2009 DOC's BIG BOY FLY-IN

[SleepyC]

Every year a good friend of mine hosts a private big bird fly-in on his private field.
And every year Doc's Big Boy Fly-in is one of the best events I attend.

And I don't mean it's better than a Joe Nall, or a Huckfest. It is a unique feel. It's a fly-in that retains a sense of just a bunch of guys flying, almost like the event happened spontaneously.
It's not too big, probably 35 pilots, but every pilot is invited and is already a friend.
The grounds are wonderful and Doc's hospitality is top notch.

This year I had prior family commitments and had to miss this amazing weekend, but it looks like QQ gladly took my place! (Hey if your gonna get replaced, that's not a bad guy to replace ya!)

A few of the guys at the show had purchased QQ's TOC winning 3W yaks, and asked QQ if he would like to have a go on the sticks, as you can see, he had no issues rocking the sticks.

Hopefully some of the guys will jump on and add to the story of this years Big Dog fly-in..

I am just so bummed I had to miss it.

Oh well.. there is always next year!

[SleepyC]

Few pics:
(Come on Dave, Joe, Dave, Doc... feel free to add some sauce to the story! And PICS!)

[HoverLow]

I'm glad to see QQ back. He has been a little low profile for a while.

[dmichael]

It was a great weekend- sorry you couldn't make it Sleepy.

Quique, of course, was fantastic. He hadn't flown that plane in three years and hadn't flown a giant scale plane in quite a while (concentrating on recently finished pattern worlds) - took one fairly tame re-trim flight then after that- watch out. I was grabbing the arms of my chair on more than one occassion! Everyone knows he can fly but, like anyone who has met him knows, he's a great guy too.

We had not one but two members of the US pattern world championship team- who was the other? Andrew? Nope. Brett? Nope. 1972 US team member who flew in the World Championships in Italy and designer of the famous "Banshee" - "Jersey" Jim Martin was there with his 40% Aeroworks 260. The man can still fly and is more of a "hucker" now than a straightliner!

Some other highlights:

+Great weather all weekend and AWESOME hospitality by Doc and his family
+Dinner on Friday with everyone- we always look forward to the calimari at Leo's
+Bonfire Saturday night- swapping stories, night flying
+50% Hempel Cub - Ken let a bunch of guys on the sticks and everyone loved it
+Custom scheme Comp ARF Pitts S-12 with an RCS 250.... I was drooling all over it. It was for sale- I couldn't even ask the price cuz I couldn't afford it!
+Joe Stek had his, as usual, flawlessly built and finished Cardens- two new one's this year- a 43 and a 40pt Extra 300
+An absolutely museum class fokker triplane showed up Sunday- and it was no hanger queen- good sized too, with a BME 76cc up front
+Two jets
+Lots of flying
+A bunch of us trying our best to duplicate some of Quique's manuevers on Saturday afternoon (we did our best)

++ A great bunch of guys, awesome atmosphere and fun

[smokin]

It seems to me that this is one that you would want to be on the "invitee" list!

[satdave]

OK, Sleepy. The "real " story was that Doc and I purchased both his #1 and #2 3W Yaks last winter.These are the planes you all have seen him fly at the Nall , TOC , TAS and elsewhere. I made the trip down to his place to pick up the planes with Kitman, Dave K and Ken . So after the shock of realizing "I just bought both of Quique Somenzini's planes", I told him about Doc's field and the event we have twice a year. I said "Hey come on and fly with us sometime". Q thought about it a minute and said "Sure". I never thought twice about it again. Just to show what a class act Quique is, he replied months later and confirmed that he would and promised a date in September after the FAI contest in Spain. Holy !!

A few weeks back we got notification from Quique that he would indeed be coming , but would not have time or room to bring a "Big Plane". This had us in a mad scramble to find something he could fly. It turned into a 5 day thrash to prepare a plane for QQ. The Contest 3W Yak which had been locked in Doc's vault next to the Mona Lisa and Holy Grail had been on "ice" since February and was in need of some surgery! The hammer fell on Popa Joe , who preformed a Dr. Frankenstien resurection on this plane that was short of a miracle. He was the "Chief Wrench" for Quique , that was just too cool.

One of the many mind boggling things that occurred was that Quique pulls out his trusty 12X at the field and then proceeds to program it (the YAK) by "eye" and "feel" and does it all in like 15 minutes !! He hasn't flown this plane in 3 years , then treats us to a show that was off the hook!! To say he flew the snot out of the thing would be an understatement !!! The most impressive manuever was a low (and I mean low) head on point roll over the corn field from a 1000 feet out right to mid field. Man was it awesome!!

[davensocal]

The whole thing just makes me kinda sad..

Ok, more jealous than sad.. Yup, definately jealous..

[satdave]

This is funny, check out these pictures of Doc as Quique does a "Hurricane " with his prize possesion.

[satdave]

Quique says "it's time to fly"

[satdave]

Full Scale Pitts M-12 Fly -By

[snap a saurus]

I have been there before so I know what I missed but not next year, I will be there, like Sleepy I had prior family commitment.

[learnedinuk]

Dave Michael...

If you need any "help" next year I will be glad to come and keep your plane clean, just so I can watch!

Would love to have seen that!

[dr_d_2k]

I'd love to be on the "worker" list too. That would be a cool get away. But you got to keep it small to keep that fell. Maybe someday.

What is this Hurricane that I am hearing about anyway. I feel like I have been in a cave.

[rc4flying]

WOW !!!!!!! What a great flying weekend we had. You could not ask for any better.

Doc Martuccio and his wife do up an invitational that is a must attend gathering. We all had a great time. It was a real pleasure to watch QQ fly and talk at dinner. He gractiously answered all question asked, and we enjoyed his stories as well. Especially about his full scale Extra flight. I think he really enjoyed talking to Jim Martin about world Championships back in '71, '73 and '75.

I was asked to go through QQ's plane that is now owned by Doc and to have it ready for QQ to program his radio for his weekend of flying. It was a pleasure and I was surely looking for all the magic dust or hidden gyros that help QQ fly like we all enjoy watching. Well.....Nothing was found, but I did have to do some typical maintanence on a plane that had not flown for some time and I knew how it would be flown. After QQ had programed his radio which was interesting to watch just how quickly he was able to get what he wanted out of the plane, even with mixes that I noticed. QQ told me he would do a gentle trim flight to get the feel of the plane again being he had not flown it in over 3 year. The flight went well, with only some minor additional trim and mixes needed. A little later it was time for another flight, so I fueled the plane up again, and off for another flight. And boy, after watching QQ fly his secound flight of the day, I was sure glad that I did not miss anything. The straight headon 4 point rolls just above the corn were just dead on a straight rail. QQ, we all enjoyed that one. He also put this plane through one heck of a high speed and low tightly turned figure eight. WOW!!!! is all I can say. After this flight, we all joked with QQ that it was a good thing that Doc was not around at that time. He quickly turned around laughing saying that is why he did it. Cool. He also told me that he had now remembered what he liked about the plane. Sorry he missed this flight but, Doc had run into town to get some medicine for one of QQ's boys that was not feeling good. His son responded to the medicine and was back to playing after a short period. But it was a good thing that Doc was not there, cause I don't think he would have recovered so quickly.

As for the overall weekend, everyone had a great time. I did miss the big bonn fire Sat night because of a wedding commitment, and after hearing about it, I feel like I missed half of the event. Weddings will not be a part of future weekends like this.

Also, I would like to that Dave Chisholm for the honor of flying his Big Red Pitts 12 biplane with the radial Moki 250. It was a fun project to help him with and now I have been flying it for him at events like this to showcase the plane. It is fun just to make slow flybys and listen to this motor. Way to cool. Thanks Dave for the fun, and I take the responsibility serious.

Thanks to all those that took the time to drive and enjoy this weekend with Doc and the rest of us.

Here are some pics I took.

[dmichael]

Four Pointer