Hello All,

There is going to be a new contest for D3. On April 25th and 26th the contest will be located on the north side of Lakeland, FL at my home field Propbuster of Polk County. Since this is my first contest I have been assured to have plenty of help running this event. Our field is a grass runway that is nicely groomed so you will have no problems with wheelpants. As soon as I can I will get GPS cooridinates for our field location and get it posted, but I'll go ahead and give normal directions now.

Direction: I-4 exit 38 go north on Hwy 33 one quarter mile to Tomkow Rd. (left). Go north on Tomkow Rd. to dead end at Old Polk City Rd. The field gate is strait across the intersection at the deadend. There will be a electronic gate code published so everyone can come and go as they please. Camper are ok, but we have no hook-ups. At Exit 33 there are 3 hotels there, Cracker Barrel, Ruby Tuesdays and McDonalds and it's about six miles from the field.

There will lunch Saturday and Sunday prepared by one of our club members. We will be have Boston Butt pulled pork sandwiches with slaw and baked beans and drinks for $4.00 ea. Entry fees will be 30.00 each which registration will be Friday the 24th all day and Saturday morning before the pilot's meeting. We will be flying all classes Sportsman through FAI.

So eveyone come and we'll have a good time flying. And if everyone has a good time and likes this location I'm planning on doing it again next year in late February. Looking back at the weather in Fedruary we had some fantastic weekend that would have been great.
If there are any questions feel free to PM me. I forgot to mention I will have the field availible all day Friday for practice.

Thanks to All
Larry

Me and Austin will plan on being there. Hopefully with a pair of airplanes

I'll be there to support Uncle Larry's new meet too

I found the field on google maps....

[link]http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=28.162633,-81.896038&hl=en&geocode=&mra=mi&mrsp=0&sz=18&sll=2 8.16338,-81.896161&sspn=0.0035,0.004549&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=18[/link]


man that field is huge !!!!!! looks like an awesome place for a meet!


edited to get the map link right

And after the meet we can all visit Kermit at Fantasy of Flight.....


Driving Directions
[link]http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=Fantasy+Of+Flight+%4028.168005,-81.808577&geocode=&dirflg=&saddr=28.162633,+-81.896038&f=d&hl=en&sll=28.177803,-81.808577&sspn=0.030263,0.042915&ie=UTF8&ll=28.165 546,-81.84454&spn=0.111988,0.145569&t=h&z=13[/link]

awesome!!!!!!

I flew there last weekend with Larry and Chris, and it's going to be a good contest. I'll be helping Larry CD it and Melissa will be scoring it. The drive isn't NEARLY as bad as I thought, so that's a plus...

Here's hoping for a good turnout for what looks to be a very promising contest!!!

-Mike

I'll spread the word @ RCACF this weekend.

Steve

Cool! Thanks for hosting Larry,
I'll plan on being there too.

Joe

I just went though exit 33 off of I-4 and there are several hotels at that exit. Take your pick, Hampton Inn, Sleep Inn, Jamison Inn, Quality Inn, Days Inn & Suites, and Ramada. Eating, well this will be good for Dean Funk a Waffel House, and there's also Cracker Barrel, Wendy's, Ruby Tuesdays, and for you Jason a McDonalds that is open 24 hours. I think there should not be a problem for everyone to have a place to stay and eat. If anyone has any question please ask.


Thanks
Larry

I just realized that April 25th and 26th are the last two days of the Sun & Fun here at Lakeland. I would advise all to make sure they get rooms ASAP. If anyone has trouble please let me know and maybe I can help.

Larry

Larry,

Looks like I'll be commuting back & forth. My home in Ocoee, FL, is an hour east of Lakeland. Just did a quick internet search. Most all of the so-called "economy" hotel rooms in the Lakeland area are already booked. There are some rooms available at the Exit 33 @ I-4 hotels, starting @ $99 / night and up.

Steve

Larry,
Just confirmed what Steve said. Cheapest at exit 33 is $99/nite. Most are over $125. Is there anything a little further away that might be more reasonable?

I was able to find the Super 8 in Mulberry, FL which is not far from where I live at 60.00 per night and they show availability. At exit 32 on US 98, Motel 6 is at 79.00 per night and shows availability. There was also a Super 8 in Winter Haven that was around 60.00. The two Super 8's are around 20 miles away and the Motel 6 is about 8 miles away. I'm going to keep looking for others and will have more suggestions soon. I can get the Quality Inn at exit 33 down to 93.00 plus tax. The Sun & Fun is the problem. If we manage through this year, next year will be alot better because the contest will be in late February when nothing is going on.

Larry

I found that with AAA, the Ramada Inn at exit 33 is $89.10/nite for 2 people, 2 beds, booking online. The "best available rate" selection does not give you this rate!

I talked to our local hobby shop here in town and they are going to donate some items to raffel off. It will be some small items and items that I think pattern flyers can use. If you are planning to come and you will need a room please book yourself something ASAP. This is also the end of the Sun&Fun flyin and rooms maybe hard to get. Any questions please shoot me a PM and I'll do my best to help.

Larry

Hey Larry,

What's the update on your meet, it's starting to sound like your going to have a good turn out....

Can't wait !!

The only update I have is I'm going to try to get things set so we can fly east to west instead of north and south. Or maybe just have the option of either pending wind direction. I got a list of things to get such as tents (for judges), clipboards, pens, paper, board for flight order and I think that is about it. If you think of anything else let me know other than that I'll keep you posted.

Larry

Larry,

You'll need 5 or 6 workers in addition to you and Chris, to assist with field set up, registration, field take-down and trash removal. You'll need electricity, a P.A. system or a bull horn, batteries, a small first aid kit, a fire extinguisher, computer and printer, registration forms, AMA Waiver, etc., part of which is included in your AMA Sanction package, pre-printed score sheets for all classes. I kept about 20 copies of each in reserve. Remember, you'll need 2 score sheets for each pilot in their respective class (remember, Masters is flying 2009 - 2010 sequence and FAI flys P-09 & F-09). If Melissa H is coming, she can print these for you. I can provide copies if you need them. Also, since your registration fee is $30, you'll need to have some 5's, 10's & 20's on hand for making change, and if your club is charging for lunch, you'll need small bills and perhaps coins as change for that too.

If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

Steve

Thanks Steve,

I don't think anyone in our club has a bullhorn, so I may just have to yell. Melissa and Mike are both coming down Thursday and since Mike is the offical CD they will have the packett. I'm going to have I hope the field set up so we can fly both east to west or north to south. Here lately the winds have been more prevailing more north and south, but we do have some field restrictions flying east to west that I'm going to reslove this weekend. (bad neighbor). I'm going to try to keep things as simple as I can. Main thing on this contest is that I want everyone to have a good time and fly. I know a few contests have dropped off, but with this one and a few other people that are also wanting to get in there with there own contest, maybe we can keep our numbers up where they should be.

Larry

Mike W. and I, probably with the Mississippi Bandits will be there if nothing comes up. Larry, I'd consider keeping it right where you got it because Sun-N-Fun can be a big drawer for your Northern folk, except for the motels rate gouges. Its a two for one for me. Dad and I use to attend the Sun-N-Fun event every year for about ten years in a row. Its an event every modeler should see, with Experimental Homebuilts, Ultralights, Paragliders, WW1, WW 2 stuff, to last year the Thunderbirds USAF Team was there. Think it pulls several hundred thousand attendees for the week. Its a show no one needs to miss. Thursday would be a good day to visit and not miss any regular R/C normalities to a regular contest weekend.
These 400 and 500 miles trips are killin my knees. You guys need to move North .

I am going to be in St Augustine all week before the contest on business and was wondering if there are any flying fields close by I might be able to fly at a couple of days for practice? Thanks
Mike

I maybe hanging out with mike in St. Augustine for some practice too - the weather here in atlanta lately has been somewhat tornadoish....

Dean,

Are you sure your wife is going to let you leave that early and even to hang out with of all people Mike Wingo? You better think twice, because hanging out with that crazy man will definately get you in trouble. It sounds like I need to be there instead of you. LOL

Lawrence
IT'S SLURPEE TIME

Actually Thursday and Friday at the Al field looks good for practice.....if they get the wires out of my street so I can leave t hat is. Sucks living in tornado alley...

Just got power back but still no internet (I'm on the wife's wireless). And still our street is taped off. So, we're stuck till Thursday it appears. If we're lucky.

I'm planning on me and Melissa being there next thursday afternoon and spending the night at the field. Might even get some flights in if we can get through Atl in time. I'm looking forward to it!

-Mike (currently in the dark ages in a disaster zone....where is Fema????)

I know the time is drawing near to contest time again and I need to get the word out about the gate code. Our field is owned by the city of Lakeland and we have an electronic gate. The code will be good starting Friday morning and good til Monday. You will see the key pad at window level on your car and the code is 4646#. For those of you coming in Thursday night please shoot me an e-mail or a PM and I'll be able to get another code for that day. If you know someone is coming just pass this info around. I don't want anyone getting locked out.

Thanks
Larry

Hey Larry,...need a PM. I will be arriving Thursday night with the crew!



Thanks,

Bill Holsten