Waltm
10-13-2003, 10:40 PM
Just returned from the Southern Chuters Second Annual Flyin in Bastrop, Louisiana this past weekend. It was a blast! Kudos to James Morgan and his group for putting on a great flyin and Tommy McJunkins of powerchutes.com for donating the use of his property for our Saturday night supper.
The flyin was held at Snyder Field just on the east side of Bastrop. Snyder Field was a RC plane field but the Southern Chuters group has use of it also. The field was more than wide enough to ensure that safe takeoffs and landings could be made from any direction.
I arrived too late to fly on Friday but I heard that there was a little excitement. Seems that someone managed to stall out a T-2 and drop it in on the prop ring (notice that I didn't mention any names). :-)
I met some new friends and saw some old friends also. The "cajun contingent" arrived early Friday from South Louisiana. When Craig "Crazy" Gaspard and the crew arrive, it's sure to be an interesting flyin.
Saturday dawned cool, humid and foggy - a typical Louisiana Fall morning. We sat around and waited for the fog to lift. About 9am it finally cleared enough for us to head up. The winds stayed down below 6-8 mph most of the time and we were able to fly all day.
I am VERY impressed with the lifting performance of my Thunderbolt 340 chute. Craig brought a friend along who was thinking of getting a ppc but couldn't find anyone who felt comfortable taking him up. Rob weighs 350 lbs. I put him in the back seat of my Destiny and, with a full tank of gas and very humid morning air, we started off across the field to see if we could get up.
I weigh 205 lbs. Rob was 350. Full tank of fuel. Full oil tank. Humid morning air. Knobby tires. Destiny 2000. We were up in about 350 feet and got a decent 200-300 fpm ascent rate. That's not bad with that kind of weight under those conditions! I'll never fly anything other than an elliptical.
The flyin was promoted to the town well and we had a lot of spectators in the viewing area. There were a LOT of requests for the $15 intro flights that was advertised and a few of the BFI's were enlisted as slave labor to take the new students up.
I didn't mind taking new students up. James provided us with all the free fuel that we could use in exchange for the flights. But, because I had taken Rob up earlier, I got all the heavies. My first student was 310. My second was 300. Not to worry, though. Every one of those landings were greasers. My machine might take 'em up but I wasn't gonna make my landing gear bring 'em down by itself. :-)
The party really got started when the BARF boys arrived later that morning. Scott Hughes showed up and immediately began making googly eyes at my girlfriend, Judy (isn't he married or something?). It was good to see Phil Comparetto again, also.
The flying was great. Scott's machine makes more smoke than most that I've ever seen. Crazy and Wayne Spring STILL stink of smoke. Scott and Raymoe got 'em good. With it being harvest time for the cotton, every flight over a cotton crop made it seem like you were flying over a snow covered field. The scenery of the area was beautiful.
No accidents on Saturday. Just a few "almosts" that ended safely and we all flew until just about the legal 30 minutes after sunset. The evening flying was just incredible.
After the flying was done, we all headed over down the road to one of Tommy McJunkins buildings (how many does he have??!!!) for the fish fry. The awards ceremony was better than any comedy act that EVER appeared on Broadway. Everybody won something - even us last place finishers in the flying competition. I wonder if Hugh Jass is still sucking his pacifier...
A great flyin for beginning flyers and experienced pilots both. I believe that James said that there were 25 registered machines this year. I couldn't count the number of spectators but there were quite a few since the field was right off the main drag out of Bastrop.
Here's a picture of Kendall, Crazy, Phil and Scott hovering around my girlfriend, Judy.
Judy's a LOT better, btw... She's healing from her motorcycle accident quickly. This was her first trip away from home since breaking six ribs Sept. 2nd. LOL - She was more anxious to leave for the flyin than I was. She flew with me most of the day.
Walt...
The flyin was held at Snyder Field just on the east side of Bastrop. Snyder Field was a RC plane field but the Southern Chuters group has use of it also. The field was more than wide enough to ensure that safe takeoffs and landings could be made from any direction.
I arrived too late to fly on Friday but I heard that there was a little excitement. Seems that someone managed to stall out a T-2 and drop it in on the prop ring (notice that I didn't mention any names). :-)
I met some new friends and saw some old friends also. The "cajun contingent" arrived early Friday from South Louisiana. When Craig "Crazy" Gaspard and the crew arrive, it's sure to be an interesting flyin.
Saturday dawned cool, humid and foggy - a typical Louisiana Fall morning. We sat around and waited for the fog to lift. About 9am it finally cleared enough for us to head up. The winds stayed down below 6-8 mph most of the time and we were able to fly all day.
I am VERY impressed with the lifting performance of my Thunderbolt 340 chute. Craig brought a friend along who was thinking of getting a ppc but couldn't find anyone who felt comfortable taking him up. Rob weighs 350 lbs. I put him in the back seat of my Destiny and, with a full tank of gas and very humid morning air, we started off across the field to see if we could get up.
I weigh 205 lbs. Rob was 350. Full tank of fuel. Full oil tank. Humid morning air. Knobby tires. Destiny 2000. We were up in about 350 feet and got a decent 200-300 fpm ascent rate. That's not bad with that kind of weight under those conditions! I'll never fly anything other than an elliptical.
The flyin was promoted to the town well and we had a lot of spectators in the viewing area. There were a LOT of requests for the $15 intro flights that was advertised and a few of the BFI's were enlisted as slave labor to take the new students up.
I didn't mind taking new students up. James provided us with all the free fuel that we could use in exchange for the flights. But, because I had taken Rob up earlier, I got all the heavies. My first student was 310. My second was 300. Not to worry, though. Every one of those landings were greasers. My machine might take 'em up but I wasn't gonna make my landing gear bring 'em down by itself. :-)
The party really got started when the BARF boys arrived later that morning. Scott Hughes showed up and immediately began making googly eyes at my girlfriend, Judy (isn't he married or something?). It was good to see Phil Comparetto again, also.
The flying was great. Scott's machine makes more smoke than most that I've ever seen. Crazy and Wayne Spring STILL stink of smoke. Scott and Raymoe got 'em good. With it being harvest time for the cotton, every flight over a cotton crop made it seem like you were flying over a snow covered field. The scenery of the area was beautiful.
No accidents on Saturday. Just a few "almosts" that ended safely and we all flew until just about the legal 30 minutes after sunset. The evening flying was just incredible.
After the flying was done, we all headed over down the road to one of Tommy McJunkins buildings (how many does he have??!!!) for the fish fry. The awards ceremony was better than any comedy act that EVER appeared on Broadway. Everybody won something - even us last place finishers in the flying competition. I wonder if Hugh Jass is still sucking his pacifier...
A great flyin for beginning flyers and experienced pilots both. I believe that James said that there were 25 registered machines this year. I couldn't count the number of spectators but there were quite a few since the field was right off the main drag out of Bastrop.
Here's a picture of Kendall, Crazy, Phil and Scott hovering around my girlfriend, Judy.
Judy's a LOT better, btw... She's healing from her motorcycle accident quickly. This was her first trip away from home since breaking six ribs Sept. 2nd. LOL - She was more anxious to leave for the flyin than I was. She flew with me most of the day.
Walt...