2025 September Fun Flys at Burmeister Road Sod Farm

The fun fly event for September 7^th was moved to Sunday, the 14^th, due to predicted rain and higher winds on Saturday. The winds were low at 4 to 6 mph, generally from the East North-East. We had hoped to run the August contest on this September Fun-Fly date, but due to low attendance, we decided to forgo the contest and have a Fun-Fly instead. Mike Kirda had several outstanding flights with his Nostalgia model. The longest flight landed in 9-foot-tall corn east of the flying field. The thermals were abundant, with Jeff losing his Delta Dart, also to the corn, with a duration of nearly two minutes. Mike was able to find his Nostalgia model using the GPS Tracker System. Paul Skelley flew several catapult gliders, of which several had a unique DT system that he had developed. A compression spring-loaded nose weight and sliding tube assembly would release once the DT band burned through. The swinging weight was attached to the fuselage with a line.

A second informal Fun-Fly event took place on Sunday, September 28^th. Mike again flew the same Nostalgia model and was collecting DT Sink Rate data using his GPS system. This data will be compared with the predicted DT Sink Rates using a spreadsheet program that Jeff had developed some years ago and published a paper in the NFFS Symposium. Jeff was starting to hand glide a 60’s Top Kick A1 Glider to be flown eventually on high start. This glider was built from an original Jetco kit from about 55 years ago. The model was built before and after shoulder surgeries, then completed in August. A Tatone Tick-Off Timer is used as a backup to the band burner RDT system.

With the outdoor season nearly ending, it’s time to start building indoor models for the EAA Flight Fest in early February 2026.