By (USUA #A86096)

As I look out the window at what the poets call "leaden skies" the realization hits me, that it will be quite some time before "Plum Krazee" chases clouds again. Winter is upon us and we, in the northern climes, can only dream of things to come and remember past flights as we await the blessings of the weather gods. It is this time of the year that we must depend on our southern neighbors, or the more hardy of our northern brethren, to provide us with stories of recent flying experiences. No one of either of those groups has come forward this month so we must turn to older newsletters as we look for things to share and stories to tell.

We are certainly happy that Al Nagy of USUA Club 027 in Akron, Ohio has taken the time to share with us his trip to a Geauga County fly in. An accomplished builder and admitted Hawk enthusiast, Al starts his story with, "I had preflighted the Hawk, called for the weather, and was not happy with the short term forecast. A squall line was approaching from the Northwest and locally, pop up thundershowers were developing ahead of this front." Mindful that he might have to deviate from his flight plan, Al launched into this squirrelly weather. After "flying around some small local cells" he landed without incident at a sparsely populated Geauga County airport (most folks had apparently been scared away by the weather forecast).

Al continues, "Very soon the sky did clear nicely, and I was able to meet old friends and to try and answer many questions about Hawk construction for a few new fellows who are building or about to start building a Hawk." Al passed up the opportunity for a tour of the CGS shop where advice and parts were available to do some hangar flying with friends from Roanoke, Virginia. This activity allowed him to keep one eye on the Weather Channel which was reporting a squall line passing Sandusky. Al soon was able to see dark clouds forming to the northwest and headed for his tie downs to make sure his treasured Hawk would stay put when the winds arrived. Oops - left the tie downs back home in the hangar. Time only to say a few hurried good-byes and get airborne for home to beat the weather.

We now return to Al's report of the event. "Later, after leaving the fly in, I found out my good friend from Roanoke did go up in that weather, became disoriented and either flew or was pushed quite far to the west of Geauga County. In fact, so far west, that he had to make a forced landing at the Thistledown racetrack infield to get reoriented. After much law enforcement debate and assuring everyone he was not a terrorist, (no fooling), he was allowed to take off and proceed back to the fly in without further incident." (ED. I do remember reading about this incident in some other forum, so its nice to have a first hand account) Al closes his article with the statement, "Despite having forgotten to register, my LadyHawk picked up the Grand Champion Award this year".

Now all of this is a rather long, round-about way of getting to say Major Congratulations to Al Nagy. Nice work Al, and congratulations on your win - Grand Champion is no small achievement.

I would be remiss if I did not recognize the folks from the Terre Haute Ultralight Club for their contributions of $500 to the local Prairietown Volunteer Fire Department. The Terre Haute "Tailwinds" newsletter reports that, "The Prairietown Volunteer Fire Department was selected for this year's donation in large part for their helpfulness with aircraft in distress." It is nice to see the neighborliness of this community goes in both directions. We note that the Terre Haute club donated to Operation Migration last year to support their work in whooping crane recovery. A charitable club who puts their money to work for good causes.

We close this month with another look at the Albuquerque Ultralight Association's "Laws of the Natural Universe"

Law of Logical Argument: Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.

Oliver's Law: A closed mouth gathers no feet.

Law of Biomechanics: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the ability to reach it.

To those of you who can still fly - Fly Safe. To the rest - think about flying safe until spring.