Any news from the festivities in Winona?

Bill went with Billy and my Mig. I will hear from him Sunday.

I could not go cause my TJT engines are not yet AMA approved. First year I've missed it, oh well. Approval should come at any time now.

I just came home from there... They had a good turnout..... It was very windy! I will have a few pictures up on my web page in a day or so. When they are there I will post a link here. I was able to get my ground school taken care of but just did not want to risk my DF plane in the strong winds ( 20 to 30 mph gusts). Guess I will have to wait for Superman now.

Mike,

We missed you there buddy. The event went very well with no crashes. We had a few landing mishaps but the winds were pretty stout. (10-20 mph) Probably the most interesting thing of note was the ONLY DF flight occured this morning. Of course Don Peck that made the flight racked up with both best sport, and best scale DF trophies. Mitch Weiss won best scale turbine, and pilot's choice with his awesome F-100D. Best Sport Turbine went to Eddie Weeks with the Isobar, and the JPO Top Gun trophy went to Jason Sommes. Jason also won most flights Saturday ($100) and Paul Lott came in Second ($50) and Phil Nuza third ($25)

The weather was unseasonably cold (and windy) for Mississippi but we still had a great turnout (around 65 pilots) and everyone had a good time. The Mississippi Gang hopes everyone will return next year for the 12th annual MS Afterburner.


David Reid

David, how did the first flight on your brand spankin' new F-4 go? And photos? Thanks dude, sorry to miss ya this year.

Mark the flight was awesome. (so was the color of Davids pants after the flight.) I was behind him and I think he did not need any trim. The plane looked awesome with all the armements and detail. It was very windy for a first flight but he went ahead with it. The landing was picture perfect. By the way the smile-grinn on his face never left all week.
Thanks to the Mississippi gang for a fun filled weekend and great hospitality.
Burt

Mark,

Burt described the first flight to a Tee. The airplane rotated and immediately was solid in the air. I did not touch the trims and everything worked like it was supposed to. The first flight was mainly a "get reaquainted with an old friend flight" with a little high speed work, and a LOT of low speed down and dirty flying. The landing was uncharacteristicly smooth for me, must be the airplane. Second flight I had a slow leak in the smooth stop but still managed to get the gear down and locked. All the rest of the flights were uneventfull, the P-120 was absolutely flawless, and was a perfect match for the plane. The plane is back into the shop for some serious detail work.

David Reid

EXCELLENT! Glad to hear it. Lets all get together at Lumberton soon so I can take pictures. There never was and never will be again an aircraft as awesome as an F-4!

I am wanting to get a Lumberton weekend up soon. We are going to Winimac the end of June so we have a little time, after that we really don't have another event planned for a while. BTW Rick's F-100 flew Yesterday, and the Gang, and BV, Tom Dodgen, and Jason Sommes stayed late this afternoon and burned up a bunch more fuel.

Mark,

you were missed, we had some krylon action going on saturday and really needed some guidance. kevin fought through and with orange peelin fluorescent orange paint put the first flight on his macchi saturday evening. pretty smooth.

David,

great event as always, i think wal-mart appreciated us cleaning them out of anything with sleeves, both mens and womens departments.

Great event as usual....The hospitality and food awesome.....Windy and cold but many, many flights flown and I burned lots of smoke and Jet-A...The folks from Houston had a wonderful weekend.

Kevin

Pat, you and Kevin over looked one of the great resources you had available to you. You had a Krylon sponsored factory pilot at your disposal: Mr. David Reid (aka Kaptain Krylon). If he can make that F-4 look that good from a Walmart spray can, think what he could have done to Kevin's new plane!!!

Mark,
It's actually a good thing that I didn't get any help from any of the "Krylon masters", the plane probably would have come out looking too good and I would have been reluctant to ruin the Krylon finish with the planned "scale" paint scheme.

Many thanks go out to Pat, Mike Jensen, Bob Price, Dan and Doug, and everyone else who helped me work on that thing over the weekend. The mb-339 flew very well and I really appreciate all of the help I got finishing that thing up.

I really look forward to seeing some of the pictures that were taken of it over the weekend.

Vernon,
As usual you and Dennis put on a wonderful event. The flying was great despite the less than perfect weather, and the food was excellent. Congrats on another very successful event. BTW, you can just hang on to that $4 until next year when I will be more prepared to empty your wallet with my spot landings.

Kevin, was this a scratch build of yours or a kit? Please send me some photos when you can. Thanks.

Mark,

It was a VERY short kit! I only used the fiberglass fuse and the foam wings and stabs from the kit, eveything else was designed/redesigned and built myself.
I have to do some work right now, but I will try to post some pics later today.

Work? What's that?

Mark, You were really missed. I didn't get to talk to Eddie much either. I even asked Eddie if you p-whipped this week-end. He had no comment. You guys going to Winimac? The Mississippi gang is coming. It's a great time. Hope to see ya somewhere soon. I told DR if he died today (Saturday) that they would take a week to get the smile off his face from the F-4. Ricks Hun, had a taste of my Crystal City camo paint job (of course my new Bobcat had it on there). Those flourescent name tags sure come in handy. Bill Harris

Just got home about an hour ago. Thanks to all the Mississippi gang for a great event. Especially for the crawfish and catfish dinner Sat night. Boy, those boys from Baton Rouge can really put the crawfish away. David did a pretty good job himself.

Thanks again,

The Austin Gang had a great time, arrived Wed. pm, flew all day thursday, friday was wet & cool in the pm, sat was windy & cool, lots of sun & wind burn. The food was great all weekend. Lots of flying despite the wind, a few runway light close calls & impacts. Thanks Dennis & Vernon & the whole Mississippi gang for another great event,we will be there in force again next year!!!..Our "Super Work Bench & Vise" stayed busy all weekend!!. We invited everyone to sign the the work bench, and if you needed the vise, you had to sign the end the vise was on. This was to show that you have a Waiver to use a vise .. Every one had a great time. The "Super Work Bench" will be at Superman, everyone needs to come by the Austin Gang tents & sign the bench..Look for the Texas flags!! Who knows it may end up in the Smithsonian someday!!!


See ya'll soon!!!!!!

Dan M.

Hospitality was A #1! Food and fellow jet jock company were awesome!

My flying was for sh@# !

I believe the Austin Gang has by now received official word from the AMA that their vice is now certified after passing extensive testing this past weekend, by yours truly. I was the first to be granted the Austin Gang's "Vice Waiver". I believe I'm now a certified vice instructor if any one else needs signing off. Watch for the vice rules to be posted, in PDF format, on the AMA website in the near future! I'm not sure what the document number will be though.

Thanks to David, Dennis & Vernon and the rest of the Mississippi Gang for the awesome event.