To All attendees Thanks for coming, I hope you had a good time

Each year we seem to double in size and it is getting a little scary. This year we had 74 registered attendees, 11 aircraft flew in and gave 41 orientation rides on Friday and Saturday. We served about 200+ meals over the 3 days. We had a great time with the wing spar assembly seminar on Thursday and Friday and looking at the aircraft that started to arrive as early as Wednesday night and continued thru Friday Afternoon. We will have photos of all of them up on a web site that will be announce later.

Friday we continued to have new arrivals of drive in and fly in folks and there was a lot of ramp chats about each new arrival. Every time some one took their cowl off you would have thought that we were giving away free 100 dollar bills, there was quite a crowd each time that happened. Phil Simon arrived from California after landing in 19 states over a 9 day period which included a 2 day stop in Athens Tn to have his plane polished by Charlie's Angles who polish Swift aircraft at their annual Fly in. About 1:00 PM on Friday Charlie's Angles arrived with their equipment and supplies and put on a polishing demonstration for those who wanted to watch. Dave Augustine allowed us to use his aircraft and then made me go get him a Brillo pad to scuff it back out since he is going to paint his airplane in the near future and did not want folks to think that he had started to polish and did not finish the job. Friday afternoon it became very apparent that we did not have enough pilots who would take folks for a Fam ride to get them all done on Saturday. So we started about 2:00 PM giving folks Fam rides. By the end of the day we had completed 17 rides and had 24 more signed up for Saturday.

Friday's supper was topped off with the awarding of door prizes that were donated by Sonex LLC, Wicks Aircraft and Belks. The Belks gifts were a big hit with the ladies who had their own special drawing for some very nice perfume items, while the Sonex and Wicks shirts and hats were a hit with the men.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear and we launched a 7 plane Dawn Patrol/Photo shoot flight that took us over most of Cumberland County and since the fall color had not started we went in search of any RV that may have dared to enter Sonex country,and finding none, we returned base to start the days flying activities, and to fix a flat tire on Phil Simon's aircraft. The air to air photos will be part of the photo spread but we do not know for sure how they came out as yet. It took a while to get the Gaggle organized and all headed out nose to tail but we did make enough noise that the local towns folk started calling the airport to ask what was going on. The General Public was invited out on Saturday from 1:00 to 4:00 PM to look at the aircraft and we had several that came and brought their families. During that same time period we had a round-table session where we discussed some tips and techniques to give builders confidence in putting the Windshield, Canopy and Cowl on their aircraft. This was followed by a great presentation by Phil Simon of 31 of the best tips, tool and techniques for building I have ever heard, Thank Phil. This was followed by a great electrical/wiring presentation by Rod Dunham and it was so well received that we had to break it up to get ready for supper and even then they surrounded Rod and continued to talk until be kicked them out of the hanger and called everyone in for the Pork Barbecue Bake Potato and fix-ins supper. We closed with another round of Door prizes from Sonex LLC and Wicks. Walt Turk brought us 2 cases of brand new free Wicks Catalogs along with some free Bolt guides and Carbon Monoxide monitors that were gone so fast it would make you head swim.

I want to send a very special thank Will and Pam Ouellette, Rod and Jane Dunham, Robert and Amy Eley, and Faye Reynolds for all their help and support. They took care of all registration, keeping all the drinks in the coolers and iced down, along with making sure that the food was there on time, for getting all of the Fam rides scheduled and completed then helping with the cleanup. It was no small task and if they had not stepped up to the plate the event would not have happened. To the pilots who flew their airplanes in and took folks for their first ride in a Sonex you are the Stars of the Fly in, Robert Eley, Dan Villiger, Mike Granger, Phil Simon, and Dave Augustine, you will probably never know what effect you had on those folks but I could tell who had completed their ride by the SONEX GRIN they had on their face.

Last and not least we have a new Web Master for the American Sonex Association Web site and we hope to have it a great deal more informative and up to date in the near future. Thanks to Pete Pearson for volunteering to this important job.

Will see you around the Blue Skies.

Warmest Regards
John Davis

YouTube Video From Event:

Starting A Demo Ride:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRm1pf_fK-Y
Formation Flyby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD_aBI-newI
Short Startup Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny1nlGsme7o
Sonex Taxi Out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pplLwMYds48

Google Video of Tips and Hints Session
Video #1: John Davis
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=850027584192906047&hl=en
Video #2: Phil Simon
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5339441798435128999&hl=en