Doom and Gloom Fly

In celebration of the annual ‘fall back’ from daylight savings time, the Propbusters celebrated with the Doom & Gloom Fun Fly. Nov. 6th turned out to be a clear & sunny day with temperature’s in the 40’s. Winds were a direct cross, steady at 10mph+, gusting to over 20 in the P.M..

A dozen hearty souls gathered at Janice Jensen Field with expectations of a fun filled day. All expectations were met, with some impressive flying and spectacular “saves”.

The day began with the “team events”. However, due to the challenging crosswinds and some pre-competition mishaps, several teams were rendered pilot-short or airframe-less, bringing to a premature end the “team” competitions.

Individual events commenced without further delays and spirited competition ensued. Three events were hotly contested with the results as follows:

Timed Pattern Work: required each flyer to accomplish three complete patterns with a low approach, a touch & go, and a full stop landing in succession. Zac Roller won the event with a elapsed time of 50 seconds, with Doc McGuigan 2nd at 1:05, and 3rd, Gene Jobgen at 1:08.

Speed Lap Event: required each flyer to fly as many patterns as possible, in a one minute time frame. Zac Roller placed 1st with well over 5 full laps in 60 seconds, Gene Jobgen placed second with 4 laps in 60 seconds, followed very closely by Doc McGuigan with 4 laps in 65 seconds.

Loops Event: required each flyer to complete as many loops as possible, within a one minute time constraint. Again Zac “Loopy” Roller provided the mark to beat with 19 full loops, Bob Olson came close with 16 loops , followed directly by Doc McGuigan with 15 loops.

Other pilots participating in these Events but, finishing just out of the money, were: Darrell Cassidy, John Pondish, & Denny Bernal.

A burger-burn lunch was devoured and then it was back to the tarmac for the final event of the day.

Spot Landing for Cash! Three rounds of flying were completed with each pilot attempting as many spot landings as possible in each one minute round. Cash targets were placed on the runway and each pilot “crashed” the field trying to put their landing gear on the “sweet spots”.

Bob Olson out-”cashed” the field with his superb control, finishing with a fully entact aircraft and bulging wallet. Some “sweet” (and sweaty) flying was demonstrated and this Event proved to be a great conclusion to a super “fun fly” day.

Although many props were casualties, and detached landing gear ran amuck, due to some superb flying no “baggers” or “smoking holes” were observed. Jim Kammert was awarded the “tough luck” cash, due to a warm-up-flight folded landing gear, which kept him out of the days competitions.

The “Doom and Gloom” fun fly was far from it’s namesake with lots of smiles and laughs and friendly competition, which has set the stage for an anticipated exciting in-door flying season.

Faithfully submitted by Neal Lutke, Doom and Gloom Fun Fly Director.