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Old 11-21-2012, 05:43 AM
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Ron Stahl
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Default Florida road trip/ tour of BVM factory

My wife and I just got home last night from a 11 day road trip through Florida. We were guests of Nick Ziroli and his lady friend Olga McGinnis at their retirement home location Camelot East just off 75 in Sarasota. Nick introduced me to John Hay and Vince Veltree at a mid week lunch and we met again for breakfast at the local Panera where six or so R/C guys from the club meet every Saturday morning. I found Sarasota to be wonderful for many reasons and Nicks place is six miles from the Sarasota R/C club and eight miles from Siesta Key beach. Nick and I went for an afternoon of flying while we were there at the Sarasota Club field, all,I can say is wow what a place to fly at all of the time. Nick and Olga went out of their way to make us feel like family and we are now looking forward to buying a home there down the road when I retire. There is a nice hobby shop located about two miles from his house and the guys are very friendly and helpful there at Gator Hobbies as I left a adapter at home by mistake and they had just about every kind of wiring accessory you could ever need along with a great store and also found two painted pilots I was looking for and picked them up as well. During our trip home we stopped by the Sun and Fun museum and my wife got to see the Florida jets field. Unfortunately the museum was closed on Mondays and we headed up to BVM but not before stopping by Kermit Weeks museum which was not open until 10:30 but the B-25, PBY, and the C-47 where sitting out on the ramp and we enjoyed the few minutes seeing them all together. Then off to a wonderful visit to see Bob and his crew at BVM. I highly recommend a visit if you are down there and they can accommodate you. You must call ahead for setting up the visit but not a big deal. Bob personally took me though the factory and while I am in the business and had an idea of what I would be seeing, getting to see it first hand was very impressive. I have always felt my money was well spent on BVM products and now more then ever. I took advantage of my wife wanting to get me something so we put a order in while we were there. We then stopped by Dave Shulmans new jewelry business that is about twenty minutes north on route 4 in Sanford and Dave as well gave Jan and I an update on his future plans for the jet world masters in Switzerland in two years. What a trip it was! 2300 miles, 11 days, 6 flights on my Habu 32, two days at Busch Gardens Tampa, and side trips to museums, the beach, the Orioles spring training facility and now back home to set up the shop for the winter building season.