[Billpilotca]

Pilots - Ron Graham, our NCFR Regional Director, is hosting the 2nd Annual Nats Warm Up at his farm in Ashley, Ohio on June 27-28. Ron is a great host and his whole family gets involved in the event.

Ron has a well groomed runway right outside his large drive shed, it is laser graded and he keeps it immaculate. Several of us went to the contest last year and had a terrific time. This is one event where you can put your airplane together Friday when you arrive and not have to take it apart until Sunday before departing. We were all able to wheel our aircraft into the large drive shed space for overnight safety.

The Saturday night dinner is a sit down buffet held right on the farm. Followed by various evening activities such as skeet shooting outside the barn. We were well fed and well entertained the whole weekend.

Ashley is fairly isolated, but there are three hotels located approximately 20 min south in the Sunbury area (Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn, America's Best Value Inn). Ron also has some space in his loft for overnight guests, with on site showers. If you want to stay on site you should contact Ron directly as space is limited. It is one of those "bring your own sleeping bag" situations.

I would encourage any interested pilots to give this event consideration. It was great last year and is intended as a warm up event for the US Nats which come up in early July.

If you have any questions, please look at the contest listing on the IMAC site, or feel free to PM or email me.

[goneflyin]

What Bill said.
This is one not to be missed. Great atmosphere, great people.
How many Canadians can we get to go?

D

[steven r]

Same weekend as my oldest daughters graduation party. Missed our reunion last weekend so guess I better not push my luck!

[Billpilotca]

Mid contest update - weather has been brutal. Last night there was an inch of rain on top of an already soaked field. This morning we had to wait until 10 am for the rain to let up. We started but had to suspend twice when rain moved back in. Then the wind came up and has been blowing 20-25 mph from the south. Landings are hair raising with a lot of pucker factor.

Different classes have flown different numbers of rounds. Mainly due to weather. Rain moved back in late in the afternoon and put a stop to all flying.

Rain is supposed to move out over night and be replaced by a strong north wind so tomorrow the wind challenge will continue with 20 mph plus but from the opposite direction. One of those days not for the faint of heart.

Don't ask me about scores because I don't look. The Dominator, Rick K and I are all in the game down here.

[BMG]

Do the best you can and bring em home in one piece.

Good luck guys.

Brendan

[LEE]

Sunny and 32c here. Haven't seen rain since we flew over. Just sayin

[Billpilotca]

Well we survived. Flew our Unknowns and one round of Knowns Sunday. 20 mph cross wind landings. Yikes ! Was kind of interesting to have to land planes sideways. Good news is that Rick, Dom and I all brought ours home in one piece.

Ron has posted some photos of scores on the NC Forum on the IMAC site but I cannot seem to copy them or manipulate them because they are either sideways or upside down.

In any case - we had no Basic or Unlimited pilots from Canada. There were 23 pilots total - Basic - 5, Sportsman - 11, Intermediate - 3, Advanced - 2, Unlimited - 2

In Sportsman - Dom came 7th out of 11 - I think that is great for someone who just moved up because I judged Sportsman twice and the competition was really tough ! Well done Dominator !

In Advanced - Rick K came first. Well done !

In Intermediate - yours truly managed first of 3 pilots - however Steve Sides lost his gear on landing at the end of Saturday, and Ron was pretty busy being the CD.

It was a soggy windy weekend but we had a lot of fun and Ron Graham and his family put on a great weekend with lots of food and friendship.

[BMG]

Well done guys.

Your bravery to fly in those conditions (or lack of common sense), which ever it is, and your efforts will bode well towards the Americas Cup.

I wish I could have been there again this year even if just for the atmosphere and hospitality at Ron's place, as well as the scenic "cross state" drive of course.

Perhaps next year as I hope to ramp things back up again in 2016.

Brendan

[Billpilotca]

Originally Posted by BMG

Your bravery to fly in those conditions (or lack of common sense).....

I think it was the latter Brendan ...... I am sure all of us wondered whether we were nuts several times over the course of the contest ...... but we already knew the answer to that question.

Hope you make it next year. Was as good as last year with a lot of wind and rain thrown in.