Memorial Day Fly-In

Saturday saw the best conditions that we have seen in central Texas this year. Flying started at 12 noon with Mark Carlson, Reed Murray, John Krueger and Kent Robinson tearing it up for 2.5 hours. Scott Kennedy flew his Mosquito powered harness, demonstrating solid skills that actually made the harness look easy to use. He had several flights which lasted over an hour. Bruce Mauzy and Bob Loper provided truck tows for Somer Hughes who was able to get an extended flight from one of her tows. Kent Robinson did a few instructional tandems with his friend Suzanne who did a great job of catching on quickly...maybe another female pilot to add to the fray! Paul Johnson wrapped up his instruction and performed his first solo flight at the end of the day. Marco Zalvidar took a truck tow, then did a tandem and soloed on his own glider (a Moyes SX5). Gregg Ludwig provided both instructional tandems as well as a few discovery flights...14 tandems total for Saturday! Steve worked with Bob Loper in the trike as well as Lynn Ludden who soloed her brand new Airborne Edge late that evening. Steve wrapped up the day by test flying Bob Loper's Sky Cycle which has Bob's UltraSport for the wing....Steve sure made it look like fun. We had a big dinner under the covered hangers then went to the south end of the airport for fireworks and a bonfire.

Sunday started bright and early. Not an easy task since the fireworks didn't end till 12:30 a.m. and some pilots didn't get to bed until 2:00 a.m. Paul Johnson was ready for more early morning solos and his wife Susan was on hand to watch what he had been learning over the past several weekends. Paul brought his newly purchased WW Eagle but did his first tows on the Falcon 195. John Krueger was next, flying tandem with Gregg Ludwig in order to get his T1 tandem rating. Surprisingly he didn't scare Gregg at all and Burnzie was there to give our adopted son a tug. Mike Degtoff, Chris Zimmerman, Dave Hayner and RR Rodriguez joined the crowd on Sunday. Mike flew Kent's Target (only after his good buddy Chris made sure there was a tail on it...Mike hadn't flown a flex wing in awhile). Chris set up his Talon and took a few flights while RR set up his Millennium. RR was the first of several to fly his Mill. After his flight he turned to craft over to Kent Robinson who thoroughly enjoyed the flight and flew it beautifully. After providing lots of aero tows John Krueger got a chance to jump in it for a nice flight. Reed Murray got another hour today launching late in the afternoon. Paul Johnson transitioned over to his Eagle without any problems. Gregg provided 8 tandems during the course of the day...and had a soaring tandem flight of about 35 minutes with Bob Bain. Somer continued truck towing throughout the day. Gopi Kallur and Thomas Fossier (Fred's students) came out for some instructional tandems with Gregg. Lou Ann Ludwig was able to get a tandem with her husband and a short flight in the trike with Steve (lucky girl :-) We ended the evening with dinner at the Dixie Cafe.

Memorial Day started out early again with John and Steve checking weather. NetJets (John's new job) had called around 6:30 a.m. asking John to fill in for a pilot that had canceled. John just managed to "get out of Dodge" before the t-storms moved into Robertson County. Being on call for NetJets is certainly providing John lots of excitement when he's not flying with AAS. After things subsided (around 11 a.m.) the weather started to get doable. In fact, it was perfect for training. Gopi and Thomas both enjoyed flying "over the clouds" with Gregg Ludwig. Paul Johnson also got to experience that "surreal" flying over the early morning cloud cover. Tandems continued until about 3:00 p.m. which included Somer's instruction for her AT sign-off. Gregg has been providing solid and consistent tandem instruction for AAS. He is a tremendous asset for all of Texas and his wife Lou Ann is very supportive and keeps us all hydrated during the day and entertained with her "travel trailer decor". Reed Murray recognized that things were heating up and quickly got a tow. He was rewarded with another hour...for the third day in a row...and several trips to cloudbase (even got a little "misty" under one). Kenneth Cobb showed up and proceeded to tow and tow and tow. It wasn't soarable but that wasn't going to keep Kenneth from having fun. Kenneth's enthusiasm is contageous...he definitely made the afternoon fun. Speaking of fun, as things subsided Paul Johnson and Somer Hughes got to play in the interesting Texas air. Somer was very solid with her solo tows and was excited to add another "special skill" to her list of ratings. Good job Somer! Monday was one of the most interesting training days (weather wise) that we have seen in quite awhile. Smooth conditions early, soarable for awhile, and then good evening conditions. Paul finished his flying up with a picture perfect landing (on his feet)...which he had been working on since Sat. afternoon. We finished the day towing Kenneth and literally "burning up every last drop of gas" in the D-Fly. It was a great day, a wonderful weekend, and a darn good time. We look forward to many more good times ahead.