The Winter Build Challenge Maiden Flights

This is how it looked this morning when we got up, quite a few more people had arrived.

I went around looking at the new arrivals and this model of the Gossamer Albatross caught my eye.  The real plane was the first human powered aircraft to cross the English Channel.

There was even a figure that pedaled when the motor ran.  I had really hoped to see it fly but the motor just did not have enough power.

Before the maiden flights began they had everyone put their plane on the runway for a photo session.

Here is my Skylane in the lineup.  I heard someone say there were 49 planes out there.

I was the first person to sign up and that turned out to be the order of the flights so I got to make the first official flight of the day.  The flight went great, I added two clicks of up trim on the transmitter and that was all the adjustments it needed.  I flew a couple of laps, made one loop, one roll, stalled it once and then made probably my best landing so far this year.

This is the plaque and prize I got to pick out when my name was drawn at the end of the event.  Several people in the Lewis County club have Vortex deltas so it was an easy choice for me.

We had a nice view of Mt. Rainier from where we were parked and there were Skydivers coming down all day on the other side of the airport.  They were hauling them up with a twin Otter so there were eleven or twelve each time.

Once the maiden flights were over the field was open for flying.  There were two jets that flew and both had smoke systems.  This one was really fast.

A dust devil came through this afternoon and tipped this sunshade right onto one of the big aerobatic  planes.

It also tipped the tan one between ours and our neighbor onto a plane but our friend Tina, our camping neighbor Barry and Jody the event director caught it just in time to prevent any damage.  I had to run grab my planes which were trying to take off.  I don't run often, but this was an emergency.

As we were waiting for the fireworks display Bell the diva bulldog came down and visited Vera.  We were just cracking up at the way she walked.

I walked out on the runway for some pictures and discovered we had a view of the Olympics to the Northwest.

The fireworks started at ten and it was one of the best displays we have seen in a long time.  I didn't take as many pictures today as normal since I was videoing some of the maiden flights.