10/30/06--The sunny SW is beautiful today. The temperature is 76 with light winds at noon. Gaige is in his shop working on a 60” thermal wing; that he hopes to have ready to fly tomorrow.

Jack has reported in that he and Adrian have purchased supplies and have finished 3 pilot safety fences measuring 8 x 3. Pictures will follow as soon as they arrive in my email.

Dick is putting out a challenge. If you don’t want to just see pictures of him and his planes, get some pictures of yourself to me. Dick is working on a large scratch-built, high-wing yet to be officially described much less named. Stay tuned.

Gaige flew a Diamona for the first time Saturday. The Diamona is an electric-powered glider. You can check it out on the SAGE website Saturday report: http://www.sageflyers.com. It is the featured plane. The rest just shows a little maintenance on the field and shed being completed before our annual fall contest next weekend. Clean-up, fix-up is the same all over.

Check out this link http://www.rcuvideos.com/uvideos.php?UID=35&type=public to see some incredible flying at the Tucson Aerobatic Shootout. It was held at TIMPA flying field this past weekend. Fliers competed from across the U. S. and around the world. We went out Sunday to see the freestyle; they seem to go all out on Sunday afternoon. They have nothing to lose but an airplane at that point. We did see one go down after a wing rod broke. Also heard a report of one pilot losing a wing in a similar situation, flipping the plane on its side in “knife edge” and successfully landing and saving the plane. Try that one in your next flying dream.

Remember send some pictures or you’ll just have to look at Dick and Gaige!!! Old planes, new planes, shoveling snow, whatever!!!

Hello from the sunny SW. I think AZ received more rain than MN this past summer. We have horse weeds in our yard that are taller than my head, and they had to bring a Bobcat into the flying field to clear a path for the winch line. Check out our SW club’s activities at this link: http://www.sageflyers.com. Our web meister usually posts a Saturday report every week by Sunday afternoon.

After weeks of diligent searching the illusive SS has been found and returned to Jim G. Jim and Jeri searched; then Jack and Adrian searched some more and finally found it had flown further out than everyone thought. Typical in a lost-plane case like this one.

An incident occurred here at our Maxwell School flying field this past Sunday that I would like to share with you. Maxwell is a renegade field, not AMA santioned, used by many local glider and electric pilots. Most of these pilots are experienced and/or competition level flyers and mishaps are unusual. We enjoy visiting with these fellows and seeing some beautiful, unique and expensive planes. This past Sunday we drove over to pay everyone a visit and renew old friendships. One such friend who was later involved in the Maxwell mayhem, reported it to us the next day and gave me permission to use this on our blog to help save others from similar disasters. In his own words:

1. Tracy ran his Encore (DLG) into a t'phone pole - "Who the he-- put that telephone pole in my way!"
2. I augured my DLG in - switched rx. crystals, but forgot to change the tx. channel. Also forgot to check the controls. Minimal damage.
3. As a result of (2) above, my tx. being on the wrong channel, I crashed Dan's airplane and ruined his $50 lipoly.
4. Don backed into Bill’s truck - I figure $500 - $1,000 for Bill's. Didn't see Don's.
5. Mauro augured the Hurricane (scratch built-semi-scale) in.

Luckily there was no one hurt in these incidents, but lots of property damage and potential for bad feelings among friends. We need to keep safety first in mind always and be extra careful when flying. Hopefully LLAMF flyers can avoid a bad Karma day like this one!!!

Stay warm and well and if you haven't already, get started on a project for next spring!!

10/8/06 Hello to all!!! Aren't the roses beautiful on your home table thanks to Dick sharing them with us. They sure are on ours. Five stars to Dick for thinking of the dinner and roses and getting it all organized. I think everyone is already looking forward to next summer for flying and having fun with friends. For all who couldn't make the get-together; I hope you will be there next year. The food was good and the company was absolutely fabulous. Keep checking the blog over the winter; we will keep you posted on our winter flying and hope that you will send us pictures of your winter activities be it flying or building. I also have a few pictures from the summer that we can all reminisce over. Remember you can add comments whenever you have something you'd like to share.

10/03/06
In spite of the cold, windy day we had for the float-fly in Hackensack; we certainly had a successful day. We had several members and friends from neighboring clubs flying, and we appreciated all the support. We got to honor Gordie for his years of flying control line; he put on quite a show at the field for us one evening this summer. Gordie, we hope to see more of those planes next summer. The proceeds from the raffle have enriched our treasury, a big thank you to all who helped out, but a special thank you to Jack who made it happen!!!! Our raffle winner was delighted; maybe we will see Kevin at the field next summer. Keep an eye on the weather for flying this Wednesday.