The North Dallas RC Club Appreciation Day fly-in and family picinic was a resounding sucess.  Charles Schafer and Dr. Bruce Lakotas firmly established that the N.D.R.C.C. family of members is strong and in good spirit.  Per Charles Schafer we had over 100 persons counted for lunch and according to plan Dr. Bruce out did himself on this one.  We had the usual brisket and fixings but the members also brought deserts, cookies, candies, cakes we had just about any good snack you could want.  Reminds me of a good old fashioned family get together.   

The wind was a little strong at times but not enough to cause any concern other than the usual nervous pilots on first take off.  But once in the air the nerves all went away.  We had some very detailed warbirds at the field along with some good training going on with Jim Williams and John Reed.  The morning flying session went extremely well, we had small electric planes, electric fan jets, sixty size glow, small gas and finally big gas planes all in the air.  No mishaps no flight line problems as everyone self policed their flightline actions and all flew as many times and as often as they wanted.  At 11:00 President Don Hafer called for a lul in the action so we could have a short club meeting at the field.   The short meeting was well  Short !  Don Hafer took the time to congratulate everyone and to express his gratitude to all the club members on a good club with a strong membership.  

At about 11:30 the the Bevo cowbell was rung and everyone knew what time it was.   LUNCH TIME !! it was finally here and let the good food and eating begin.  Shirley Schafer,  Dr. Bruce and myself set the scene for some fast plate filling as Shirley had the plates and hand sanitizer ready, I had the soft drinks and ice tea ready while Dr. Bruce did his Yanni routine with dual cookers loaded with brisket, vegies and stuff.

We had chips of all kinds, creamed corn, potatoe salad, both kinds, hot dogs, bbq sauce, buns and cookies, lemmon cakes, brownies, strawberry stroodle cakes we had it all.  Special thanks to Jody Matheson for the two big ice coolers and the Arizona ice tea that really hit the spot.  Another special thank you to Shirley Schafer for her efforts on the Ladies Port-o-lett and the hand sanitizer.          

At half time John Reed gave us a treat with his orinthopter that took a couple of starts to get going but once in the air showed his 3D prowess by flying backwards.  Dave Steltz and the Xetreme Composite Edge 540 gave us a half time thrill with aerobatics and smoke.  Although the half time show was neat I dont think it stopped anyone from coming back for seconds, thirds and just generally snacking off the table. 

The second half of the days flying got off to a great start as Cody Howard brought his 40% CARF Extra 330 and gave us the usualy thrills but added a new twist by blowing the canopy off and busting his pilot out of her seat.  Not to worry she was well padded for the fall.  Warbirds, warbirds and more warbirds was the order of the day.  Joe Tykodi brought the big Yellow 1/3 Piper Cub out and allowed me the pleasure of flying the plane and showing everyone his new and improved smoke system.  The big cub handles the wind just fine and I had to literally hold the flight controls steady as Alan Buckner raced accross the runway to hold the wings down at touch down,  it was all in a days flying. 

As the day wore on everyone was enjoying the weather, not too hot not too cold, with a good breeze to keep you cooled off.  The sun was hidden by the clouds and broke out toward the end of the day.  By 4:00 pm everyone was well into packing up the planes, the family, the kids and headed for home.

My special thanks to Dr Bruce and family, Charles and Shirley Schafer, Jody Matheson, Bob Dane and the whole NCRCC membership that worked hard to make this event one that everyone will remember. 

Thanks all

Johnny Snead

NCRCC Webmaster

Ps- Thanks Ed Kettler for taking the pictures as I had my camera there but could not get loose to roam the field.  Ed has all 99 of his pictures on SNAP FISH the HP picture storage server.  Please navigate to Ed's Snap Fish site and veiw all of NDRCC photographs.  Here are just a few.