Dedicated to those that build and fly wood R/C Sailplanes
Dedicated to those that build and fly wood R/C Sailplanes
36 flyers signed up for this years event, the weather was mostly bad due to high wind conditions, but it was a joy for me to fly with the stalwart pilots that braved the winds to have a piece of Woody camaraderie for a few days.
We had the 3 minute Ladder with Ken Bates winning the Overall Ladder trophy and all the daily ladder first place trophies. We had the truly enjoyable MOM for Gulf Coasters event that I won, Greg Bell shot the photo of me launching my new Gulf Coaster. Don Harris was not with us due to family health problems for this event, we hope to have a gathering of Gulf Coaster enthusiast including Don some time this summer. The MOM Championship was won by Joe Abridge, his name will be etched on the Perpetual Trophy. Gordon Pearson, as always, had a new scale plane and won Best of Show with it, Steve Moskal won Scale's longest flight Trophy. Gary and Ian again did the towing for the scale event and all ended well for this years event.
Greg's Photo: L-R Bud Green, Ray and Joe Aldridge
Packing up for Muncie. Sailplanes fit behind the front seats. We had one launch from the electric winch, the Hi Starts worked out great with very high launches. |
Thursday evening storm, moving R to L produced instant flooding of W McGalard st. We had simular storms every afternoon, but we all got in a lot of flying including Aero Tow. |
And then came the beautiful sun sets and blue sky and wind the next day. |
Gary Bussell, hard at work, about to pilot the aero tow plane. |
On the left is Ian, our other famous aero tow pilot overseeing Gordon. |
Last year's Wood Crafters 07 Champ Bob Robinson with long time flying buddy, Bob Hicks. |
Wood Crafters 08 Overall Champ Joe Albridge |
At the bottom of this photo is Jack Smith's Hi Start Launcher. It is a must
have device for a MOM contest launched by Hi Starts. It has two functions:
it holds the stretched Hi Start while each pilot in the group launching gets
ready to launch. Step on the release pedal and the plane is launched ... no
struggle holding the stretched Hi Start prior to launch. Great idea, Jack
has them For Sale. |
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L - R Bill Grenoble, O C Stewart, Ray Wood Crafters friends forever. |
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Dedicated Wood Crafters in action, L-R, Bud Green - Larry Vincent |
I'll simply step on the release pedal and let the plane fly out of my hand.
Note, the hi start is stretched, but I'm not under any stress while holding
the Golf Coaster, Jack's launcher is doing all the hard work. Great idea
Jack.
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Top three places in the Golf Coaster Man on Man event. L - R, Bill Suter, Greg Bell, Ray. |
Winners of the Wood Crafters Grand championship. L - R, Ken Bates, Joe Albridge, Greg Smith, Norm Poti, Bill Suter. |
The Man on Man Golf Coaster group, missing are Dick Nodolny and Don Harris. Don won the AMA LSF NATS NOSTALGIA event this year with his Golf Coaster, I love flying mine. L-R: Greg Bell, Bill Suter, Ray and Bob Hicks. Nothing but fun. |
Steve Moskal's I-26 on tow. |
L-R: Joe Albridge, Gordon Pearson and tow pilot Gary Bussell. |
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All packed up and ready to head for home. I looked at our now empty play ground and was very thankful of the supporters of Wood Crafters, hoped they had a good time. We are fortunate to have AMA as our host facility. Ray Hayes |
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Sky Bench Aerotech
skybench.aerotech@GTE.net
Ft. Wayne, Indiana 46804
Phone/Fax 1-(219) 434-1322