friday night he was ready for a vacation.
Pete Goldsmith and myself would step in and tow in between Scot's marathon towing sessions, only to have him kick us off the field so he could tow some more. Marc Simmons also logged a bunch of tows with his Pawnee as did Tom McLoud with his Pawnee too.
Andy used his tug for a while and there were some Carbon Z Cubs taking to the air as well. There was never a time when the sky was empty of planes.

New faces this year were too many to mention however it was a please to meet you all. Tom Harper, one of the most interesting people you could meet, is a Hollywood stunt coordinator and was in town shooting the new "Guardians of the Galaxy II" movie in Atlanta wins for the coolest trailer award. His 8' wide trailer has the nicest setup I've seen yet. Way to go Tom and thanks for giving me the coveted movie set apparel.

Christian, Bryan, Dan, Blake, Rick (2), Tom, and so many other guys were there for the first time asking questions and getting lots of stick time. I'm not going to attempt to list everyone becaise someone will get left out as I'm limited in brain cells this morning, but I hope to see you guys at another event soon.

Here are some random photos to hopefully give you a feel for the event.

[lenb]

And some more

[lenb]

WHAT? You want more?

[AGriffith]

We had 28 registered pilots and gave a very nice donation to Mac for the use of the field thanks to everyone that registered and purchased meals and threw in extra. It's a great facility and we plan on being back next year.

Big thanks to Len for helping out and Jeremy for letting me have a go on the Turbo Porter.

Here's my Facebook album, about 100 pics, enjoy
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=5d2677e1ca

[Asher Carmichael]

SERA 2016 is in the books and by all accounts was a resounding success. Thanks go out to Andy Griffith for CD'ing and to Kris Van Nostran for moral support and the many questions he answered during the course of putting things in order.

I think the real thanks should go to all of the pilots and their significant others, especially those who attended for the first time, who trusted that the event and venue would be as advertised and that the weather would cooperate. Special thanks to all the tow pilots who worked tirelessly. I won't try to name you one by one but just know that you all made things work and we ALL appreciate your efforts. It's hard to explain the sense of relief a CD and event director feel when fully capable tow pilots and tugs start rolling out of their trailers.
.
Hodges Field is a special place and such a place doesn't just appear. It takes years of hard work and Mac Hodges, his family and team members have obviously invested countless resources to make it possible and for this we all are grateful. Consequently it is because of this place and the people behind it that icons of the hobby are attracted to it and support the events held there.

Mac has already invited us all back for 2017. Planning, preparation and scheduling will begin anew. Keep watching for dates and be sure to make plans to attend. See you there.

[Dave Forbes]

Finally a chance to post, getting ready for a bidness trip across the pond.

What can I say, this was my first real aerotow event. The people, the venue, the planes, the flying, incredible. I spent most of my time down at the peanut scale end of the field where we flew the teenitsy foam stuff. Doesn't mean we had any less flying or fun. Big thanks to Dan and Marc and Andy Grose for keeping us in the air, it was never a problem finding a willing tow pilot. I think I was the first one in the air Saturday with my Parkzone Ka8, then switched to the Heron when the lift really started to develop and the wind came up a bit. Flew it for the rest of the day and never once touched the switch that turned on the expensive ballast that runs the whirly thingy on the nose.

My thanks to the crew that ran the show and Mac for letting us fly there. I CD one of the larger hand launch contests in the country so I appreciate what's involved with making sure everyone is fed and happy. Great job by all.

It was a real pleasure meeting some people that I've known on line or heard about from other flyers. Sitting around the firepit after a nice meal and watching the moon come up with a bunch of new friends was sublime.

I'm already making plans for next year, mostly come early stay late :-)

There will be another vintage scale model there next year, haven't figured out what yet, but that's part of the fun...

Dave

PS, Asher, does that sausage company in Alabama ship?

[Tom McP]

What a great event! Perfect field, perfect weather, and great people to enjoy sailplane flying with. Rick Lake (the tall one from FL) and I visited last year and that experience made SERA a must for this year. In the interim I assembled an ASW-20, but with no other scale sailplane interest in our area didn't get to maiden it until this event. LenB was kind enough to put the first flight on it Friday afternoon and gave me helpful suggestions on elevator compensation needed. After a little reprogramming on the second flight I flew some of the tow and the rest of the flight. Third flight I was on my own. Managed to get about 8 flights on the ASW over the weekend and brought it home ready to fly with nothing to repair! Thanks to Asher and Andy for keeping things running smoothly, Len for the help, and all the tow pilots for dragging me up (sorry about the early release Pete, reprogramming switches in transmitters is a cinch, reprogramming my brain to remember them not so much!). Already looking forward to next year!

Tom McP.

[Tom Harper]

Just wanted to say what a great event the Southeast aerotow was! I was lucky enough to be working in Atlanta but I live in Los Angeles so it was awesome to finally meet all of the guys on this side of the country that I only knew on this forum. What a great bunch of guys! and since three of my planes have Swiss markings on them I was quickly inspected by Jeremy and failed miserably, I will be fixing my Swiss cross on all three of my planes ASAP! Len towed my 50% Ka-6 with a turbo prop porter, it got a bit interesting when I started over flying the porter still on tow.
I wish I could have stayed longer than just saturday but unfortunately I had to work on sunday.
Hope to see you all again soon and if you guys are ever in California look me up for a tow.

Tom Harper

[Swiss1]

I expect to see some Swiss Cross Compliance pictures shortly Tom!
Jeremy

[Xroadie]

Truly an amazing week!!! Five days of flying!!! The weather could not have been nicer....even with the mid-day storm on Friday. The lift was fantastic.....on Thursday, the other Pete G. and I both stayed up for over an hour at the same time. I wanted to land after a half hour because my neck hurt so much, but Pete egged me on stay up for an hour. At 50 minutes the pain was too much and I decided to land, but while waiting for others to land at about 100 feet over the end of the runway I hit a bump and thermaled up to 400 feet "indicated". Because I was looking out and not up the pain went away and I flew to an hour and six minutes. That was the longest flight I've had with the big KA6!! We were not the only ones to break the hour mark either. The telemetry I added to both gliders that I brought worked great with the new DX18. The voice prompts were very helpful as well as the vario/altimeter...so happy I changed them over

I got to wring out the new quick wing attachment modifications on the Carbon Cub and they held up though the nearly three gallons of gas I put through the Carbon Cub while towing. I would have towed even more but blew out two flap servos two days in a row, which were quickly replaced...glad I carry spares. After the second blew out I upgraded to a beefier servo on the flaps, which I got to try on Sunday, making the last few tows of the event to try them out. I do love the Carbon Cub as a tow plane....but the Bidulle Ruled!!! Thanks Scott and Len and all the other tow pilots as well...including the other Peter G., Asher, Andrew, Jeremy, Snatch and Marc.

As I did last year, I camped at the field. With the showers and the awesome weather there was no reason to get a hotel room. Plus I would have missed the camp fire and the night flying. Thanks Mac for the use of the field and facilities and thanks to Asher for cooking so many days!!

With the field being so big....as Len mentioned we ran two flight lines within ear shot of each other. One flight line for the big ships and one for the smaller ships. It was great to see such a variety of models. Some of the highlights for me were Christian's amazing EDF powered EMS ships tearing up the sky, seeing my first XL Bidulles, Jeremy's Turbo-Prop Porter towing up Tom Harpers beautiful yellow and blue 1/2 scale Ka6...."Who says it couldn't do it!"....other highlights were seeing old friends like Rick Lake who I met aerotowing 20 years ago, glad to see you back! Also seeing Christian's 5th wheel RV trailer and Tom Harpers super equipped cargo trailer, they both won in that category!! I wonder if you can get a vehicle big enough tow Toms trailer behind Christians trailer....if so, I'll sell my house and spend the rest of my days just traveling around going to aerotow events like this one

Pete

[Xroadie]

PS: As I was about to leave on Sunday afternoon, I found a Nikon Lens Case with a lens hood inside.....no lens. Mac has it!