Pattern & IMAC 2003 Nationals articles in AMA Mag.

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

--On Wednesday, October 29, 2003 2:43 PM -0600 Gray E Fowler <gfowler at raytheon.com> wrote:

> Wow ! If the AMA wants the facility available more to regular members then that is a very
> lame excuse.

I agree.

> The national flying site was built for the NATS, not just in case someone is traveling thru
> the cornfields of Indiana ... with an airplane ...

I and a buddy took two planes from Buffalo to Muncie just so
we could see the site, visit the museum, and fly there.  We
didn't plan much.  Just took off when it was convenient for
us.  Luckily, we got there just before the scale event was
starting.

The first evening, we had the field all to ourselves--I
mean the whole shooting match.  It was just the two
of us out on a nice asphalt runway.  In the morning,
a father and son came by with an airplane.  They were
so eager to fly that they flew in the rain.  Mark and
I waited out the storms under one of the Nats tents.
Charley Nelson came along, showed us his Waco in the
back of his van and put on a great display with his
little training/sport bipe.  He saw that I was practicing
novice pattern (as it was called then) and gave me some
tips.

One man came out from headquarters and flew a stunt plane
that he had rescued from a garbage can--something like
a Super Hots.

A couple of guys brought out an LT-25 for its first flights.

That was it.

Seems to me I was told that no local club uses the facility
regularly.  They've all got their own flying fields.  I don't
think too many of the staff fly, either.  The fellow with the
salvaged Hots (or whatever) seemed an exception to the rule,
and he was a new hire.

I have a suspicion--no evidence whatsover--that the staff
view the NATS as an interruption in their work schedule.
It doesn't sound to me as though there is a grass-roots
movement to condense the events.  I may be wrong.  I've
been wrong before and I'll be wrong again, I guess.

						Marty #2874
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