Those Who Can't Fly - Walk

As we all met at the general aviation building Saturday morning, the skies looked tempting but the forecast looked somewhat threatening with thunder storms and hail in the surrounding areas and moving north in the direction we wanted to go.

What to do? We discussed the options and took a vote (never take a vote :>). Because we had all of the food for the BBQ, we decided to divert to a local airport with less chance of being stranded. Surprisingly this turned out to be one of our better attended fly-ins. As we sett up at the east end of KTOA's Tee's in the grassy area, folks drove by and pitched in bringing chairs, sodas and something we seldom see at a lunch flyin, BEER! I understand that one of the pilots went out to fly the pattern just to make this an official fly-in.

Because there were 4 BBQ's, Mitch, Larry and Wayne shared the chores at the stove while many others pitched in setting up the serving tables and preparing the other dishes. At the end everyone pitched in to help clean up and some of us headed home to watch college football. As I tried to watch the USC game, Ii found it somewhat irritating that every 10 minutes they had an emergency announcement about thunderstorms, hail, and flash flooding throughout the Los Angeles basin, as well as a stationary thunderstorm over San Luis Obispo. Seems we made the right choice.

...Wayne

Editor's Note: A big thank you goes to Wayne for flawlessly executing his Plan B, "The First Annual Del Amo Flyers' Walk-In".

Aviation Goes Hollywood!

The August Program was the annual Del Amo Flyers' Hangar Party. Once again the party was a great success. This year's theme was "Aviation Goes Hollywood." We had an excellent turnout. Mitch worked his Photoshop magic on the movie posters, putting DAFers' faces on movie star bodies to die for. A planeload of thanks goes to all the DAFers who helped make the party a success. A special thank you once again goes to Lambi & Sally Haralambos for donating their hangar for this event.

Spectacular Telluride

Not only did we have clear skies but also a nice tail wind. Some of us flew to the south of the Grand Canyon no fly zone and got a great view of Monument Valley. Others flew to the north.

Lisa and Stacey had cocktails in their room Thursday night and we all had dinner on our own that night. Friday we toured the town trying to get used to the 9100'+ elevation which turned out to be much easier after the lunch time beer. Friday night Lisa arranged a wonderful group dinner at Restorante Rustico.

Saturday morning we picked up our Jeeps and headed out for a full day of trail riding, a nice picnic in Silverton, a tour of the town, more jeep riding including a stop at a ghost town, a tour of Ouray followed by MORE jeep riding. We took these jeeps up to 12,500' in one area and up to 13,000'+ in another area, not to worry, the drop off was never more than a few thousand feet.

Sunday morning we awoke to beautiful skies as we all departed for home or other locations. A good time was had by all and once again Lisa planed a great trip and executed it to perfection.

A big hand to Lisa from all of us.

...Wayne

MotoArt Presentation

The July Program featured DAFer Ramona Cox aka Sky Chick and Dave Hall, owner of MotoArt. Remember the Discovery Channel Series "Wing Nuts"? It was one of the first reality TV shows where two crazy guys decided to rummage through aircraft bone yards and start a business making furniture from recycled aircraft parts. Ten years later, MotoArt has captured the hearts of aviation enthusiast with a line of functional aviation furniture that has hit virtually every continent on the globe and found its way into the offices of dozens of fortune 500 companies. What's the attraction? Perhaps it products like the B-25 Bomber Elevator Desk, the huge PW-747 Cowling Reception Desk, the "politically incorrect" bomb tables with photo shoots to match, the coffee tables made from F-4 Phantom Burner Cans or the notorious Mile High Bed fabricated from two DC-9 stabilizers and a C-130 inner flap (now motorized to use at Burning Man) We heard "behind the scene" stories of dodging scorpions while scouring aircraft bone yards, watching their first big sale burn to the ground in the back of an old pick-up truck and the happy client who found out his Fuselage Picture Frame was chopped out of an Air America CIA plane! With Dave Hall, owner of MotoArt and Ramona Cox (DAFer, bush-pilot, Skychick) as presenters, we were guaranteed a lively and entertaining evening complete with lots of photos and video. All attendees will get an invitation to the upcoming MotoArt bash where we will be breaking in our latest furniture piece, the 12-Foot Jet-Set Fuselage Bar. For a peek of their unique products, check out www.motoart.com.

Many thanks Dave and Ramona.