'99 Final Fling Fun Fly
By John Hanson
Pictures by Ted Meier

The 1999 Final Fling Fly In is in the books. Weather was mild, with a wind that couldn't make up its mind on which way to blow and how hard. It was, however, manageable all day long.

Turnout was good, with out-of-towners Dave Turner and Joe Ball from Yakima, Mark Ewert from Walla Walla and Zach and Jim Tabor from Moses Lake.

Events included cut the streamer, pylon racing, blind taxiing, and the limbo.

The cut the streamer event was short lived with Gordon Anderson and Rob Opgenorth's airplanes trying to simultaneously occupy the same airspace. Score: 1 crash tally apiece!!

Pylon racing claimed Gary Berry's airplane as he had a flame out and crashed landed in the boonies. 1 crash tally for Gary!

The limbo claimed two victims: Yours truly almost made it under the ribbon but the far pole got in the way one more tally for John (BUT MINE DON'T COUNT!!!!). Rob successfully negotiated the limbo but on landing, the far pole jumped in front of his airplane and dinged the wing for a fare thee well. Rob commented that this set a record for him - two crashes in one day!! Another crash tally for Rob.

To round out the day, and not to be outdone, Dale Gunter dumb-thumbed his Hangar 9 CAP 232 into terra firma!!

Finally, Bill Greger scored a crash tally because he had the transmitter in his hands when his student's plane tried to take out the northwest sprinkler stanchion "due to a failed elevator clevis"!!

Despite the attrition it was a good day for fun, flying, and camaraderie!! Don't ask me who won the events - I was too busy keeping crash tally scores!!!

(Ed. Note: If my memory is okay, Mark Ewert won the Limbo, Ryan Phipps was first in Taxi, and Zack Tabor won the Pylon event. Please let me know if this is not correct...)

This page last updated 05/21/03 23:00