Promised Land Barbeque

This year’s event was scheduled for June 14th. Our continuing wet weather made that date unworkable because parts of Doc’s access road were impassable. The event was rescheduled for June 28th and that turned out to be a great change. Not only was the access road in good condition, the weather was excellent with light winds, bright sunshine and temps climbing only to the 80’s.

A good crowd of flyers was on hand. Gene Kelley brought a new 1.5 size P-51 Mustang. His flying buddy, Eric Mass did the initial flight tests. Eric brought along a neat B-25 of his own. Another of Gene’s flying partners, Jerry Thompson had an exiting landing with a Frenzy when one elevator departed the airplane. Many others flew airplanes of all sizes including Zac Roller, Gene Jobgen, Bob Olson, George Stone, Darrell Cassidy and Ken Corrin and Denny Bernal.

There were four heat races for the .46 size racers. All heats were hotly contested, but the winners have since been forgotten -- except for Gene Jobgen whose flaunted his exploits in mixing his mystery racing fuel as seen in the enclosed picture.

The highlight for me was the limbo event. I had the lowest pass under the ribbon, but was not awarded the limbo trophy just because my landing gear and propeller did not make it all the way under the ribbon. Eric Mass made the most successful passes with Gene Kelley’s Frenzy with Gene Jobgen and Denny Bernal making several successful efforts as well.

Around noon, the corn was barbecued to perfection and the call was made by Doc to grill steaks. No one had to be called twice. Once again, Darrell Cassidy found thick and juicy bacon wrapped rib eyes. This year he even gave us his source -- Family Thrift Meat Market. Now the secret is out.

Every year, I give special thanks to Doc and Arlene for hosting this event. Their continuing generosity in providing the venue and all the other niceties that goes with it is certainly appreciated. And, especially to those of you who missed it this year, let’s hope the McGuigans will ask us back again next year.