Southern Rotary Classic 2008

[loveraptors]

Glad to know you are coming Chris. I probably should hang out on helifreak some more but I seem to spend more time on that other forum.

Got over 20,000 hits and over 350 post, so pardon me guys if I don't hangout here as much.

We realize that the strom did a lot of damage in the Houston area and if you are from that area and not able to come then we understand. I have talked to a lot of the pro pilots and most of them are still coming. However I am not sure about Nathan and Ron, especially Nathan because his father's house was damaged in the storm

On a further note, the pilots meeting on Friday will be at 10 AM and on Saturday at 9 AM. We decided to have it a little later Friday so that it would give people more time to get to the event.

If you are driving an RV then you are welcome to park at the field, however we ask that you park straight in toward the cover area and not parallel to the road. It has rain quite a bit in the last few weeks and it is still just a little soggy at the field in a few places. We certainly don't want anyone to get stuck so if you are in a RV which could be kind of heavy then park on the gravel near the covered area, but straight in.

[inkspot1967]

i will be there later on today i cant wait to have fun and some much needed time off......

[Greg Alderman]

I have been hanging out at the local KOA since Tuesday...just trying to get some work done...will be at the field early on Friday...Charley Stephens and H to the C are both flying in late tonight and will be there in the morning also...

See ya tomorrow! Looking forward...this is my first SRC event! been wanting to come for years!

[loveraptors]

Hi Greg
Did not know you where already here. Glad to have you and hope you really enjoy the event. The weather looks like it is going to be really nice.

[TheBum]

The weather looks like it is going to be really nice.
Yeah, it looks to be about 10 degrees cooler than last year (mid 80s instead of mid 90s). In spite of the rather warm temperatures, it was a nice weekend though.

[LITHIUMSTATIC]

I have had some tests come up in school so it's going to be tough for me to make it out. Still planning on it though. I should be there Saturday afternoon for at least 6 hours. :(

[miami6]

any pics
???

[TheBum]

Due to Hurricane Ike, a number of pros didn't make it this year. However, there was still some really hot flying.

I think one of the things I enjoyed the most was watching Curtis Youngblood do his stratospheric autos. He would get the heli almost out of sight. The last flight, he took a nitro way up high (T-Rex 700, unless I'm mistaken), cut power, and completely stopped and re-spun the blades during the descent...twice, all without powering back up!

[LITHIUMSTATIC]

I REALLY wanted to come, but school has had me under lock and key. Boo!!!

Next year things should be a lot smoother for me around this time so I should be their all weekend.

[TheBum]

I looked for you, Jeremy, but considering what you had said earlier, I wasn't surprised you didn't make it. Hope to catch up to you next year.

The ground was still pretty soggy after all the rain they had the previous weekend, so the mosquitos were definitely worse than last year. Fire ant mounds were all over the place too. I just wish I had won the T-Rex 500 they were giving away in the raffle. I didn't win squat!:(

I talked to Wendell as I was leaving this morning and he said they had 124 registered pilots, which I think was about the same as last year, maybe just a few more.

[JustPlaneChris]

Wow, this was a great event! Terry you really put it together. I got to meet lots of guys I'd only seen in the forums, and some new faces too.

Highlights for me:

Hanging out with Charley, Henry, and Greg at the Outrage booth :thumbup:

Participating in the autorotation contest with the "big dogs" (and losing badly, of course) :noteworthy

Being the only one to get the malfunctioning target drop mechanism in the air, only to have it drop all three of the 'bombs' out in the tall grass. :roll:

All in all, it was a great weekend. :D

[TheBum]

Being the only one to get the malfunctioning target drop mechanism in the air, only to have it drop all three of the 'bombs' out in the tall grass. :roll:
I was at the target drop as a spectator, hoping to get an idea of what it's like for possible entry next year. The only thing I got out of it was a leg full of ants because I was apparently standing on an ant mound.

I wonder if they ever found the other two bombs. One of the kids had found one of them before I walked back to my shelter.

I will say one other thing: the NETRC folks really know how to dial up the weather. It was almost perfect all three days.

[dpa]

Great Weekend!

I'll get some more pictures posted later, here are a few.

dpa

[Doug Darby]

Great Pictures and comments...

Those of us who couldn't make it really appreciate it..

Looks like it was a hummm dinger...

[TheBum]

I took some photos of the scale helis. I'll try to get them posted tonight.

[TheBum]

OK, here are the entries in the scale contest.

[psych-lick]

I really enjoyed this event - lots of activity everywhere.
Here is some pics I took over the weekend..

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/6035024_MvRzs


http://www.smugmug.com/photos/377914276_XwbfL-S.jpg

[loveraptors]

Hi Guys
Glad to hear so many positive comments about the event and already in the planning stages for next year. Although we did not have some of the pros we had last year we still actually had as many or more, just a different set of them. Matt Botos, Nic Maxwell, Tim Jones (where did he come from?) Ray Nemovi, Henry Caldwell, Daniel Jetshin were all first time pilots to our event and of course with Curtis and Jamie Robertson the event had plenty of big time pilots.

The demos actually went a little longer then I planned because there were late arrivals to the non sponsored demo contest.

There will be plenty of pictures and videos but you will have to go over to that other site to see them (surely you know what other site I am talking about but in case you don't know PM me and I wil of course tell you) and you can also see some of them at this address posted by Derrick Threatt and he did a really good job himself of taking some nice pictures and videos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/rcheliresource

[jgunpilot]

The hurricane kept me from attending because my Guard unit has been flying tons of support missions in the wake of Gustav and Ike. I'll try to make it next year and bring a few aircraft.

[TheBum]

Terry: Any idea when the photos and videos will go up on that otheRR site? I've been checking periodically and haven't seen them yet.

[loveraptors]

Hi Alan
I think we all have been checking to see. Paige Ryder told me over the weekend that it would probably be in about a week, so I hopefully they will be here by the end of this week or the first of next week :) Like you I am in high anticipation :)

[LITHIUMSTATIC]

I can't wait to see the videos!