[toprudder]

All I can say is WOW.

The way this thing started snowballing during the planning stages, I was worried that we might be overwhelmed with parking or concessions. However, everything seemed to go well. Larry did a GREAT job planning this thing, and a LOT of club members pitched in to help as needed. This really makes me proud to be a member of the RDRC club.

My son, Matt, and I camped out on Friday and Saturday night. I started out on Friday doing some huckin with my Gee Whiz Bee along with David Jones, but my engine quit in a hover and busted the wing and fuse. Gave over, Man!!!

We got out our foamies, I flew the Zero and Matt flew his Cap. I had just installed some glowire (www.glowire.com) on his Cap, so we flew that on into the night. Chris Hockaday from Hobby Lobby flew a LOT while he was there, and even flew an LT40 after dark!! I was holding the 10m power spotlight on his plane while he flew. I said "watch out, there is a tree over there" at which time I took the spotlight off his plane for a couple of seconds and pointed the light at the tree. Of course, he could not see the plane during those two VERY LONG SECONDS, LOL. I think he said something about cleaning out his pants after that. :-)

For some of the more illuminescently challenged, we had several floodlights next to the flightline, and had several foamies in the air at one time. It was almost midnight before Matt and I went back to the camper for the night.

Matt sure had a lot of fun. It seemed like everytime I turned around, he had a transmitter in his hands. And usually it was someone else's transmitter!!! After the flying wound down on Saturday, Jerry Smith let Matt fly his "Spoiler" which looks like a 3D version of his "Big Boy". Matt put on a pretty good show with it. Add that to the list of planes Matt wants. :-) Saturday night, I heard something going on behind the shelter, Matt was flying a small electric heli that Chris Hockaday brought. Chris's dad Dave was holding a light and they were trying to get Matt to land the heli in one of the trash cans. Next they had him running a gas powered truck up and down the runway, one of the guys from KC Hobbies put a glow stick on it so he could see it. That was hilarious.

Turbines, Helis, Outlaws, Warbirds, night flying -- awesome!!! The sponsers really came through with some great prizes. Good people, great flying, lotsa fun. Looking forward to next year.