Stacy Gillmore's very versatile GWS Slow Stick Flying Boat over Binder Lake. Jason Thompson and his dad, Ken Thompson, both of them R/C pilots, came to watch the event as well as their family and a neighbor! Would love to see both of them active in flying R/C again!

Jason Thompson, his wife Brenda and their two kids came out to join us for a while in the sweltering heat. Shannon Geller & Tom Gillmore head back out to recover... Ron Horn's Sea Dancer! 

People and Pilot's trying to stay cool in the radio impound and pit area. Robert Polter of Ellisville, Missouri, was the very lucky winner of the Pilot's door prize, the Balsa USA NorthStar seaplane kit. Much to the consternation of other pilot's who have had to endure watching the incredible luck of this man when it comes to raffles - Rick Poire - proudly stands next to the Great Planes AT-6 ARF that was donated to us by HobbyTown USA of Columbia by Mike Anderson. Our sincerest thanks to Balsa USA and Mike Anderson of HobbyTown USA and John Ardnt of the Mid-Mo Hobby Shop for their generosity in supporting our event, now let's remember them when we need something R/C related. 

Kent Imhoff and others in the pit area. Jim Lanzendorf's very nice Seamaster 120 with an O.S. BG-X engine.

Another nice shot of Jim Lanzendorf's giant Seamaster as well as Charles Gansner's Neptune which rarely sat still or upright during the entire event. Nice job guys!

Charles Gansner taking his inverted Neptune right down on the deck. If it's true that each of us will have 15 minutes of fame in our lives, then JCRC Club President, John Dussold, can still count on 14:55. We are certainly grateful that a videographer from TV news channel KRCG TV-13, covered our event and there was a lot of footage shot, but the final edit brought the entire segment that was broadcast down to a whopping 15 seconds air time, 5 of which John said something. Good thing we recorded it, so that we could later be decipher exactly what he said! :-) Mind you, it's not that John mumbled or didn't speak clearly, you simply couldn't understand what he said due to the editing. Thanks for taking on that assignment John. We are also grateful for the coverage provided by Stephen Brooks of the Jefferson City News Tribune. A photo of Darrell Watts' Fokker appeared in the July 24th edition of the Sunday News Tribune paper. Stephen has also provided us with several photos that he took of the event that are the photos that constitute Float Fly Page 4, check them out too!

For those of you who have browsed this far into the report, we have saved the best for last. Jim Lanzendorf is fairly well known for his 1/2 scale Ultimate biplane, but all of us were equally or even more impressed with the 1/3-scale Balsa USA Piper Cub on floats that he brought to our event. Wonderful detail, 12-foot wingspan, beautiful airplane and the envy of probably every pilot in attendance. Thanks for making the effort to bring your airplane to our event Jim! The other 10 seconds of the report on KRCG featured Jim's big Cub flying by.

This was the start of a serious butt-puckering first take-off, especially for a first-time CD as the giant Cub experienced some problems on its very first take-off of the day. The take-off started out routinely enough, but in a few short seconds a collective gasp was heard as the 20+ pound beauty seemed to careen out of control to the left as Jim expertly handled the controls of his big Cub.

Notice that there appears to be something wrong with the left-side float as a strange spray of water begins to kick up behind the plane like a rooster-tail as he picks up speed, also notice that Jim was all over the right-rudder to get it under control as the big plane tried to come up on-step and rapidly accelerated.

A big plane makes a big splash! The sequence of photos shows how it was briefly submerged as the mysterious problem with the left float dragged the plane to a stop in the water.

After Jim throttled down to an idle he realized that he did not have complete radio control of the plane, but fortunately it was stuck on a fairly low throttle setting and the plane was also stuck in a constant left-hand circle, both very fortunate occurrences. Rick Poire threw - his shoes - and caution - to the wind as he jumped into the nasty muck along the shore of Binder Lake to restrain the airplane. Rick is a very generous and unselfish individual, not only for jumping in and saving the day, but had I done that, after grabbing the plane, I would have yelled; "DIBBS"! :-)

After Rick was able to get it slowed down, Chris Bogg also jumped down to help hold the big plane, then as Jim Lanzendorf reaches for the ignition kill switch and shuts off the engine - you could collectively hear all of the butts un-puckering along the flight line. After the thrilling, but non-damaging-event took place, the plane was carried back to the pit area, the problem resolved and in short order the Piper Cub was back in the air taking the breath away from everyone watching it as it flew by. (Thanks Rick & Chris!)

Two more of my favorite photos from the event. Jim Lanzendorf's big Balsa USA Cub on a fly-by across the flight line. Both shots are full-frame taken with a 420mm fixed focal length f/2.8 lens. It's hard to tell that this is a model airplane.

Jim Lanzendorf's Cub as it settles in for a landing and taxis back to the launching ramp. Finally, the last shot of the day was of a Seamaster that finally made it successfully into the air after the guys had been tweaking on the engine for a while.