The next meeting and fly-in of Illini Skyriders will be held this Saturday, September 16th at the Paxton Illinois Airport.  (1C1) Paxton is the home of several of our most active members.  Some of us fly 100-200 hours per year.  On any weekend we have 5 or more planes in the air.  Come see Mark Anliker's newly completed Kitfox.

As usual the “Paxton bunch” isn't yet fully organized on the refreshment side of the event.  Sometimes in the past we've said the group will retire later to a nearby restaurant for food.  This leaves out the pilots who must fly some distance to get back home.

Come anytime especially in the afternoon.  We will schedule a short meeting about 4:00 PM with plans for food to be announced.

NOTICE: Only one more monthly fly-in meeting remains to be scheduled for this year.  The October meeting is open.  Someone please make an offer or suggest your favorite public airport.

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With his head in the clouds your club secretary has become confused about the September meeting,  It is NOT at Paxton as announced in the newsletter yesterday.  It will be at Mick Schumacher's airstrip near Sidney!!!!!!
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The next meeting of Illini Skyriders will be Saturday September 16th at the airstrip  of club Vice-president Mick Schumacher near Sidney, IL.  The location is 4.5 miles south of Sidney on the Sidney-Longview Road.   The north-south airstrip is 1300 ft. long and is located on the east side of the road.  His house is on the west side of the road. GPS coordinates N39 - 57.6 and W88- 04 minutes.

Come anytime after 1:00PM and the meeting will be at about 4:00PM.   Mick says he will provide food.  Call Mick at 217-688-2579 if you want to bring a food item.

SORRY,

Your humble club secretary.

The August 19th meeting and fly-in was held at the Hank Perry Airstrip near St. Joseph Illinois.  It was the best attended for some time with 12 ultralights flying at the airstrip.  Ten of those planes were member aircraft.  There were 5 Challenger aircraft, Hank Perry, Mick Schumacher, Tom Mcquin, Bill Ford, and Gary Gustafson with his new clip-wing.  There were 4 trikes flown by Grunloh, Curt and Curtis Shoaf, and Hank Krabbe in from Danville.  We saw two GT400’s flown by Rob Steiger and Gary Buck, Mark Anliker in the Kolb Firefly and a fellow from Tuscola in a vintage Cobra.  I probably missed some.  Dave Patrick flew over in the club Warrior but elected to land at nearby Busboom’s airstrip.  Hanks airstrip is a little short for a 4 seat airplane.

It was a great fly-in with good weather, good food and about 25-30 people attending.  Some from northern areas did not make it in because of threatening rain showers.  The ceiling was about 2200 AGL for my flight down from Loda with conditions improving the entire way.  As we played and flew around the local area, including a mass flyby to a nearby party, we did not know that light showers were moving in from the north.  On the trip home I flew through light mist for the last ten miles and Tom and Mark encountered heavier rain just south of Paxton.

I just returned form serving as competition director for the 9th U.S. Nationals held in Marshall Michigan.  It was a fun and challenging experience to setup and run a contest instead of competing in it.  Everything went great.  I was worried that I made the navigation tasks to easy, but fresh winds made it plenty hard for some.  Many pilots said it was the best contest they had seen, but as a result I am no longer the U.S. National Microlight Champion.  The new champ is a good friend and super pilot from Florida, Steve Bensinger in a CGS Hawk.

In the world of international recognized aviation there is a little pin called the Gold Colibri.  The Colibri pins are like Boy Scout badges but in this case you get them for navigating cross-country flights with map and compass alone, no GPS.  The bronze and silver require one and two hour flights respectively over a predicted course and you must arrive within a certain range of your predicted time.  In addition you must complete two deadstick landings to within 15 foot of a target as witnessed by a recognized NAA observer.

My official observer is Dave Patrick, and possibly by the time you read this I will have departed on a cross-country flight that will qualify me for the gold Colibri pin.  It requires a flight of a distance of 14 times your cruising speed to be competed in 6 days.  You cannot visit any point more than once.  I plan to fly 760 miles around Indiana and Illinois over a 4-5 day period and will visit or over-fly 17 airports.   My course will be submitted to the observer before takeoff and I will collect names of witnesses along the route.

One additional requirement for the gold colibri severely limits potential applicants.  To be eligible, the pilot must have competed in two national or world category FAI microlight championships.  There are only about 12 persons in the entire USA who thus qualify.  Only one American, Mike Brauner (a well known pilot from the early 80’s) has ever earned the gold pin.  I aim to be the second.  If all goes well I will complete my last leg from Morris Illinois on Saturday and end up at the club fly-in for a “victory lap”.