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I don’t know about you but I
can say yes to that question. The
weather for the months of July and August was depressing at best and believe it
or not I was starting to get a bit cranky.
The fall may be arriving prematurely as the temperatures have been down
in the 40’s & 50’s some nights and we’re finally seeing blue sky in the
mornings. Bring on the Fall
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Funny things happen at balloon
rallies out of town. Case in point The
Long Island Festival of Ballooning a few weeks back where the weather was
atrocious all weekend and the only thing going on was live entertainment and an
all weekend party. At a certain point
in his show, Chuck Berry asked for young and old women alike to come up on the
stage to dance. Low and behold Pat
Anderson and Barbara Bart bolted up onto the stage not knowing the other was on
the opposite side. Word has it from a very
reliable source (whose initials are Frank Bart) that
Barbara was dancing on tables the night before in a local establishment. See what happens when people leave town.
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Willimantic
Not being one who gets to out of town rallies much, I made it over to the Sunday afternoon flight at the Willimantic festival and had a great flight in an area I don’t see too often. On the way there I did see some sprinkles on the windshield but that didn’t stop anyone and the flight went off with no one getting rained on even though you could see some minor showers popping in and out a few miles away.
A memorable comment was overheard in the propane line from one pilot during the weekend when, during the flight he accidentally popped into the overcast after a longer than necessary burn. After being engulfed by the cloud his passenger asked, “what do we do now?” his answer….“Pray”.
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As reported by mail and or
telephone the next event in the CLAS Challenge will take place on Saturday morning
Sept 11th at Steve and Judy Ushchak’s field on Blacks Rd in
Cheshire. Rain date is Sunday Sept 12th. Call Erwin Dressel (203) 272-6116 or Frank
Bart (860) 589-7652 for details. Be there for 5:30a.m.. Coffee and donuts
supplied… don’t be late!!!
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Sad
news from Wilton,CT as Dave Goodnow’s wife Peggy passed on in her sleep in mid
July. In Dave’s words his “great
consolation is that she by-passed the indignities of a nursing home”. For those of you who don’t know Dave he is
still one of the few private pilots who at the young age of 70+ amuses himself
by flying his Boland home-builts solo without a chase and manages to find
accommodating people on the other end to get him back home. Our thoughts are with you Dave.
JULY /
AUGUST C.L.A.S. COMPETITION REPORT
The 4th competition slated for July 31st. was canceled due to bad
weather so the standings remained unchanged through the end of July.
The August event was held at the annual Balloon Rally on Sunday
morning Aug. 29th 1999.
Saturday morning the competition was postponed due to airmets for IFR
and forecasts of high and gusting winds. ( which actually never did affect the
dozen or so late launches on Saturday. Visibility was rather poor though.)
Congratulations to Bob Sommer
for his 33 foot toss and first place finish. Twelve competitors signed in for
the task. Steve Goodyear was the Hare
balloon and picked up 6+2 points for the job.
Although several competitors made a valiant effort to get close enough
to score only one competitor actually scored.
After all the competitors had missed the target along comes Bob Sommer
the last balloon off, giving a lesson to Randy Riley in Time Traveler ( Bob
hesitates to be seen in a balloon that is less than 20 years old ) anyway as he
comes over the hill not having seen the Hare land, he is quoted as saying
"Oh my God there's the X" and the rest is history.
FIFTH EVENT RESULTS
1. 14 Points Bob Sommer
2. 8 Points Steve Goodyear
3. 2 Points Erwin Dressel, Jim
Regan, Mick Murphy, Diane Tomassetti, Robert Zirpolo, Dan Smith, Matt Dutkiewicz, Mike
Bollea, Bill Colyer, Frank Bart, Santo Galatioto
STANDINGS THROUGH THE END OF
AUGUST
1. 22 Points Frank Bart
2. 21 Points Bob Sommer
3. 15 Points Jim Regan, Matt Dutkiewicz
4. 12 Points Steve Goodyear
5. 8 Points Erwin Dressel
6. 6 Points Mike Bollea, Mick
Murphy, Bill Colyer, Tom Murphy
7. 4 Points Kevin Brielmann,
Santo Galatioto, Robert Zirpolo
8. 2 Points Bill Costen, Thad
Burr, Chris Mooney, Diane Tomasetti, Daryl Smith
The next competition is
scheduled for Saturday AM 9/11/99 at the Ushchak Aerodrome. Please note the date and location has been
changed due to a conflict with the Riverside event of 9/25/99.
P.S. Hare wanted! If you are near the bottom of the standings
and want to be the hare for this or any other event please let Erwin or Frank
know and be ready to go off first.
Thanks!
OFFICERS
Santo Galatioto - President (203) 397-0521
Tony Roswell - Vice President (203) 264-5066
Erwin Dressel - Treasurer (203) 272-6116
Michael Murphy - Secretary (203) 879-3651
Mike
Bollea – Historian for Life
SCOOP Advertising Rates
Full Page: $20.
Half Page: $10.
Quarter page: $5.
Classified Ads:
One free per month per member. Each additional $3.
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MEETING NOTICE
September 16, 1999
PLAINVILLE MUNICIPAL CENTER
7:30 PM
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IN FATAL CRASH:
In a case that makes one ponder
our legal system, a skydiver who broke his foot in a collision with a plane
that went on to crash, killing all four aboard, has been awarded $180,000. A U.S. district judge said that controllers
at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Conn., should have issued a
warning when they saw an airplane fly into an area below the jump plane. (USA: land of opportunity?!)
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CONTROLLER'S BY-THE-BOOK PHRASEOLOGY HARD TO SWALLOW:
A controller at the Bradley
TRACON in Windsor Locks, Conn., has been pronouncing the numbers three, five,
and nine per the official controller handbook.
The resulting "trees," "fifes" and
"niners" reportedly drove local pilots crazy. So many pilots have complained about not
being able to understand the conscientious controller that FAA management at
the facility has asked him to stop using the "official"
phraseology. Ten- four, good buddy?
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The ASOS (Automated Surface Observation System) at Meriden Markham
Airport has finally been commissioned, which means that the weather information
reported by the system to Flight Service Stations will someday soon be
available to you through FSS. At
present you can access the information by telephone at 203 639 9405 or by VHF radio at 134.925mhz.
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SUNRISE SUNSET TIMES
SEPTEMBER OCTOBER
SR SS SR SS
AM PM AM PM
1 6:16 7:24 6:48 6:32
2 6:17 7:22 6:49 6:31
3 6:18 7:21 6:50 6:29
4 6:19 7:19 6:51 6:27
5 6:20 7:17 6:52 6:26
6 6:22 7:16 6:53 6:24
7 6:23 7:14 6:54 6:22
8 6:24 7:12 6:55 6:21
9 6:25 7:10 6:56 6:19
10 6:26 7:09 6:58 6:17
11 6:27 7:07 6:59 6:16
12 6:28 7:05 7:00 6:14
13 6:29 7:04 7:01 6:12
14 6:30 7:02 7:02 6:11
15 6:31 7:00 7:03 6:09
16 6:32 6:58 7:04 6:08
17 6:33 6:57 7:06 6:06
18 6:34 6:55 7:07 6:05
19 6:35 6:53 7:08 6:03
20 6:36 6:51 7:09 6:02
21 6:37 6:50 7:10 6:00
22 6:38 6:48 7:11 5:59
23 6:39 6:46 7:13 5:57
24 6:40 6:44 7:14 5:56
25 6:41 6:43 7:15 5:54
26 6:42 6:41 7:16 5:53
27 6:43 6:39 7:17 5:52
28 6:44 6:37 7:19 5:50
29 6:46 6:36 7:20 5:49
30 6:47 6:34 7:21 5:47
31 6:22 4:46*
*Daylight
savings time ends
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ON
JAPAN AIRLINER, HIJACKER
KILLS
CAPTAIN, ENDANGERS 500
A hijacker smuggled an
eight-inch knife aboard an All Nippon 747-400 carrying 503 passengers and 14
crew, forced his way into the cockpit shortly after takeoff, ordered the
copilot to leave, and fatally stabbed the jet's captain, Naoyuki Nagashima,
51. Yuji Nishizawa, 28, reportedly
attacked Nagashima after he refused to hand over the controls. As the hijacker tried to fly the 747,
descending to 1,000 feet AGL, the copilot and several others rushed into the
cockpit and subdued him. According to
police, Nishizawa wanted to fly the plane under Tokyo Bay's Rainbow Bridge and
perform a loop like he had done in a flight-simulation computer game. Government officials have tightened airport
security checks nationwide.
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In New York City in March,
software salesman Douglas Buchholz, 36, was pushed out a window to his death
from the 13th floor of his office building during horseplay with a
colleague celebrating a business success. (And I thought aviation was a
dangerous business)
Plainville Balloon Festival
As usual, Dale Martin and the Plainville Fire Company have once again proven that they are the luckiest balloon rally organizers around. The weather forecast for the entire weekend looked pretty bleak on Thursday morning with the words “Heavy Rain” plastered across the TV screen of the Weather Channel for Saturday and scattered thunderstorms for Sunday. As I drove up the highway on Friday afternoon for the glow and fireworks you could see the line of rain and thunderheads from southwest to northeast but the most that fell at Norton Park was a few drops.
The
Saturday forecast for fog in the morning rang true in places (fog all the way
to the ground at my house). Being the
aviation “genius” that I am, I decided to leave the balloon & chase vehicle
at home and showed up to drink coffee and kick the grass only to be thwarted
(again) by conditions that were certainly flyable. Not a perfectly clear sky but nothing that I would call
marginal. All it was going to take to
get the field of pilots motivated and flying was one pilot and the lemmings
would follow. The question wasn’t going
to be if or when but just whom. “Whom”
turned out to be Erwin Dressel followed closely by Chris Mooney and then
another dozen or so balloons launching at around 7:30am with a light westerly
wind that took them over the Ragged Mountain ridge into Kensington and Berlin.
Saturday
evening turned into a beautiful summer afternoon with the same westerly flow
and a crowd on the field that was tremendous but accommodating as balloons were
inflated. I didn’t
get caught balloonless a second time! Mike Bollea got the furthest, landing in the Main Street area of
East Hartford and giving the ATC tower operators at Brainard Airport something
to look at in their slow time. Bill
Colyer landed at the new DOT building on the Berlin Tpke and had a couple of
Rocky Hill’s finest help him pack up before being summoned by radio dispatch to
get back to the business of fighting crime.
They sped away in a cloud of dust, with sirens blaring and a hearty HI
HO Silver” with Bill and crew wondering to themselves, “who were those masked
men? We didn’t even have a chance to thank them.”
Sunday
morning’s flight polished off the weekend as that westerly/southwesterly flow
continued, this time at more of a pace that previous flights. My GPS after launch showed 19knots at
1000agl but still very light on the surface.
After passing the ridgeline to the east, wind speeds dropped to less
than 10 kts. and once again everyone headed into the Berlin, Newington, Rocky
Hill area. By the time we made our
approach the wind speed was at a crawl on the surface and we landed on a large
farm with three other balloons. I had
landed at this spot before and knew the landowner to be very friendly and
accommodating, but the icing on the cake was when Mike Kirkwood landed in that
owner’s front yard across the street.
Everybody was happy campers.
One
amusing highlight of the weekend had to be a radio call heard on Sunday. Ellen Dressel asked husband/pilot Erwin for
his location and his response was simply “I just don’t know where I am”. This from a local pilot that has flown the
area extensively since he found out what a balloon was…….But THE highlight of the weekend was the
landing made by ace student pilot Steve Bart (aka Lucky) in the large front
yard of a neighborhood of upscale (BIG) houses. The landing was in itself good enough, but the landowners
daughter (according to Steve’s mom Barbara) was a “strikingly beautiful young
lady in her late teens or early 20’s still in her PJ’s” (and I don’t mean Dr.
Dentons) who was so distracting in her sleeping apparel that no one (the guys
anyway) could keep their mind on packing up the balloon. Again, according to Barbara Bart she was
ready to put Bob Sommer’s sunglasses on him to stop him from being so obvious
in staring at this young lady’s…….eyes
(how’s that for political correctness).
Final chapter in this landing was Steve being invited to this young
lady’s birthday party on the following Tuesday night. He just needs someone to drive him there. We’ll expect a full report from Steve at a
later date.
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Once
again the Southington Chamber of Commerce has asked me to organize some
balloons for a launch during the Apple Harvest Festival over Columbus Day
weekend. The date is Saturday October 9th
in the A.M. only, rain date Sunday the 10th. The launch site is Derynowski Elementary
School located on Rte 10 one block south of the Southington Town Green. Access to the field behind the school is
from Eden Ave appx 100 yards west of Rte 10.
Everyone is more than welcome. There
will be a CLAS competition during this flight.
Free LPG courtesy of Bouchard LP Gas Company at my house post
flight. And for those of you who don’t
like to leave Farmington for fear of the jungles down in southern Hartford
county, don’t worry there are plenty of landing sites down this way…just ask
anyone ! Any questions or desires, call
me at 203 250-8441.