District IX Report - 2003/05
Coverage
Colorado / Kansas / Nebraska / North Dakota / South Dakota / Wyoming
Vice President
Russ Miller Vice President 980 N. 3rd St. Carrington, ND 58421 Phone: (701) 652-2321 Fax: (701) 652-2994 Email: [email protected]
Associate Vice Presidents
- Max Hansen, 1909 Wisconsin SW, Huron, SD 57350
- Nathan Lancaster, 3597 S. Kendall Street, Denver, CO 80235
- Fred Hildebrand, 4015 Somerset Circle, Casper, WY 82609-3161
- Troy Lapp, 1619 Wichita Dr., Bismarck, ND 58504
- Travis McGinnis, 8027 W. 81st Circle, Arvada, CO 80005
- Don Moden, 410 Hart St., Salina, KS 67401
- Jim Ricketts, 4921 Fernwood Drive, Sioux Falls, SD 57103-5573
- Jack L. Sibert, 3611 Kimberly Circle, Lincoln, NE 68506-4524
- Mark T. Smith, 14632 W. 50th Street, Shawnee, KS 66216
- Mike Weidner, 6535 Foxdale Circle, Colorado Springs, CO 80919-1788
Frequency Coordinator
Steve Mangles c/o Radio Service Center 918 S. Sheridan Denver, CO 80226
News from Colorado
Darwin Idler, contest director, sent in the following information about the Love-Air Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival.
The Ninth Annual Love-Air Rocky Mountain Big Bird Festival was held the weekend of August 17 and 18, 2002. Once again, the event was a huge success, with 117 pilots from 11 states registering more than 150 airplanes for a great weekend of flying.
Even though this is officially a two-day event, some people prefer to make it an extended outing. The first RVs began arriving early in the week, and by Saturday morning the flightline was completely full.
This year we were honored to have Chip Hyde in attendance to perform the noon exhibition flights. Pilots and spectators alike were amazed by his performances. Chip spent most of the weekend with a transmitter in his hand.
Chip flew several airplanes and gave trimming tips to several pilots. A few spectators even had the opportunity to fly a Quinn Cadet with Chip using the buddy-box system.
We had a great spectator turnout again this year, with nearly 3,000 people joining us to see some of the best flying around. Advertising, newspaper articles, and word-of-mouth combined to make this a truly outstanding event.
Airplanes of all types were on hand for the weekend. Although high-performance aerobatic aircraft seemed most abundant, beautiful scale airplanes from all eras and sport models of all types also filled the air.
We had another first for our event—a giant-scale turbine jet. The six pilot stations were full throughout the weekend.
With generous help from nearly 50 sponsors, we were once again able to give door prizes to almost all of the pilots. Several kits and numerous accessory items were given away in the hourly drawings.
We didn't forget about the spouses either. Several gift certificates and gift baskets were distributed throughout the weekend. The event came to a close with the grand prize raffle drawing for the ready-to-fly Quinn Cadet, complete with engine and radio.
Hosting an event like this would be impossible without a great group of club members putting in a lot of time and effort. Flight bosses kept the flightline flowing, the transmitter impound kept the frequencies under control, and all the club members made our guests feel welcome.
A great thanks goes out to all of the pilots who attended the event this year. We hope you enjoyed it and will plan on attending again next year. Thanks also to the sponsors who helped make it such a special event.
Plans are already being made for the 10th Annual Big Bird Festival. We plan to make it the best event yet!
The following photographs are from the Love-Air event.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
