The Beer Garden

And most of the day it was, too.  We went out as soon as the fog lifted — call it about 9 AM — to find a few people out there ahead of us.  While Mr. E started unloading the two biplanes he’d brought, I discovered my only bad point of the day (I already knew I couldn’t fly any of my planes, due to lack of batteries):  I’d managed to forget my little hand-work pouch, so I had nothing to do.

I’m usually pretty good at amusing myself, though, so I mostly wandered around chatting with the guys, making notes on a new (and extremely well-designed/built) plane stand one of them had made to carry in his VW Beetle.  We’re thinking very seriously of building a similar one for ourselves, which the originator was in favor of.

Then came the best thing for me.  Dedstikbil asked if I’d been losing weight!  Whee!  Someone noticed!  (I hadn’t mentioned trying, just so I’d know when or if I made enough progress for it to show without previous knowledge.)  I think he must’ve mentioned it in the couple of hours we took to chase back to the house, feed the mutts, grab some lunch, and get back in time for the Fun Fly, which sounded like it’d be more interesting than usual; I got a couple of other comments about the weight loss, which didn’t hurt my feelings a bit, as I’m sure you can imagine!

The Fun Fly had the same-named events as usual, but they were done differently.  The taxi event had simpler maneuvers, with a catch: the pilot faced away from the plane, and had to give control inputs by what a spotter told him to do.  The "carrier landing deck" was half as wide and twice as long as usual — astonishing how many folks seemed to need that other 10 feet of width!

Spot landing was judged on initial touchdown instead of stopping spot, which was harder to spot, so the contest officials called on me and one other person to act as auxiliaries, which was kinda fun, as well as giving me a much better view of the event than usual.

Last was the loop-and-roll … usually that’s three of each, timed from takeoff, but this time, the twist was that the timing started when the contestant was given a cracker to eat, then had to produce a whistle, then do the maneuver.  I was told the crackers were awful, as well as dry, but I’d have had a problem anyway: I can’t whistle!

Afterward, when it came time to announce the standings and give the winner his prize, we all got a nice surprise.  One of the guys had contributed a bunch of Dremel accessories to the club, and each of the competitors, helpers, and officials got a nice little baggie of them.  I don’t use the Dremel, due to severe lack of skill, so Mr. E ended up with my share, but it was still nice. 

With that, it was time to head home again to take the dogs for their promised runs, given the good weather.