Vegas HuckFest.......It's a Wrap

[sweetpea]

She's over folks......and it was a blast....

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For all you Losers ....uh I mean outstanding folks who couldn't attend........


It all started a long time ago. Max asked me if I would like to CD the first ever 2007 Huckfest in Las Vegas. I was torn......do I give up alot of flying to help run the event or let someone else do it. Well I chose to help out everyone else to let them have the best time ever.


Thursday--

The FG crew rolled into town on Thursday afternoon......and with them came some of that fine California wind. Predictions were for 30-40 gusts and Temps in the Low 100's. As with any weather prediction in Vegas, you can't always believe what you hear from the weatherman. Thursday winds stayed right around 15mph down the runway. We started setting up the field for the event. We also talked about keeping things flowing and fun with planes always flying.
The FG RV headquarters parked itself right behind show center and was there for anyone that needed to get out of the heat and get some nice cool A/C. That night a group of us went out to Sam's Town Casino to eat at the buffett.

Friday the fun started--

For the official travel day of the huckfest we had over 20 pilots show up through out the day and fly. It was very laid back but the flying was intense. There was absolutly no wind to speak of in the morning. Every pilot got out and flew to their hearts desire! We did have a couple incidents though. Joey came out with his Tied for first place in the SW Regional points in Basic IMAC Hanger 9 46% ultimate and had what appears to be a servo failure.

Joey just waking up and The ulitimate
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He lost his plane off the right end of the runway deep in the Vegas Marsh (yes there's water out there!). They went into the Marsh twice that day to find the plane with no luck. I made a phone call to some friends of mine to see if they could help sometime during the weekend. Not to be outdone by this misfortune Mad Max let Jason Krause, world known Helicopter pilot, fly his 33% Edge 540 on the DA-85. The Edge had a deadstick and with the brisk breeze he was unable to make the runway......but he did land it safely in the dirt on the far side of the runway. Max proceeded to recover his airplane. Upon his return he got his foot caught on the chainlink that runs across the far side of the runway and did the thing we all fear the most in our shops. He fell directly on his unhurt airplane and basically destroyed the fuse! We have had several posts on this with the saying.......I wasn't even flying and crashed my plane. In Max's Honor we will be submitting a new word manuever to the FG library.......

I pulled an MD540 (fell on my plane).
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We were all very sorry for Max's loss but he has donated the plane to be repaired and given to a deserving youth flyer!

The rest of Friday was just great flying and meeting many folks from out of town. The Boys from PAU (formerly BME aircraft) were also on hand all the way from Washington (8miles from Canada). They brought the 100cc ultimate and the prototype 43% Edge 540. They were so awesome, they even let me fly the 100cc Ultimate and gave me crap for flying so high with it.....Thanks guys! But they encouraged every pilot there to fly the Edge 540. I didn't hear any person say anything about that plane that wasn't positive.

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They 3-d and IMAC flew that plane all day long! Later in the afternoon the winds picked up but the flying never stopped. Again it was managable winds and no one had issues hovering, torque rolling on the deck or landing. That night a group of us went out to Sam's Town to try to go bowling but it ended up being league night so we just had some cocktails at the bar and came back to the field to relax.


Saturday--

Again there was no wind in the morning hours. Folks were flying as early as 6am. We left the field open to flying and only closed it down at 830 to make announcements. The local BSA troop 678 came out and helped present the USA flag and led us all in the Pledge of Allegiance. These boys did a fine job of running errands for me, the CD and taking pictures with the FG camera. They also got a chance to see some of the best pilots in the world fly both Planks and Shanks. To liven things up a little we inflated some helium filled balloons with streamers and let em go. Let me tell you....watching 3 40% planes trying to pop balloons as the climbed in the air was a sight. Plane Bender (Dave Sullivan) was able to cut the streamer on one balloon and won a free DVD.
Right around 930 I had my friend I called the day earlier, Warren Cross stop by and tell me that at the local Team Vegas eatery they chatted to the Las Vegas Police Department helicopter pilots. They asked them if they would fly over the marsh and try to spot Joey's plane. These guys are the greatest and for years have been helping us out. No more than 10mins later I closed the flightline as the helicopter flew to the area we suspected the plane went down. They came back around and landed the helicopter on the left side of the runway far away from everyone's planes so that the propwash would be minimal. I met with the pilot personally and he gave us GPS coords and approx distance to the plane. He also said it appeared to be in one piece on the tops of the brush (which is typically 6-9ft high). The crowd went crazy with applause as the Fine officers took off and left. With this new knowledge and a search party organized with water, cellphones, GPS and more water....they trekked out into the Marsh....would they ever be seen again?

If this wasn't enough, Joey Cass also brought a trainer for the BSA to fly. I got SEG (Eric Powell) to be the life jacket on the controls. I spent a good 20mins explaining how R/C planes work and how the controls of the radio work with the Scouts. SEG took the plane off and with the buddy box radio we cycled the Scouts through so that each one had some flight time. I instructed them on what to do and how to manuever the plane while SEG watched for traffic and saved them from their mistakes. Finally SEG landed the trainer. The smiles on those young men's face was very satisfying. The Scouts had come out to work the event and get service points and I had let the Scout Master know ahead of time that I was going to surprise them with flight time!

Then came the Noon time Demos. I apologize if I forget anyone that was in the demo or what you did in your demo as I don't have that list infront of me and I was working another project with the Scouts at the time of some of the demos.

Mike Stroup cameout and flew some amazing 3-D to warm up the crowd (sorry I don't have more info here).

Next came Vegas local SEG.
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He ripped up the sky as well with his brand new (only 3 or 4 flights) SD Yak 54 with a DA150 and JR spektrum module radio. Look for him at the TAS freestyle this year.

Then we did something that was a crowd favorite.......Andrew Jesky, all the way from Michigan came out to fly a 100cc QQ Yak. He put on an impressive flight. About 1/2 way through the flight though.......World Pilot Jason Krause came out and flew an impressive bout of 3-D with Andrew. Then to top things off......they both landed at the same time......swapped radios and did another impressive bout of 3-D flying with Andrew on the Heli and Jason on the Plane.

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Then Vegas hotshot Alan Szabo came out and really wrung out a helicopter......He showed us a knew manuever called Crackin. All I know is his sticks are moving so fast side to side shaking the helicopter as he does all the 3-D it can handle that you can see his arms shaking from the violent stick movements. It was very impressive. And can you say inverted blade touch to the asphalt! I won't pretend to know all the names of the helicopters or the manuevers those guys fly but WOW is all I can say.

Jeff Szueber was to be the next pilot up but was not feeling well so his brother Matt stepped in. Let me tell......That family can fly! Matt flew the new Air Wild SU-29.......And lets just say you cannot not fly lower than this!

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He saved the plane (not all the covering though) and continued to wring that plane out. Look for Jeff to be flying that plane in the TAS freestyle as well.

The last pilot to fly was Reza, from Quique Aircraft, flying his QQ 102 Yak. Reza was really punishing that Yak and put on a great show. "I almost jumped out of my skin when he did a full throttle 1 1/4 snap to knife edge at about 15' off the deck", Heydick was quoted as saying. Fly it like you stole it Reza!!!

We also had over $8k in raffle prizes.........I don't have the complete list of sponsors (I'll edit this once I get it for you guys)... Please send some thank you correspondance.....these companies stepped up!

Flying Giants
Desert Aircraft (on site)
Dalton Aviation
PAU (on site)
Spektrum
Horizon Hobby
Fliton (on site)
Great Planes/Hobbico
Extreme Flight
Fromeco
Futaba
DW foamies
Las Vegas Radio Control Club (LVRC)

We raffled off the prizes and then had some special events later in the day.

[sweetpea]

Late in the day........oh I'd say 5hrs after the helicopter landed.........out of the Marsh comes Joey and the search party with an untouched Ultimate!

After 3 trips and the Police dept help they brought that plane out of sheer "its gone forever" and it could've have flown again that day with one servo replaced! The bottom left aileron appeared to locked in the up position. Of course they chose to dismantle the plane and send in all the gear to ensure all problems are fixed since the SW regionals will be held at that same field! I would like everyone to know that no less than 3 pilots offered planes to Joey to fly in the IMAC regionals if he couldn't find/repair etc his Ultimate. This hobby is outstanding! He came back to the entire field cheering him on!


What can I say next except for the Super Secret Dave Johnson DA-85 giveaway!

This contest was shrowded in secrecy......only 3 people knew about it and even those 3 weren't sure how it was going to be done.

Late in the day after all the raffle prizes were given out and things slowed down with the wind picking up.......We also gave out awards....

Best Dirt Nap--Joey Cass
Best Hucker--Matt Szueber
Best of show--Andrew Jesky
Top Shelf award--sweetpea (for voluntering to be CD, which I'd do again!)
Best Foamie (given later that night)

We had an airplane contest to determine the winner of the DA-85. Well, when I say airplane....I mean PAPER AIRPLANE! Contestants had 10 mins to build a paper airplane with official DA/Flying Giants paper. No foreign objects allowed, like paperclips or tape. We put the DA-85 box on the ground and the pilot who threw their airplane the closest to the box won the engine. Some of the planes were close. While others made it about 5 ft...Snapasaurus's plane actually did a snapasaurus and landed within arms reach. SEG showed his guns by having the shortest thrown plane......2ft 2inches. The DA-85 was approx 100ft away. After all was over the winner was a young lad.......Kim3D's younger brother.

FG sprung for Pizza and beverages and we all ate and drank to our hearts content at the field. Things really settled down as the UNLV football started up at 630 and the wind still hadn't died enough for the foamie contest. As the sun dropped the foamie course was put up. DW foamies sponsored this event. It was crazy.........and dark out with now minimal winds

Pilots stood on one side. there were 2 tall poles (like pylon racing) spread about 50ft apart. you had to fly a figure eight around them. But, half the group flew one direction and half the group flew the other. The winner was based on the number of laps in 5mins. And if you took another plane out.....you got their laps. Matt Szueber took home the gold with 25 laps.

Next up was using half the distance......you could fly around either pole on either side. But in the center for your lap to count was a small limbo pole. It barely fit the width of the Big DW Yak. The lap only counted if you went through the limbo. Again here you stole points for anyone you took out. Toro was flying the UZU (sp?) biplane and knew he wouldn't fit too well through the limbo....so he flew around like a predator and tried to pick off other planes. He managed to cut the entire top portion off of Joey's DW Big Yak. But lost the center section of his rudder from a later re-attack from Joey. In the end Dave Fox won with 3 successful limbo laps!

The final event was not for the faint of heart! The same limbo pole was turned sideways.....so instead of flying through it where you could face it and see what your doing it was faced so you had to fly left to right. Pilots had to stand near the center of it to make it harder. Again points could be stolen from takeouts. But just to make it interesting.......He had this contraption rigged with spikes of death. The center pole now rotated in a circle with the help of some pullys and a power drill. going through the center pole were about 8in long sharpened spikes. Many a plane tried to limbo under the bar o' spikes and met their demise. Matt Szueber was able to glide under the bar....took massive damage to his wing and come out the other side. He took the overall Award with a custom DW Yak done in a FG camo scheme with power setup.......it was beautiful.

Dave Fox took home the overall Foamie award. He avoided numerous attempts to destroy his Ikaurus Yak foamie!


Sunday--

We all got up late on Sunday........7am. The wind was now howling pretty good. There were a few heli's out there flying but no planes. Most folks had packed up. As the day drew on a few folks came back out to fly in the wind, which was the worst it had been all weekend. We cleaned up the field and helped Max pack up the Huckfest van. By 1pm the event was officially over.

Considering the predicted winds the event was a success. Turn out was a little lower than expected but that didn't stop everyone from flying and having fun.

If asked again, I will be all over CD'ing another Huckfest in Vegas. This time though I'll setaside more time for me to fly! Maybe I can just borrow your plane

[SEG]

I am going through about 900 pics right now and should have them up tonight or tomorrow when i get out of school

[sweetpea]

Some random photos......

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[sweetpea]

http://www.flyinggiants.com/gallery/...=32664&cat=717

Here's a good video of the first half the day on Saturday

[DATech]

Just want to say thanks to Max, Sam, Monica, and all the rest that helped make it happen. It was great to see so many of our old friends and make many new ones. Count us in to do it again!
Thanks again.
Dave

[kim3D]

and thank you dave for every thing you did for this event
and for giving my brother a DA 85

[sweetpea]

And don't think I forgot you Kim.......This kid threw down 3-D style everyday out there. Almost popped the balloon also. Check SEG's photos once he downloads them

[heydick]

Thanks Sam for all you did this weekend, you did an amazing job. Sam was running around all weekend making sure everyone was taken care of, I mean this guy was everywhere at once. A truly awsome job Sammy, thank you so much. There was one other pilot flying the noon time demos that wasn't mentioned. The last pilot to fly was Reza, from Quique Aircraft, flying his QQ 102 Yak. Reza was really punishing that Yak and put on a great show. I almost jumped out of my skin when he did a full throttle 1 1/4 snap to knife edge at about 15' off the deck. Fly it like you stole it Reza!!!

[Reza]

To All who made this event what it was a BIG THANKS and KUDOS! I along with a very good friend of mine and his Dad got up at 2 am with only 3 hours sleep. We made it there at 6:30 and I probably got about 6 flights. I don't remember getting to fly so much at my local club! It was fun to be around The BEST. We truly had a wonderful time and I will do it again in a heartbeat!

Brett,

Thanks for your kind words dude. I am doing the best I can! With the experience that I got from watching all those top pilots, I'm sure I can work harder and do better next time around! It's all about being able to see the better ones out there and set a goal to improve!

Thank you all,
Reza

[sweetpea]

	Quote: Originally Posted by heydick
	Thanks Sam for all you did this weekend, you did an amazing job. Sam was running around all weekend making sure everyone was taken care of, I mean this guy was everywhere at once. A truly awsome job Sammy, thank you so much. There was one other pilot flying the noon time demos that wasn't mentioned. The last pilot to fly was Reza, from Quique Aircraft, flying his QQ 102 Yak. Reza was really punishing that Yak and put on a great show. I almost jumped out of my skin when he did a full throttle 1 1/4 snap to knife edge at about 15' off the deck. Fly it like you stole it Reza!!!

Thanks......I've added that to the main page.

[sweetpea]

Let's not forget to thank Momo.......the better half, and better balance of Max.

She really helped out with the registration, raffle and putting up with all of us~