2016 TEAM GORGEOUS AEROTOW!!! April 8 - 10, 2016

[Soarntz]

I plan to drive down Sunday from Lancaster for the day....

[Csessa]

Today was a day you wait for. Comfortable temperatures, moderate wind down the runway, pockets of dramatic lift. Oh Ya, great tow pilots, great hosts, great food, great friends.

Today was also the day of the phoenix. Three birds returned from the ashes today, my Blanik (no big deal), Eric's giant KA 6 (is that right?) with a new wing (I do remember that day), and Russ with a rebuild of Steve P's Muncy disaster. All flew well,…..at least at first. I'll leave the rest of the story to someone else.

Can I upload a video? I do not see a place to do that.

[JimD]

Ditto to what Conio said...

Just for the record, outdoor flying did take pace at the field on Saturday and here is the photographic evidence.



Today was everything that yesterday was not!

The day started out cold, but warmed up nicely. Here is Conio getting some early morning stick time.



A view down the flight line from about the middle of the group.

[Charlie]

Great time Guys
Thanks for the support!

You Guys Rock

Jim thanks again for making My day easy
You really are the heart and soul of what we do!

We had fun with each day no matter what the weather was
Flew Thursday thru Sunday, All four days!

Thanks again everyone

Charlie

[JimD]

Charlie, we have a great group...last month at the Cumberland event, I was stressing about the weather and food and had little time to fly. Len made sure that a tow plane was in the air towing whenever the weather allowed...as a result, he got little sailplane stick time, so it was my turn to pay him back. Then there are the upcoming crop of tow pilots. Father and son team, Steve and Kevin, helped out a lot at this most recent event and are both building a nice hangar of planes. None of this would matter without the many dedicated sailplane pilots that patiently wait in line for a tow. You know an event is doing well when one tow pilot finishes a session and hands the towline off to another pilot who keeps the towing gong without interruption.

[Xroadie]

Between Cumberland and Delaware....it sounds like several pilots should be awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses....and maybe a Blue Max or two!!!
Pete

[Sinkhappens86]

First off thanks to Charlie for putting on a great event and really making sure everyone was taken care of for the whole event, even securing a place to fly indoors when the weather didn't cooperate. He's a great host and really looking forward to the August event.

The weather wasn't the greatest, but we managed to aerotow everyday, even though once was indoors. But I'm counting it anyway. We had some booming lift on Friday, resulting in a 43 minute flight for my Dad on his Blanik.



The event was a mixed bag for me. On the pro side it was the first event for my new trailer and Decathlon... so that was a blast. Got some towing in with it on Sunday. On the con side, I crashed my ASW-20 on Friday. But, it will be back in action.



Had a blast all weekend, and really glad Sunday finally panned out for a ton of flying. Looking forward to the next one. Thanks again Charlie.





Finally, here is a link to the album I took this weekend.

[lenb]

Hey Charlie,
Thanks again for hosting the event and for all the hard work it takes to put it together. Even thought the weather wasn't exactly what we all hoped for, it sure didn't stop us from logging hours of flight time on our planes.
The DG-800 had over a dozen flights, ( although some were only minuets long due to my insatiable appetite with blistering high speed passes)
The Arcus had another Dozen or so flights and the Salto took to the air for 6 flights too.
All in all it was a success and thats what counts


LEN



Erich's rebuilt KA-6 after a wing strike with another plane 2 years ago. Flew great and looked fantastic.





My little 4m Baudis Salto




Jim's Bidule ready for LAUNCH

[Stew2]

Kevin,

Hope the ASW-20 isn't real bad!! Glad to hear you will have it back in the air in the future. Salem?

Scot

[Sinkhappens86]

It's uh... not great. The wings are okay, but the fuse will need a bunch of fiberglass. Salem is the dream, we'll see how it plays out.

[BobM]

Sounds like it was a great weekend......sorry I was unable to join the group.........soon the school year ends though

[Jeff D]

Glad the weekend turned out ok. Sorry I could not make it. Thanks Kevin for posting the album, Len, Jim, Conio and others for the photos and reporting as well. At least I could follow along looking out from inside work...

Sorry to hear about the 20 Kevin. Hope it is repairable. Maybe if the rest is ok you can pick up just a fuselage:

http://www.horizonhobby.com/product/airplanes/airplane-accessories/all-airframe-parts/fuselage:-asw-20-47m-p-han495503