[JimBrown]

Hi guys!

I attended the Maine Jet Rally this past weekend. It was held at a new location this year, the Sanford Regional Airport (the airport used by the Bush clan when visiting their property at Kennebunkport.)

The airport has two active runways. We got to use the better of the two. A 150' x 6000' runway, of which we used the west 3500' of. No restrictions except no flying past 1500' to the left (towards the other runway, which is at the east end of the runway we were using, and which remained open to full size.) Show center was at the 2000' mark from the right end of the runway. Runway orientation is 7/25, which meant a bit of morning sun, but by noon it was pretty much directly overhead.

All in all, an excellent site to fly at. With a 150' wide runway, it was pretty hard not to land on the runway!

Weather was almost perfect. Sunny both days. A slight crosswind at times, but not strong.

The visit by the full size L-39 on Saturday was well appreciated.

Attendance was down from previous years, but that can be attributed to the late announcement that the event would be held. I strongly encourage jet modellers in the northeast to mark this event down for next year. From what I overheard, the airport management and other authorities were happy with the way the event went and are looking forward to hosting the event next year. It was estimated that around 2,000 spectators showed up on Saturday.

I would like to personally thank Antony Parchment for his help Saturday evening with minor repairs to my F5b, and Ray Labonte for not getting too upset at my pushing the limits. (I'll try not to push them again, Ray.)

Photo's have been posted on my web site, Radio Control Aircraft Gallery (And now that the jet season is over for me, I'll start working on all the video I've taken this summer!)

Regards,
...jim

[Guest]

Looked like a good event.
Nice dusk sky pictures.

[AJCoholic]

Jim by "pushing the limits" do you mean flying under the "do not fly lower than" rule??

Naw... Jim Brown flying low? I dont beleive it!

[JimBrown]

Umm... Yeah. A low pass. Or several. The rule was nothing lower than six feet.

I'm 6' 8". They were ok, if I was standing in a six foot hole.

After the third one, I was asked to respect the rule. I complied. And will comply in the future. At this particular event.

...jim

[AJCoholic]

Jim. I can't wait to fly with you again next summer at the Bay of Quinte. I am still flyin' high over that weekend. What a blast. If I can, I will try and make one more jet rally next summer...

[JimBrown]

And I can't wait to see you next year too! I also had a blast at BoQ.

It's been quite the summer for me. I lost one jet and picked up four others. I've now got six DF jets, two of which are currently flying. One that just needs to be re-assembled, one that needs a bit of repair work, one ARF that is NIB and one kit that is NIB. I think I'm going to be busy this winter.

For the other rally next year, I suggest Green Mountain jet rally (Middlebury, Vermont) or Michigan Jets (Grosse Ile, Michigan, just south of Detroit.)

Later,
...jim