2008 October Fun Fly in honor of Dave Phelps Saturday, October 4th, 2008. On this Saturday, we hosted Cub Scout Bear Pack 310 from Danville for a full blown flight program. The pack leaders, Jon Hays and Scott Post, and 6 scouts arrived at 9:00 am. Tom Carlyle, Dave Miller and Bryan Baumer showed them a plane and how all the control surfaces work and then each one got some time on the simulator. They then each got to fly an actual trainer. Very special thanks go to all the Blacksheep that provided planes and for buddy boxing. Dave Miller, Bryan Baumer, Scott Sorenson, Joe Hartsock, Dillon McBee and Jonathon Rifkin all were kind enough to provide thier trainers for this event. The scout leaders and scouts all had a great time. We provided several demos, John Louden flew his Big Hawk, very nice and a great sky for smoking. Parker Hall put on a very low, close and fast extreme demo flight with his Stratus helicopter. Rege Hall flew 3D aerobatics with his 100" Sukhoi SU-31 and Jonathon Rifkin finished up the demos with a ping pong ball drop. We all gathered for a picture and each scout received a certificate of flight and they joined us for lunch.

L-R: 1) Don Trosper and Joe Hartsock with student pilot.

2) Al Hill and Don Schmedake with student pilot.

3) John Louden and Dave Miller with student pilot.

We had a great turnout for the annual fall cookout. I counted at least 60 participants, thanks to everyone for bringing a covered dish. Also, thanks for supporting the Shared Blessings Food Pantry. Mindy Duckett form Danville United Methodist Church dropped by to say a few words and then receive the donations form the club. This is really a good charity to support. Then came the fun fly. This years fun fly was in honor of Dave Phelps, longtime Blacksheep member, aviation guy and friend to all who new him.

First event we flew was the bean haul. Simple, you had 25 beans in a cup, you took off, flew a circle around the field, performed a loop and landed. Then the pilot with most beans left won. Well, we had 5 land with all 25 still in the cup. We did a fly off with 10 beans where each pilot flew a circle of the field, did a loop and a roll and landed. Still had 4 that had all 10 beans left, wow! Rather than going again to test the incredible skill of these pilots, we called it a four way tie.

1. Parker Hall - 25 / 10

1. Rege Hall - 25 / 10

1. Ralph McBee - 25 / 10

1. Jonathon Rifkin - 25 / 10

5. Dillon McBee - 25 / 5

6. Bryan Baumer - 24

6. Graham Bitner - 24

6. John Louden - 24

9. Joe Hartsock - 19

9. Deene Vanmeter - 19

11. Al Hill - 6

12. Matt Shelton - 2

13. Don Trosper - 1

14. Mark Berube - 0

14. Tony Bowling - 0

14. Dan Bush - 0

14. Don Schmedake - 0

14. Scott Sorenson - 0

The second event was the Blacksheep Mission. It turned out to be tougher than expected with a cross wind and new twists. Each pilot took off and performed a stick break, mail pick-up and a spot landing. For the stick break and mail pick-up, a successful first pass was worth 25 points, second pass 15 points and third pass was 10 points. On the spot landing, there was a 25 point circle, followed by a 15, 10 and 5.

1. Parker Hall - 55 pts

1. Rege Hall - 55 pts

3. Jonathon Rifkin - 50 pts

3. Don Schmedake - 50 pts

5. Dillon McBee - 45pts

6. Joe Kosiba - 40 pts

7. Matt Shelton - 35 pts

8. Scott Sorenson - 30 pts

9. Dan Bush - 25 pts

9. Al Hill - 25 pts

11. Graham Bitner - 20 pts

11. Tony Bowling - 20 pts

13. Joe Hartsock - 10 pts

The third event was a team event, the Blacksheep Scramble. The time started when the first pilot's plane left the circle and stopped when the last plane was in the circle and stopped. One pilot performed 5 loops, while the other performed 5 rolls. Every team flew both planes at the same time which made for some interesting landing scenarios.

1. Parker Hall / Jonathon Rifkin - 32:48

2. Al Hill / Scott Sorenson - 34:91

3. Graham Bitner / Joe Kosiba - 51:63

4. John Louden / Don Schmedake - 58:25

5. Rege Hall / Joe Hartsock - 1:01:16

6. Bryan Baumer / Ralph McBee - 1:05:59

7. Dillon McBee / Matt Shelton - 1:17:35

8. Tony Bowling / Weir Thurman - 1:18:05

The fourth event was the crowd favorite Pony Express. Time started when the judge handed the mail to any member of the team and ended when the third team member's plane was back in the circle and the mail handed back to the judge. What an exciting event, thanks to Sally Torres and Ray Sorenson for being the pylons.

1. Rege Hall / Al Hill / Jonathon Rifkin - 1:41:40

2. Parker Hall / Joe Hartsock / Scott Sorenson - 1:49:20

3. Graham Bitner / Dillon McBee / Don Schmedake - 2:27:28

4. Joe Kosiba / John Louden / Ralph McBee - 2:37:37

The fifth event was the Time Over Target, simply take off fly and land as lose to two minutes as possible. No watches, clocks or timers.

1. Weir Thurman - 2:00:47

2. Al Hill - 1:54:75

3. Joe Kosiba - 2:06:47

4. Scott Sorenson - 2:06:87

5. Johnathon Rifkin - 2:09:91

6. Dillon McBee - 1:47:00

7. Don Trosper - 2:23:00

8. Tony Bowling - 2:30:00

9. Don Schmedake - 2:32:00

10. Graham Bitner - 1:21:00

11. Joe Hartsock - 2:50:00

A Blacksheep special THANKS to Deene (grill master) Vanmeter and judge. Tom Carlyle, Dave Miller and Bryan Baumer for extraordinary judging. The weather was great, although a little cool till after lunch, and as the song goes, "we all had a real good time." Then the raffle and announcing the winners.

raffle winners:

Twist 60 ARF - Kenny Seyster

Gallon of fuel - Lou Torres

Tee shirt - Vern Hines

Again, I hope that everyone had a great time. We had a great turnout and lots of flying all day long. Click on the pictures below for a larger screen view:

L-R: 1) Lunch, over 60 people enjoyed the cookout, lots of good food.

2) Deene (grillmaster) Vanmeter. Deene did all the cooking, Thanks!

3) Jonathon Rifkin with his Fazer on the stick break.

4) Parker Hall with Hawk just about ready to snag the mail.

5) Dillon McBee was one of the few who got the stick on the first pass.

6) Jonathon trying for the string on the mail pick-up portion of the Blacksheep Mission.

L-R: 1) Al Hill with his super powered Tribute breaking the stick

2) Al Hill attempting the mail pick-up which turned out to be a very tough taks today.

3) Graham Bitner with his ballistic Trainer (although I beleive it has a differnt name if you look inside the plane) on his stick break.

4) Scott Sorenson with Tango on the mail pick-up.

5) Don Schmedake making his mail run.

6) Mindy Duckett form the Danville United Methodist Church to tell us a little about Shared Blessings Food Pantry.

L-R: 1) Tony Bowling with his Dazzler going for the stick.

2) Pony Express team Al Hill, Rege Hall and Johnathon Rifkin moving the mail. This team finished first.

3) The lovely Sally Torres participated by being a pylon for the Pony Express event.

4) PArker Hall, Scott Sorenson and Joe Hartsock starting their Pony Express run.

5) Scott Sorenson and Parker Hall in the Pony Express.

6) Scott Sorenson delivering the mail to the judge to stop the timer.

L-R: 1) Parker Hall ready to take off in Pony Express with Scott Sorenson and Rege Hall assisting.

2) Dillon McBee, Don Schmedake and Graham Bitner ready to roll in the Pony Express event.

3) Dillon running as fast as he can to deliver the mail to timer/judge Deene to stop the timer.

4) John Louden, and Ralph McBee with Parker Hall helping restrain Rege Hall's Hawk (it turned out to be the community Hawk) for thier Pony Expresss run.

5) John Louden running with Hawk back the circle to change the mail.

6) Joe Kosiba and Ralph McBee on the Pony Express timer.