Columbia, CA (O22) Fly-in September 22-25 2022
Seven intrepid and fun-loving DAFers made the week-end fly-in to Columbia.
Of the 7, 5 DAFers braved the tailwinds and clear skies to visit the Sierra foothill airport, while two others drove in due to aircraft annual conflict.
The event was from Thursday to Sunday, giving us plenty of time to visit Columbia, Calaveras Big Trees State Park, Murphys, a few wineries and just hang out at the campgrounds. A highlight of the event was an after-dark visit to the Columbia Cemetery for the annual “Stories in Stone” live performance of the dead. Columbia’s historic residence apparated beside their gravestones to share their stories. The camper’s pavilion provided a great space for visiting, eating, drinking and dancing.
REPORT: Del Amo Flyers Dinner Meeting – June 16, 2022
On Thursday, June 16, 25 of us DAFer’s gathered at the CBYC for only the 3rd time this year. Our next meeting at the CBYC will be in December. Dinner was buffet style, a choice of Macadamia Crusted Pork, Chicken, or Stuffed Portobello Mushroom.
After dinner, President Chris Harshman covered the agenda items, and then I introduced our speaker, Skylor Piper. Skylor had a very interesting program, as he talked about his experiences, flying an RV-8, competing at the Reno National Championship Air Races. He also discussed the annual ‘Pylon Racing Seminar’, which is a ‘racing school’, held every June. He has a GoPro camera mounted in the rear of the cockpit and we saw some excellent videos of the race, from his perspective. It was awesome!! I took 2 pictures, shown here.
Skylor is qualified as a Sports Class Flight Lead, as well as a Sport Class Pylon Racing Instructor. As such, he provides training, evaluations, and the signoffs of the requirements that prospective ‘rookie’ racers need, in order to compete at Reno. It was an excellent program!
Thank you again, Skylor, for presenting!
John Mahany
Program Chair
REPORT: May 2022 Santa Rosa Fly-In
In May the DAFers headed up to Santa Rosa for a fly-in combining wine tasting with power tools; BIG power tools! We stayed at the Astro, a renovated classic 1960s motel that's been "updated" with great mid-century modern furniture and decorations. Happy hours were held in their common room, and it was great to be catching up together as a group. With 27 people in the group, it was a big turnout.
Saturday, most of the group visited Sturgeon's Mill, a working museum lumber mill built back in 1913 and still using a steam engine to power the original saws and equipment. This was one of their demonstration days, so everything was operating and they were cutting up large redwood logs. It was great to see the volunteers running the place, although it's clear OSHA wasn't around when this equipment was made; as an old woodworker myself I found my fingers twitching as I watched! Some of the group headed over for a drive up the coast instead; a beautiful place to visit.
Afterward, the group split up to hit wineries all over the area, then met up for dinner at the Spinster Sisters restaurant. A few hardy souls even came down for a little wine session after dinner back at the Astro.
The weather for the weekend cooperated, and though there was some light marine layer and a little rain it wasn't enough to dampen any spirits or ground anyone. Another fine trip!
REPORT: May 19 20221 Dinner meeting at the Think Café, San Pedro
On Thursday, May 19, we met for dinner at the Think Café in San Pedro. There were a few last-minute cancelations, resulting in a smaller turnout of only 14 DAFer’s. We had a choice of 5 entrees. The food was quite good, including a choice of two delicious deserts, Tiramisu and Cheesecake. Yummy! Following dinner, Chris got up and ran through the announcements. After that, we watched an interesting video of the history of Catalina Island during WWII, and how the Island supported the war effort.
Hope to see you at the June meeting at the Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club.
John