It will rain! There will be floods! Tornado like winds will prevail! It will snow! A tsunami will hit! A volcano will erupt! The Earth will open up and swallow you!!
Not! Not! Not! Not! Not! Not! NOT!
I decided to ignore all the weather predictions and called for the 3rd. Annual STARS Control Line Fun Fly to be held last Saturday as scheduled. And guess what…we had a great day of flying Control Line Airplanes! Yet another Great Call on my part!
The first participants arrived at 9:45 a.m. to weather that looked like this:
(Click on photos to zoom in on them)
The first participants…’The Mad Ukrainians’…arrived from Rochester to an open flying field and blue skies.
A short while later they were set up and ready for the first flight of the day.
The “Mad Ukrainians’ launching the first flight of the day.
They were shortly followed by other flyers from Central New York, the Finger Lakes Region, and Western New York. What followed were 5 hours of constant flights by some 12 different pilots flying more than a dozen different control line planes. Here is a montage of photos of some of the action during the event:
The flight line of planes prepped for flight
Some last minute work on a replacement fuel tank
The rookie waiting for me to join him on his first control line flight!
My Ringmaster being launched with a classic launching technique.
Flying action while the clouds build to the west
Drone view of the control line field action.
Cool drone shot of plane flying inverted
In the midst of the action, the STARS served up lunch and I managed to get two rookie pilots behind the control handle. The second rookie flight ended with an aborted takeoff which resulted in my Ringmaster pancaking in for the only crash of the day. The damage was minor and the Ringmaster is all repaired and awaiting another rookie victim!
Finally, everyone assembled in the center of the flying circle for the classic group photo. Jerry V., one of our ‘Mad Ukrainians’, posed for the photo in his typical reclined position while holding the yellow event flower…a dandlion! Everyone agreed it was a great flying event and thanked the STARS for hosting another successful control line event. Finally, as the last participant was locking the club gate and driving away, the skies opened up with a biblical level deluge complete with wind and hail!
Many thanks to club photographer Michael Graham and drone pilot Phil Morgan for their photo contributions to this FlyBoyz post!
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