WARBIRDS OVER THE GLADES

MAY 12, 2007

AFTER ACTION REPORT

As the day started, our field was completely shrouded in what might be poetically called, “the fog of war”, from the center of the runway one could not see the end of the runway in either direction. However, both staff members and flyers were all anticipating a great day and since it was evident that it would take some time for the fog to clear everyone set about the business of assembling planes, and going through the registration and inspection process at a leisurely pace, most often while munching on a donut and washing it down with a cup of coffee and swapping lies with friends that haven’t been seen for a while

At 0900 Mrs. Silvia Kraft presented the colors to the Palm Beach Civil Air Patrol Cadet Squadron Color Guard commanded by Captain Jim Utterback. The colors were raised in a smart military fashion to the strains of our national anthem. Our thanks to these fine young men and their commander for taking part in our fields inaugural event and getting it off to a great start. We look forward to having them take part in future events.

Shortly after the pilots meeting was conducted by our Air Boss, Doug Christensen and we were finally able to get some planes in the air. Wouldn’t you know it, within the first ten minutes of flying with only four planes in the air, there was a midair collision, a PT19 and PT22 became a PT41, which is the military designation(Pile of Timber) for a stack of broken balsa wood.

The day also saw the loss of Mike Knights magnificent Fokker DR VII due to a radio failure, it was a heart breaker.

At noon the pilots took a break for the “half-time” show and to get a shot at the great food that was being prepared by Julio Esquenazi and his crew at our fields “Four Propeller” kitchen! While we were munching down cheeseburgers we were treated to an RC combat demonstration by our own Chris Handegard and his band of lunatics. Then Steve Hamilton took center stage and absolutely amazed us with a fabulous demonstration 3D aerobatics. Steve is a world class aerobatic pilot and won the AMA Nats this past summer. We were very lucky to have him at our event. Finally, Paul “Limey” Rice rolled out his “Top Gun” DeHavilland Mosquito. All were thrilled to see the big bomber make low pass after low pass down the center of the runway.

The pilots were then asked to line up their aircraft on the center line of the runway for the traditional “show and tell”. The spectators really enjoyed the opportunity to see the great warbirds upclose and personal and meeting the pilots and asking questions about the planes. (How much does one of these things cost?-Can’t tell you it’s a matter of life and death….my wife finds out …I die!!)

After show and tell, the normal event flying resumed and we were all lucky enough to see the maiden flight of Doug Smith’s B-24.

By the end of the day forty pilots flew an assortment of 62 aircraft ranging from some spectacular WWI fighters, on to a wonderful array of WWII fighters in addition to Paul Rice’s magnificent 114” twin engine Mosquito and Doug Smith’s 160” four engine B24 Liberator.

Thanks to the awesome generosity of RC Hobbies, we were able to award a beautiful Hangar 9 60. size Spitfire ARF as our pilots raffle award. (Contrary to popular belief, the CD had nothing to do with picking out the plane to be awarded.) Anyway, the winner of the plane was young Daniel Warner who traveled all the way from Jupiter to spend the day with us. Suffice is to say, you couldn’t get the grin off his face with a ball peen hammer!

Our event plaques were sponsored by local businesses, the award categories, sponsors and winners are as follows:

AWARD AND SPONSOR WINNER

PEOPLE’S CHOICE BRIAN KESSLER

PALM BEACH SOFTWARE DESIGN TOP FLITE C-46

MARK TURKEL

561-572-0233

BEST MULTI-ENGINE PAUL RICE

DENTMAN PAINT AND BODY DE HAVILLAND MOSQUITO

DOUG SMITH

954-978-6231

PILOT’S CHOICE FRAN ARRIGO

BK POOLS, INC TOP FLITE P-47

BRIAN KESSLER

954-234-0173

CD’S CHOICE DOUG SMITH

ENTREPRENEURS FINANCIAL SERVICES MEISTER P -47

ALEX ACUTI

954-257-2435

BEST WW II MATT NIEZELSKI

PAR PAINTING ZIROLI HELLCAT

PAUL RICE

954-596-1222

BEST SCALE DETAIL MIKE KNIGHT

ARRIGO DODGE CHRYSLER JEEP FOKKER DR VII

BOB DEMEZZA

561-683-1511

BEST WWI JAY EICHLER

ALL INCLUSIVE RESORT TRAVEL FOKKER DR VIII

TOM BUKATY

RESORTQUOTE.COM

After the category plaques were awarded, President Ray Murtha awarded the Presidents Award for Best in Show to Howard Lipzeig and his beautiful Ziroli Skyraider.

The event was enjoyed by all and by any measure can only be considered a huge success. When one considers that our club is really a very new club and is the melding of three local clubs with very distinct personalities and interests, that we could all work together and have a successful event speaks volumes for the great bunch of individuals that make up this new club and of its’ future. It goes without saying that it takes a lot of effort from a lot of people to pull off an event like this, and they all deserve to be recognized for their efforts.

Doug Christensen did a great job as Air Boss while his son Dane spent the day as Aircraft Retreiver (not a new breed of dog) helping out pilots in need. Also assisting on the flight line was Alex Moreno, Ray Murtha and Ed Christiansen.

Walt Dreyfuss,, who handled a few million of the small jobs that have to be done before and event, but can’t be overlooked. Woody Rackoff took care of all the financial details surrounding the event.

Artie Mundell who handled the commemorative photo’s so each pilot got to take home a mounted picture of himself and his plane. Artie was ably assisted by Victor Obatz who had the trying task of herding the pilot to the photo set up.

Susan Bachrach (Brian Kessler’s friend) came with Brian to help in the registration. After I got thing set up she decided she could do it better without my help and fired me! Needless to say, she did the job flawlessly and we can’t thank her enough. By the way, she also mounted the commemorative photos Artie took of the pilots.

Steve Westervelt ran the transmitter impound and handed out tickets for the pilots raffle. He did his usual great job as there wasn’t a hint of a frequency problem all day.

Bob Madden spent the whole day at the field, helping out wherever he was needed, and taking a great series of pictures capturing the events of the day. Rich Suppes was the awards committee of one. Since there were no complaints or gripes, we have acknowledge a great job by him.

We were fortunate to have not one but two video photographers, Dennis Swenson and Cliff Westervelt, I am sure they both did a great job and I can’t wait to see their videos.

Once again, Chris Handegard was good enough to give us the use of his sound system, maybe next we can own one!!.

Julio Esquenasi , Bill Zanner , Ken Dumphey, Don Ziomek and Woody Rackoff did a great job running the whole food service operation.

I am sure somewhere along the way I omitted someone that worked on the event. Please know you have my deepest appreciation for your efforts and my sincerest apologies for not giving you the recognition you deserve.

Finally, as a result of our efforts, the club is able to make a donation of $125.00 to the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs.

That’s it for WARBIRDS OVER THE GLADES, 2007, good flying until the next time we say,

“PILOTS… MAN YOUR AIRCRAFT!”

Submitted by,

Alexander A. Acuti

Contest Director