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SEPTEMBER
FIELD DAY
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Our first annual event went off splendidly. Several people flew in from Aurora and Jeffco to join us. There was a nice crowd of pilots, family and friends all day. Food was constant and delicious, weather perfect, and contests entertaining.
The kids folded paper airplanes and decorated them during the morning and entered the contests after lunch. The Paper Airplane Throw took a little time as we waited for the wind to die down, but Matt, the announcer, megaphone in hand, entertained us all and did his fair share of embarrassing all the kids. The outcome was pretty close, but a combination of a good throw, standard aircraft design, and a little luck, won furthest distance out of three flights.
The Decoration Contest was definitely a hard one to judge. Every airplane had drawings and coloring. It's amazing what they did with a pen and a few colored highlighters.
The Aircraft Recognition contest stumped some of our finest patrons. 1st Place was won with a nearly perfect score, and 2nd was tied among 3 people. It was a tense moment as the judges tried to come up with a tie-breaker. You wouldn't believe the silence of the on-lookers as they stood and watched the contestants on either side of the two judges. But once again, Matt saved the day with the well-known philosophical question, "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?" There was a shout of "One." from Jamie Swanson, and "Two." from Mark Sandoval. You never know when a little knowledge of "pop" culture can come in handy.
The highlight of the day was when everybody walked out to the runway and watched on the side lines as the pilots made their passes over the targets for the Spot Landing, Flour Bomb and Sponge Drop.
The first contest started around 11:30am. This was the Spot Landing, in which the pilots had 3 tries to touch down with their main wheels on or beyond a marked line on the runway. The judges rushed out after each attempt and measured off the distances.
There were a lot of good tries, but very few were close to the mark. It's not an easy task!
After lunch, everyone once again meandered back to the runway as the contestants climbed into their cockpits. The Flour Bomb required the pilot to fly by a ground target at 50 feet
(AGL), while the co-pilot aimed and dropped a small sack of colored sugar. The bombs burst on the runway near and far. After each drop, the planes ascended for another go-around as the next one made final approach for their turn.
The key to the Sponge Drop is team work. Not only were there two guys in the air, but a team member had to stand below and catch the sponge in a box! There of course, was a bit of running around on the ground. After all was said and done, one sponge was caught, and another just missed.
We thank all those who helped with Field Day: the organizers, contest coordinators, judges, cooks, announcer, photographer, setup crew, Springs East, and everyone who pitched in with cleaning up and making things run smoothly.
For those who missed the fun this time, we hope you can join us next year. Everyone had a great time, especially the contest winners!
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Congratulations ....
Spot Landings
1st Mike Wallace
Flour Bomb
1st Paul Sale, Craig Wingert
2nd Don Johns, Don Wallace
3rd Mike Wallace, Clayton Doerksen
Sponge Drop
1st Don Johns, Don Wallace, J. D. Johns
2nd Mike Wallace, Clayton D., Matt Clark
Aircraft Recognition
1st Matt McKeon
2nd Mark Sandoval
3rd Jamie Swanson
Paper Airplane Throw
1st Jaimie Swanson
2nd Steven Clark
3rd Alicia Swanson
Paper Airplane Decoration
1st J. D. Johns
2nd Alicia Swanson
3rd Jake Rathjen
- Natalie Kunz
Photos
& Contest Results
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WHAT'S NEW
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You've been asking, now here they are, our first Pikes Peak Pilot Center t-shirts. Pick up one for only $15.00.
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SOLOS
& CERTIFICATES
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UPCOMING
ACTIVITIES
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Anyone interested in going to an Altitude Training Course at Peterson AFB, please give Caralee a call. The course lasts all day, (7:00am to 4:00pm), and includes 6 hrs of academics and about 2 hrs in the altitude chamber, taking you up to 25,000 ft. The cost is $35 and you must have a medical certificate. There are only a few slots open for Nov 8th and Dec 2nd, so please call soon.
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HISTORIC
ARTICLE
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Flight with R. Sommer in 1909
by
Gertrude Bacon
The ground was very rough and hard, and as we tore along, at an increasing pace that was very soon greater than any motor I had yet been in, I expected to be jerked and jolted. But the motion was wonderfully smooth - smoother yet - and then - ! Suddenly there had come into it a new, indescribable quality - a lift - a lightness - a life! Very many there are now who know that feeling: that glorious. gliding sense that the sea-bird has known this million years, and which man so long and so vainly envied it, and which even now, familiarity can never rob of its charm. But picture, if you can, what it meant for the first time; when all the world of Aviation was young and fresh and untried; when to rise at all was a glorious adventure, and to find one self flying swiftly in the air, the too-good-to-be-true
realization of a life long dream. You wonderful aerial record breakers of today and of the years to come, whose exploits I may only marvel at and envy, I have experienced something that can never be yours and can never he taken away from me - the rapture, the glory and the glamour of "the very beginning".
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SUGGESTED
READING
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Inside the Sky - A meditation on flight
by William Langewiesche
The author describes many interesting incidents from throughout his flying career... life as an air-taxi pilot across the Texas-Mexico border, traffic controller at Newark Intl, cargo flyer, et cetera. However, it is mostly a commentary on the unusual and insightful perspective one attains from the air.
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