Kitty Hawk Trip News

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=100 BGCOLOR="#CCCCFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04300640egdysm.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>A Celebration of Flight</B></I></FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><B>    |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dayton Ultralight Club"><U><B>DUC homepage</B></U></A><B>    |    </B><A HREF="id206.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="2003 Kitty Hawk Trip"><U><B>Kitty Hawk Trip homepage</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id212.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Introduction"><U>Introduction</U></A>   |   <B>Kitty Hawk Trip News</B>   |   <A HREF="id300.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contributors"><U>Contributors</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id214.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Participants"><U>Participants</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id207.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Route"><U>Route</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id213.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Checklist"><U>Checklist</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id210.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Trip Photos"><U>Trip Photos</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id379.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Diaries"><U>Diaries</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=300 BGCOLOR="#000099" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>Participation Information</B></div> <div> <B>Pilots and Ground Crews</B></div> <div> <B><IMG SRC="21d24290.jpg" border=0 width="292" height="297" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>Complete Information Concerning</B></div> <div> <B>the "Celebration of Flight" Trip by</B></div> <div> <B>Ultralight Aircraft, June 22 - 28, 2003</B></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=380 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0d8f3943.jpg"> <div> <I>Kitty Hawk Trip News</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>Dec 3 - Denny Rowe completes Kolb</B></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Friend of the DUC, Dennis Rowe (Denny) from Vandergrift Pennsylvania has his new Kolb Mark III featured in the 'Members' Projects' section of the December issue of the EAA Experimenter.</FONT> (<A HREF="id419.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dennys Kolb Mark III"><U>Click here for pic</U></A>)</div> <bR> <div> Those of you that were participants in the flight to Kitty Hawk, know that Denny was the "hard-luck" story of the trip (actually, just prior to the trip). He had planned to fly his Loehle Sport Parasol from Vandergrift to Dayton on June 21st. He then would of course be a part of the group flying to Kitty Hawk from Dayton. On the morning of the 21st, he tried to start the 447 on his plane, but no amount of effort and trouble shooting did any good. Even an emergency call to Danny Day could not help. The problem was with the "after-marker" CDI system installed on the older 'points-model' 447. Danny said the 'history' of that particular system was 'troublesome' at best. Of all times for something to conk out on you...just when you're ready to make the trip you'd been planning to do for three years.</div> <bR> <div> Most people would just throw up their hands and 'take the loss'...but that's not the way Denny is, as we all found out. Denny, wife Linda, and their three kids decided that they STILL wanted to be part of the trip, if only to serve as ground support for any 'needy pilot'. And it worked out very well for a couple of ours pilots as they were able to put Denny and Linda to 'work' for them. A more enthusiastic family, you will not find ! They were greatly appreciated by all the other participants in the flight, both pilots and ground support.</div> <bR> <div> So, it is deserving that we join in the recognition of Denny for the completion of his Kolb Mark III. It's just a shame it had not been flown enough prior to the trip, to complete the "fly-off" hours required by the FAA. We are sure that Denny (and family)  are enjoying this great looking plane now though!</div> <bR> <div> <B>Nov 24 - Dennis D'Angelo - Guest Speaker at BUG Safety Seminar Dinner</B></div> <div> Dennis D'Angelo, the "Air Boss" for the Dayton to Kitty Hawk Trip, will be the guest speaker for the 9th Annual BUG Safety Seminar, Saturday night dinner on January 24, 2004.  The Bug Safety Seminar runs Friday through Sunday, January 23 -25.  The topic will be about the fabulously successful Dayton to Kitty Hawk Trip that took flight on June 22 of 2003.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Nov 17 -  Chad Hilbert - "It's about Time"</B></div> <div> "After forty years, with kid raising, then Heart attacks, by-pass surgery, and giving up for the last twenty years and flying Ultralights.......</div> <div> TODAY, I finally passed the PPSEL Check Ride.</div> <bR> <div> Now, Nick won't have any excuse not to go flying when he recovers.  ;"        .....Chad</div> <bR> <div> <I>Chad flew the reddish and white Titan on the Kitty Hawk trip.  Congrats Chad!!!</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>Oct 27 -  A note from Steven Tweedt</B></div> <div> My wife Julie and I just finished watching Dean  Gene's Kitty Hawk video and it is FANTASTIC! It was like being able to relive it all over again! I want to thank again everyone involved. It truly was an adventure of a lifetime! </div> <bR> <div> <B>Oct 17 -  Gene Dean video or DVD of KH Trip</B></div> <div> Gene Dean has put together some of the video he took on the trip. Finally, something we can watch and remember!   Gene said I could make copies of the video for others (which I'll do for anyone who wants one), but I he needs money for a DVD version to cover his costs. </div> <bR> <div> Gene's email is: genedean1@aol.com </div> <div>               or by phone: 317-786-1429</div> <div>               or by mail: 49 Worman St. , Southport, IN 46227-5122</div> <bR> <div> Rich</div> <bR> <div> <B>Sept 26 - We're going back to Kitty Hawk </B>(albeit by car this time)</div> <div> Greetings to all participants of the Dayton to Kitty Hawk Flight,</div> <bR> <div> It's been two months since we returned from our 'most memorable'  flight. (At least it was 'most memorable' for me, and I hope it was for you too). I can't thank each and every one of you enough for your wonderful participation. YOU are the ones that MADE IT HAPPEN and you deserve the full credit and praise from the "Ultralight Press". Hopefully, you'll be seeing articles about the trip in the next few months. Ann Sorrels did a GREAT job of putting together a whole lot of stuff (mostly photos) in the September issue of Aero Connections Magazine. There is more to come in upcoming months, so don't miss it.</div> <bR> <div> My primary reason for contacting you today, is to let you know that Brenda Ferguson came up with another great idea....RETURN to Kitty Hawk on December 16th, and be on hand for the flight of the Ken Hyde/EAA Wright Flyer at 10:35 AM on December 17th, (100 years to the minute, from the time the Wright Brothers made their first flight in the world's first powered and controlled aircraft.</div> <bR> <div> Brenda has reserved enough 'space' at Coinjock Marinia/Motel/Resturant to accommodate 26 people for the evening of the 16th and 17th. I know it's a 'mid-week thing' but that's just how things happen to be. And you know, (if you've checked)  motels around the Kitty Hawk area have been booked for many months. Also, to view the activities on the grounds of the Wright Memorial that day you'll have to have a ticket. As far as I know, those are getting mighty close to being sold out. But we have 36 tickets available (because we went together and purchased (what we hope will be) enough tickets to accommodate all the people who might want to be a part of our group.</div> <bR> <div> So, my question to you today is....do you think you'd like to be a part of our group which will be going (by car caravan) to Currituck on the 16th of December, so that we can be on hand to witness "history recreated" ? If so, please let me know right away so that I can inform Brenda and she can keep in touch with you during the next two and a half months. </div> <bR> <div> Like I said, we only have enough 'space' (beds) for about 26 people. If more than that want to go along, we 'may' be able to 'improvise' some "sleeping-bag-floor-space" that could help to get everyone 'situated'. The cost is extremely reasonable (because of the large number of people we can divide the total amount up by), so don't worry that it would be expensive. And for those of you who enjoyed the food at the Marina restaurant, you KNOW you'll enjoy the dinner there ! They 'may' have a breakfast available for us, but as you can imagine, we'll have to get up fairly early on the 17th, in order to get down the road to Kitty Hawk to be able to get into the park on time. While we're there (for the day),  there will be a lot more than just the 12 second flight by the Wright Flyer. The National Park people plan a full day of interesting things to see and do, including top name entertainment.</div> <bR> <div> Since I know that all of you are "Visionaries" and can fully appreciate what a wonderful opportunity it is to be able to celebrate something so historic as the First Flight, (recreated 100 years later), then I know you'll want to be a part of this 'quick trip' also. We all realize that it's mighty close to Christmas...but maybe you could consider this as your Christmas present to yourself or your loved one.</div> <bR> <div> I hope you all can go......PLEASE contact me or Brenda Ferguson (her email address is   WEFLY2@fuse.net ).</div> <bR> <div> Thank you for evermore !</div> <bR> <div> Rich</div> <bR> <div> <B>9/03/03 - Pics from Ty Greenlees</B></div> <div> Ty has generously provided us with a CD full of trip photos that have not been previously viewed.  Copies will be provided to all participants.  Stay tuned, there will be a preview of some of the shots in 'Trip Photos' shortly.</div> <bR> <div> <B>8/24/03 - Steve Welch's response to article in "Ultralight Flying"</B></div> <div> TO ALL D.U.C. MEMBERS AND THERE SUPPORT CREWS...... </div> <div> I JUST READ THE WRITE UP IN THE ULTRALIGHT FLYING MAGAZINE, AND I WANT TO COMMEND YOU ALL ON A REALLY OUTSTANDING JOB ! I'M VERY PROUD OF YOU ALL AND JUST AS PROUD TO BE A MEMBER MYSELF OF SUCH A GREAT CLUB!!!!!!!!! MY HATS OFF TO RICH FOR PUTTING THE TRIP TOGETHER AND TO HIS BETTER HALF FOR PUTTING UP WITH IT ALL!!!!!!!!!! </div> <div> I'M CURRENTLY A STUDENT RATED PILOT RIGHT NOW , BUT I'M HOPING TO BE PRIVATE RATED BY CHRISTMAS..........I'M LOVING FLORIDA ALOT BETTER THAN OHIO ,THOUGH I STILL MISS ALL MY FRIENDS UP THERE......... HEY RICH .......HOW ABOUT PLANNING A TRIP TO NORTH FLORIDA ???????????????? WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE ALL YOU ULTRALIGHTER'S IN OUR PATTERN SOON???????????? </div> <div> ONCE AGAIN , CONGRATS ON A DREAM FLIGHT !!!!!! WE THINK YOU ARE ALL TOP SHELF PILOTS!!!!! </div> <div> COME SEE US SOON !!!!!! </div> <div> STEVE & MISSY WELCH </div> <div> O'BRIEN FL.  </div> <bR> <div> <B>8/4/03 </B><B> -  </B><B>Attention any and all folks who ordered 'trip shirts'...</B></div> <div> I went down to Logos@Work yesterday afternoon and placed the order for the additional shirts everyone asked had ordered.  Almost everyone has sent the money for the shirts, as requested. There were seven clothing items that were submitted to be embroidered with the logo.</div> <bR> <div> Kim, (Logos@Work customer service), said it should take two weeks to complete the work order. So that means, around August 11th, I should be able to pick them up and start mailing everything out to you.</div> <bR> <div> Oh,...and good news...the shirts were priced at only $18.95, instead of the $19.95 I was quoted when I picked up the original batch. So I will send everyone a buck back with your shirt. I don't know the reason for the lower price...and I wasn't about to 'question it' !</div> <bR> <div> Just thought I'd keep you informed.</div> <bR> <div> Rich J.</div> <bR> <div> <B>7/25/03  -  </B><B>For all the people who had indicated an interest in getting additional 'trip shirts' and having embroidery done on other garments:</B></div> <div> Today is the cut off day for ordering shirts and embroidery work. I have received the money for everything wanted (except, as shown below). I know that most,( if not all), of you have said the checks' in the mail, so I'll go ahead and place the order as requested. </div> <div> Here is the final list of shirts 'n stuff.</div> <bR> <div> Dennis D'Angelo , 2 shirts in large., funds due</div> <div> DJ Van Well, 1 shirt, in XL, funds due</div> <div> Dean Batman, 1 shirt in large, funds paid</div> <div> Denny Rowe, 2 shirts, 1 med, 1 small , funds paid</div> <div> John McCarter, 1 shirt in medium, funds paid</div> <div> Ann Sorrels, 1 shirt, XXL, funds paid</div> <div> Jaye Matthews, 1 shirt in medium, funds paid</div> <div>   also, one jacket for embroyery, funds paid</div> <div> Julie Tweedt, 1 shirt in medium, funds paid</div> <div> Kim Farrell, 1 shirt in medium, funds paid</div> <div> Steve Tweedt, 1 shirt in XL, funds paid</div> <div> Dave Sweeney, 2 shirts in XXL, funds due</div> <div> Gene Dean, 1 shirt in large, funds due</div> <div> Mike Peters, 1 shirt in medium, funds due</div> <div>   one jacket for embroidery, funds due</div> <div> Doc Williams, 1 shirts in medium, funds paid</div> <div>   also 2 garments for embroidery, funds paid</div> <div>   and 1 jacket for embroidery, funds paid</div> <div> Don Eccker, one shirt in large, funds paid</div> <div>   also 1 jacket for embroidery, funds paid</div> <div> Rich Jennings, one jacket for embroidery, funds paid</div> <div> Russ Wilson, one jacket for embroidery, funds paid</div> <bR> <div> Thanks. </div> <div> I will notify everyone as to when you can expect to recieve your shirts and embroidered garments, when Logos@Work lets me know.</div> <div> It will be so good to have this one final 'task'  finished up.......Rich Jennings</div> <bR> <div> <B>7/23/03  -  </B><B>All pilots, ground crew, family, etc, ...of the Dayton-to-Kitty Hawk Flight:</B></div> <div> Ann Sorrels of ASC Connections Magazine, has asked me to send out a 'blanket' e-mail to everyone, and to pass along her offer. She wants to send each and every one of you, a free upcoming issue of the magazine (which should have some coverage of the flight in it).</div> <bR> <div> What you need to do is send Ann your mailing address so that she can send you the magazine when it is published. You can contact her at her e-mail address (  Aero_Art@Juno.com ).  If you know of anyone's e-mail address that I have failed to list in the "to" heading above, then please do me a favor and pass this e-mail on to them. </div> <bR> <div> Thanks, Rich Jennings</div> <bR> <div> <B>7/08/03  -  </B><B>Photographs of the trip</B></div> <div> Russ Wilson has put all the photos he shot of our trip on a disk, and there are hundreds of fantastic shots  that include not only the pilots and their planes, but numerous shots of ground crews and families. These are such great keepsakes/memories for everyone, that we think everyone who wants to have a copy of this disk, should have one. Please e-mail me back if you want a copy of this disk. (That is assuming that everyone will have a computer and can open up jpeg files). I know that you will enjoy looking at these shots. </div> <div> Once Ty Greenlees (of the Dayton Daily News) gets a chance to put the shots he took (many in-air shots), we will have enough copies of that disk made up to distribute to everyone that wants one also. But, as you can imagine, right now Ty is one very busy guy what with the coverage of all the Inventing Flight activities going on in Dayton for the next couple of weeks. PLUS...he has the 4-day Dayton Air Show coming up !</div> <div> So please be patient in getting these fantastic photos from Ty also. It may take a few weeks or more for Ty to have the time to create the disk for us.</div> <div> One word about these photos...remember, that these are provided to you for your personal enjoyment and use. They are NOT to be published without contacting Russ or Ty for permission. That means, both in print and on web sites. Getting permission will not be a problem I don't think, but you absolutely should do that before you make these photos 'public'. Of course, it should go without saying that full photo credit should be given to the photographer.</div> <div> One last thing, please include a buck or two to cover postage for the mailing of these disks if you would. If you don't think that these photos are worth every cent, I'll send your money back. We're not trying to make any money on this...but it would be nice if I didn't lose any more money than I've already spent.</div> <div> Once again, Russ' photo disk is available now...Ty's will be available at a later date.</div> <bR> <div> Thanks again, Rich Jennings</div> <bR> <div> (I will add all my shots to this disk, if there is room.  If not, they could go on another CD.     ...Mike Peters)</div> <bR> <div> <B>7/07/03  -  </B><B>Greetings to all Pilots and Ground crew participants of the Dayton to Kitty Hawk trip....</B></div> <div> Many of you have indicated an interest in obtaining additional shirts with the trip logo embroidered on them. Today, I will start the ball rolling on getting together our order for a second run of shirts.</div> <bR> <div> As I said during the pre-flight meeting on Saturday June 21st, Logos@Work told me they could produce more shirts (like the ones we had to give away to the pilots and chief ground crew members), for $19.95 per shirt. And, as I said, they would do the embroidery work on any garment submitted to them for $12.00 each. </div> <bR> <div> We need a minimum order of 12 shirts. I don't think we'll have any trouble getting this requirement filled. I still owe two ground crew members a shirt (Jaye Matthews and Karen Saprano) that I will pay for myself. I also have a request from Steve and Julie Tweedt for shirts at this time. I also want to 'reward' Ann Sorrells and Brenda Ferguson for their tremendous support, by buying them a shirt also.</div> <bR> <div> So what I think we'll do is have Mike Peters run a chart on the web site of all the shirt orders "as requested" for the next two weeks. Then we'll submit the order for the production of the shirts and ask you to send the money for them at that time. Also, I'd like to ask you to include enough for postage. I've always said, I never wanted to make any money off of this event (as I know how expensive it was for the participants to be a part of it), but I'm "rich" in name only so I can't afford the mailing costs to get your shirts to you either.</div> <bR> <div> As far as getting the logo embroidered on any garment you'd like, just send it to me and I'll make sure that it is taken care of (again, please send enough money for the embroidery and postage). I already have three garments for various individuals that want that work done.</div> <bR> <div> PLEASE respond as quickly as you can concerning these matters. I don't want to drag out this shirt and embroidery business forever. I have two other projects in the garage that desperately need my attention ( my '55 Chevy Pickup and the Howland Honey Bee I'm building).</div> <bR> <div> Thanks as always,</div> <div> Rich Jennings</div> <bR> <div> <B>7/02/03  -  Ty Greenlees to provide CD with Trip Pics</B></div> <div> It was an absolute blast to make that trip with the group. I wish we had more time to visit with you and make new friends with the others. But, making deadline is job one for us each day, so our down time was very limited.</div> <div> My plan is to make a couple of CDs full of photos for the club. I'll size the files for good 8x10 reproduction. You can share the disks with the club members and let them make prints or save the images for themselves.</div> <div> I probably will not get to this until late July or mid August. I have limited time between the Dayton festivities and Oshkosh, but you never know.</div> <div> You guys are high on my list of priorties after work related things. </div> <div> Happy flying, </div> <div> Ty</div> <bR> <div> <B>7/02/03  -</B></div> <div> <B> <IMG SRC="3a92d580.jpg" border=0 width="301" height="88" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="3a704f20.jpg" border=0 width="516" height="498" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B><IMG SRC="3a806600.jpg" border=0 width="518" height="608" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>7/02/03  -  </B><B>All Pilots of the Dayton to Kitty Hawk Flight</B></div> <div> I will be mailing out your certificate (in recognition of your participation in the flight) to each of you within the next few days.  Hopefully by the end of next week everyone should have it.  Also, in the envelope will be a special pen that is for Dayton Ultralight Club members only. You'll be receiving this, since we consider you to be an honorary club member for this year.  And finally, I am including articles from the Dayton Daily News (from June 23, 24, & 25), written by Tim Gaffney and with photography by Ty Greenlees.  These were front page articles each day of the trip. When you get your copy(s), I think you'll agree that Tim and Ty did a wonderful job of telling our story.  I'm hoping that all our local guys have saved their DDNs from that week, as I've only been able to round up 10 copies of each days' paper so far. I still need to find 8 copies of each days' DDN, to finish out the mailing to all out-of-town participants.</div> <bR> <div> Thanks once again to each and every one of you for the wonderful job you did in making a life-long memory for all of us.  I think Tim Gaffney said it best, when he told me that, "of all the aviation events he'll be covering this year, he thought that the Wright Brothers would have appreciated our flight to Kitty Hawk the best".  What greater compliment than that could be given to us ? !</div> <bR> <div> Rich Jennings</div> <bR> <div> <B>7/01/03  -  Partial Trip Report by Chad Hilbert</B></div> <div> Now that it appears we've all made it safely home, let's start by  thanking Rich and Mike for the time they invested in making this  happen.  Nick and I were honored to be included in the group.  My report couldn't "hold a candle" to those of you that flew the  Trikes and Light Aircraft, so I will try to be brief.  We left Perry Georgia on Tues, June 17. We were hoping to be  airborne at sun up, but the weather gods didn't agree with our  plans.  We were finally given VFR clearance by FSS around 11:00 AM,  so we were off to Scottsboro, Alabama, our first fuel stop.  The visibility was terrible below 4000 MSL, but the sky was broken to  12,000 MSL, so we elected to climb. We leveled off at 9,500 MSL and  stayed there until we were within 20 miles of Scottsboro, two hours later. A quick stop for fuel, and another chat with Flight Service,  and we were off to our next fuel stop, Rough River Falls State Park,  Kentucky.....or so we thought.  Although FSS had not issued those magic words, "VFR not recomended",  the begining of the flight was anything but VFR. We turned east in  an attempt to climb back to altitude to clear the cloud tops, but after 20 minutes it was obvious we</div> <div> were fighting a loosing cause. I  Radioed to Nick..."We aren't gonna be able to get on Top...looks like  another lay-over in Scottsboro" (We were stuck there for three days in the spring, on the way back from the UL National</div> <div> Championships)  We turned west and headed back to Scottsboro. Just after making my radio call to Scottsboro, I looked over my right shoulder and saw a thin sliver of a "bright area" between the horizon and the cloud  base. I</div> <div> radioed, "Nick, I see an area we may be able to sneek  through, ya wanna try it?" He agreed, and we turned north, aiming  for the bright spot, and hoping we could get through. We did,  although we did encounter some moderate</div> <div> turbulance and rain before we  punched through. The visibility seemed to improve a little, but the  cloud base was extremely low, and no longer broken. To make a long  story shorter, the next two hours of flight were the</div> <div> worse conditions  I've ever flown in on a long x-country. We dodged thunderstorms,  lightning,  rain, moderate to severe turbulence, while "scud running" over the  mountains all the way to within 70 miles of Rough River.  At this  point the small sliver of horizon over the nose turned totally black.  Instinct was yelling at me "YOU DON'T WANT TO GO THERE".  We decided to divert to a Small airport 15 miles to our east and wait for better conditions. It was getting late in the afternoon by now.  My hopes of getting to Dayton that day were gone, and even of getting to our  next</div> <div> planned fuel stop was in doubt.  We checked the radar while on  the ground, and saw we were headed directly toward a severe thunderstorm that topped out at 44K MSL before we diverted.  Fortunately, it  was isolated, and after an hour had moved far enough to the east, we  could complete the last 70 miles to Rough River. We tied down at  Rough River for the night, rented a cabin....AND CRASHED IN THE  BEDS.  We were both physically and mentally exhausted.  When we awoke the next morning, Rough River was completely fogged  in. This didn't concern us too much though. We were within "striking distance" of Dayton-New Lebanon airport, so we just patiently waited. By noon, the fog had lifted. We took-off for the short 189  mile flight to Dayton, and for the first time could actually see the  ground in flight.</div> <div> Things were looking up!  Arriving at Dayton-New Lebanon in early afternoon, we were greeted by  Dick Graham. Thanks Dick for your hospitality!  We rented a car, and  spent the next two days at the Air Force Museum, totally enjoying</div> <div> ourselves.  We departed for Kitty Hawk with the other 24 aircraft on Sunday morning. But I'll let the other pilots that "earned their wings" on  this flight report this portion of the flight. For Nick and I, it  was a leisurely, laid-back trip, spread out over two days, that we  normally fly in around seven hours. IT WAS GREAT !!!  Our Statistics:  Total Miles: Not</div> <div> quite 2000. Total Flight Hours: Around 22, Total Fuel, Nick: 79 Gal. 100LL Total Fuel, Chad: 99 Gal. 100LL Total Oil consumed, Nick: 2 quarts Total Oil consumed, Chad: 18 oz.   Cost of Memories........"PRICELESS"!!!<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier New" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>6/30/03  -  </B><B>Note to All Dayton-to-Kitty Hawk participants</B></div> <div> One of the things I wanted to give away at our 'hoped-for' group dinner, was the three gift certificates for a full years' subscription to Trade-A-Plane. Since it's too late to draw names out of a hat to do this, I came up with what I thought might be the second best idea that would benefit a greater number of pilots. I will mail the gift certificates to the leaders of the clubs with the greatest number of club members. That way each month's Trade-A-Plane magazine could be passed around to fellow members of their clubs. And so, the subscriptions would get the maximum exposure to other people and be of greatest use by the largest number of people possible.</div> <bR> <div> So... Since, Dennis D'Angelo is President of EAA Chapter 48, he will get one of the subscriptions.  Brenda Ferguson is the 'key contact person" (and Newsletter Editor) with The Tri-State Pilots Association,  and finally, Dean Batman is President (or at least, key contact person) of the Indy Flyers group, Dean will get the third subscription certificate</div> <bR> <div> I hope this 'second best' solution will work for everyone.</div> <bR> <div> Rich</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/30/03  -  Trip site updates</B></div> <div> I have a ton of pics to download to the Trip site, but many of the aerial shots are of Bravo group only.  So, if you have good aerial shots of Charlie group, Delta group, or the Air Boss, or Chad and Nick's Titans, send them to me at: mike@daytonulclub.org.  I'm sorry that I couldn't do more updates during the trip, but I was exhausted and food and a hot tub sounded a lot better.</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/30/03 -  </B><B>Good morning to all Pilots and ground crew members of the Dayton to Kitty Hawk Trip</B></div> <div> Well, as far as I know, everyone's  back safe at home (except for Dave Gardner, and he's back at his Mom's house in Bellbrook.  Due to his work schedule, he will leave his plane in Dayton for a period of time, and come back later in a couple of months to fly it home to California). </div> <bR> <div> It was a truly an OUTSTANDING week for us. Everything pretty much came off as planned...or better.  The credit for this goes to each and every participant for their hard work and great flying. Of course, above all else, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to Dennis D'Angelo. His great leadership kept us on time, and in most cases, ahead of schedule. I think we can all say that the Lord blessed us with having the wRIGHT PERSON, at the wRIGHT PLACE, and at the wRIGHT TIME to make this trip come off as well as it did. </div> <bR> <div> I appreciate all the nice comments that many of you made, but really it was the effort that each and every one of you made to work as a team and do your part that made things "fall in line"...almost magically. </div> <bR> <div> I want to thank all of our group leaders for the efforts they made to keep their groups together. (Full credit and name recognition will be given in Ann Sorrells article about the trip in ASC Connections Magazine).</div> <bR> <div> I want to thank Danny Day for his efforts to support us all. Except for a couple of minor repairs, no one had to use the 'full scope' of Danny's expertise' and the equipment or parts he brought along. Danny and Jif want to make sure that if any of our group is in their area (for any reason ....like maybe the Copper State Fly-In), that you please make an effort to contact them.</div> <bR> <div> I want to thank the ground crews from the bottom of my heart. Without you, who knows where we'd all be right now....probably stuck down in some 'holler' in the West Virginia hills. I know how much driving you all did and how much effort it was to keep up with a rapidly moving bunch of ULs. I'm sure all the pilots appreciate your wonderful efforts to support them.</div> <bR> <div> As you might expect, I have a lot of loose ends to tie up, a lot of thank you letters to send out, and the mailing of the certificates for the pilots to send out. (I had wished to have one BIG gathering of ALL participants on the evening of the day we flew to the Wright Memorial, but I understand that many of you thought it best to start the return trip home as quickly as possible to avoid the predicted late-week rain, so that's really the only part of the trip that I felt 'disappointed' with. But that's just a 'personal' thing).</div> <bR> <div> I will be in touch with everyone through e-mails later in the week about other topics, so please watch for that. I need to work on the "shirt situation" and get copies of the Dayton Daily News for everyone that lives outside the Dayton area. Tim and Ty did such wonderful work with their coverage of the trip, that you just HAVE TO have a copy of the paper for the days that our trip was covered. Both Tim and Ty are going to be EXTREMELY busy for the next three weeks covering all the Centennial of Flight activites in and around Dayton. If you can't make it back to Dayton for some of the numerous events that will be happening, then please check out their work on the Dayton Daily News web site each day.</div> <bR> <div> Thanks again for being a part of "Ultralight History". Each and every one of you are very special people in my book!</div> <bR> <div> Rich Jennings</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/26/03  -  Home again</B></div> <div> Many participants flew into Dayton-New Lebanon Airport returning from the Kitty Hawk trip late morning or early afternoon Thursday.  Bravo and Charlie group beat the storm front and landed in 15 to 20 mph winds.  Delta group spent the night in Gallapolis.</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/23/03  -  Successful first 2 days</B></div> <div> You couldn't ask for better weather and a better group of capable pilots!  I'm a day behind on updating this but I needed some sleep desparately.  I've loaded a few pics, but there are a lot more.  I'm sitting in a Holiday Inn in Emporia VA, but several have gone on to Edonton and some all the way to Currituck.  My group Bravo group), would be there too, but our ground crew had a flat trailer tire.  It's been a blast so far and on the whole, things are going quite smoothly.  Thanks to the Mercer County/Princeton Chamber of Commerce for the Dinner at Mercer County airport, our stop for the night.  That was nice after pushing more than 285 miles for the day.  Edonton is suppose to have a bash for us tomorrow.  Can't wait!  More to come when I have more time!</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/19/03  -  Arrivals</B></div> <div> Dave Gardner arrived at Moraine at 8:30 (after 'finally' getting a tailwind starting on the Illinois/Indiana state line). Here's a real "grabber"....he flew the entire way from California with NO GPS or VOR...strictly dead reckoning !</div> <div> The Georgia guys (Chad Hilbert and Nick Hunsucker) got in yesterday around noon but they were scudrunning all the way up through Tennessee at 300'  AGL.</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/18/03  -  Outer Banks site recognizing our flight</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.outerbanks.org/events/calendar_of_events/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.outerbanks.org/events/calenda"><U>http://www.outerbanks.org/events/calendar_of_events/</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>6/18/03  -  Dave Gardner's progress from California</B></div> <div> Dave and John made it to a little town between Joplin and Mt. Vernon Missouri today (Tuesday)! They have gone 1500 miles so far. Every airport they attract a crowd of people asking all kinds of questions. The rain has not been a problem for them. Dave would like to make it to Dayton tomorrow night. He expects to make it there Thurs. morning. That would give those guys time to rest up for the rest of the trip. </div> <bR> <div> We thank you all for your support and your prayers.   --<I>Tammy Gardner</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>6/18/03  -  Do you know how hard it is to find OH & NC quarters now?</B></div> <div> Rich is in desparate need of North Carilina and Ohio quarters, in order to complete the participation certificates.  So, please look for them and bring 'em to Rich this week or weekend.</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/17/03  -  </B><B>Finalized Info & bits of last minute 'stuff' </B></div> <div> Good morning to all the Pilots and Ground crews of the Flight to Kitty Hawk, </div> <bR> <div> Well, we're 5 days away from departure time. I realize that some of you will be reading this e-mail AFTER the trip, as you are already enroute to Dayton. (That's OK, as I know who those people are, and I'm in contact with them via cell phone).</div> <bR> <div> For the rest of us, I have just a few last minute things we need to review.... </div> <bR> <div> 1. Do not forget to bring your Participants Information Packet. The information in that, is very important for your ground support people. I will not have any 'extra' copies of the packet, so it is very important for you to bring it.</div> <bR> <div> 2. The weather is looking good (at this point in time) for Saturday and Sunday. (That's as far into next week as I've seen predictions for, as of this morning). As the 'locals' around here know, whenever the DUC plans an event, it's a 'guarantee' that it will be rained out. But this time we have a good luck charm along to ward off any bad weather ! Brenda Ferguson of the Tri-State Ultralight Pilots Association will be traveling with us, and accompanying Ann Sorrels of ASC Connections Magazine. Whenever Brenda and TUPA are part of an event, there seems to be better weather! All that said though....just be prepared to ride out any weather delays while we're enroute...you never know when that old DUC 'luck' will kick in. If we ever have another long drought in this part of the country, the DUC will become a very wealthy bunch of guys...because we'll ask for 'big money' from farmers/public officials/and the general public, to break the drought by "planning and holding a Fly-In". Indian Rain Makers don't hold a candle to us! </div> <bR> <div> 3. Please review the list of stuff that Mike Peters has posted in the "Checklist" area of the DUC web site (www.daytonulclub.org). There are many important things listed there that you should bring along with you for the trip. I'd like to add a couple of suggestions to that list that will be important while you're at Dayton-New Lebanon Airport. </div> <div> First, the airport is one that is VERY under-used by the public, thus it is not well equipped for large numbers of people (meaning...more than two !). So, please be advised that bathroom facilities are VERY inadequate. In fact, our recommendations are that you plan on going down the road to McDonalds for 'natures' calls. We regret that things are like this, but the airport owner just does not have the funds to get around to remodeling the office and bathroom facilities as of this date. Plans are in the works for doing so, but it has just not been accomplished yet. The airport owner is a wonderful person, but his funds are limited. Add to that... he recently had open heart surgery... and you begin to see the 'problem' here.</div> <div> Second, please bring your chairs (most people have the portable/backpack type chairs nowadays), to the meeting on Saturday afternoon. We will have the meeting/briefing under the picnic canopy that is right behind the airport owners' home.</div> <bR> <div> 4. The pre-flight briefing will be done by our "Air Boss", Col. Dennis D'Angelo. Dennis is a member of our club, but more importantly, he is President of EAA Chapter 48, Moraine Ohio, and EVEN more important than that, he is Vice Commander of the 88th Air Base Wing on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. And to top ALL that off, I believe he is just an all-round great guy. I think you'll find that out when you meet him. Dennis owns an Aeronca Champ and will be flying "lead aircraft" for all of our small groups of airplanes. He will serve as the "ambassador" for our whole group. Dennis is used to conducting these type of briefings/meetings, and since I always try to utilize the best person for any job, I have asked him if he would perform this duty for us. We will have briefing charts and lists of things that will be very important for everyone to know. Attendance at this meeting, (3 to 6 PM, Saturday afternoon)...IS MANDATORY. </div> <div> I can think of only one person that will be allowed to miss this meeting, (and that person will be briefed personally by me).</div> <bR> <div> 5. One last reminder about bringing your video and still camera(s). We need all the great video footage that we can get for the 'production' that Mike Zimmerman will put together for us. Also, Ann Sorrels wants to use still photos (shot by participants) in ASC Connections Magazine.</div> <bR> <div> 6. Here's the FINAL LIST of pilots .( As of this morning, the participant list is 'closed'). </div> <div> Dean Batman, Indianapolis IN, flying an Airborne Wizard Wing Trike </div> <div> Richard Beamer, Wabash IN, flying a RANS S-4 </div> <div> Art Braa, Rapid City SD, flying a Sabre 503 Trike </div> <div> Dennis D'Angelo, WPAFB OH, flying an Aeronca Champ </div> <div> Gene Dean, Southport IN, flying a Pegasus Sport Trike </div> <div> Donnie Eccker, Ramona CA, flying a New Avenger </div> <div> Bill Elliott, West Carrollton OH, flying a Challenger II </div> <div> Dave Gardner, Romoland CA, flying a RANS S-12XL </div> <div> Dick Graham, Huber Heights OH, flying a Kolb Firestar </div> <div> Chad Hilbert, Centerville GA, flying a Titan S </div> <div> Nick Hunsucker, Reynolds GA, flying a Titan </div> <div> Rich Jennings, Kettering OH, flying a New Avenger </div> <div> Greg Koedel, Hamilton OH, flying an N-3 Pup </div> <div> Steve Ledbetter, Pendelton IN, flying a Kolb Mark III </div> <div> George Ledbetter, Pendelton IN, flying a Flightstar </div> <div> Larry Lindsey, Orient OH, flying a Swallow </div> <div> John McCarter, Shelby OH, flying a Challenger II </div> <div> Mike Peters, Bellbrook OH, flying a Hurricane </div> <div> Dennis Rowe, Vandergrift PA, flying a Loehle Sport Parasol </div> <div> Tim Searle, Indianapolis IN, flying a Challenger SP </div> <div> Guy Stayner, Byron IL, flying an Aerotrike Safari </div> <div> Dave Sweeney, Bloomfield IN, flying an Astra Trike </div> <div> Steve Tweedt, Council Bluffs IA, flying a Pegasus Quantum </div> <div> Conrad Swensen, Miamisburg OH, flying a Challenger </div> <div> DJ Van Well, North Wilkesboro NC, flying an Airborne Trike </div> <div> Doc Williams, La Marada CA, flying a New Avenger </div> <bR> <div> I would like to formally recognize the 'primary' ground support drivers here also: </div> <bR> <div> W.D. Bookwalter, Salem OH </div> <div> Danny Day, Tubac AZ </div> <div> Steve Goeke, West Alexandria OH </div> <div> Louise Lidy, Swayzee IN </div> <div> Karen Saprano, Mansfield OH </div> <div> Julie Tweedt, Council Bluffs IA </div> <div> Russ Wilson, Kettering OH </div> <div> Glenn Zink, Miamisburg OH </div> <div> Kathy Swenson and Family, Miamisburg OH</div> <div> Linda Rowe and Family</div> <div> (and there at least 3 other groups being supported by names I have not been given yet. Once I have those names, they will be posted).  Note: See 'Participants' section.</div> <bR> <div> I guess that's about it until we meet you upon your arrival in Dayton on Friday or Saturday. Please remember my phone numbers:</div> <div> Home (937) 256-2211, Work (937) 255-2838 ext 364, cell number (937) 554-2221 (cell will be turned on Thrusday the 19th, and left on continuously thereafter).</div> <bR> <div> Have a great day....and even more importantly...have a great trip to Dayton !</div> <bR> <div> Rich Jennings </div> <bR> <div> <B>6/13/03  -  Participation Certificate</B></div> <div> Here's a copy of the certificate that will be given to each pilot completing the trip to Kitty Hawk, with real Ohio and North Carolina state quarters...so each certificate is a 'valuable' keepsake ...(worth 50 cents , at least !). </div> <div>      <A HREF="id314.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Certificate"><U><IMG SRC="30055410.jpg" border=0 width="85" height="65" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> <I> Click on the thumbnail</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>6/12/03  -  Airspace Restrictions</B></div> <div> To be discussed in the pre-flight meeting:</div> <bR> <div> 1. DNL - Avoid entering the Dayton International (DAY) class C control area, i.e. 2,400' M.S.L. max altitude over our airfield.</div> <div> 2. Brush Creek MOA & Buckeye MOA - Check if they will be "hot" before departure on the 22nd and on the return trip.  If they are, be very alert passing through or go around.</div> <div> 3. Mallory - Avoid entering the Charleston (CRW) class C control area.  Max altitude over Mallory area is 2,800' M.S.L.</div> <div> 4. Roanoke - Avoid entering the Roanoke Regional (ROA) class C airspace.  Max altitude on South side is 3,400' M.S.L.</div> <div> 5. Elizabeth City - Avoid entering Elizabeth City (ECG) class D airspace and class E extensions, or overfly above 2,500' M.S.L. on leg from Edenton (EDE) to Curritck (9W7).</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/11/03  -  More Hotel information</B></div> <div> I hate to throw a wrench into your plans, but after Glenn Zinc, a DUC member and Realitor in the area, recommended another Hotel, I decided to go look in the Ramada.  It's OK and I wouldn't have a problem staying there, but I also checked out the Signature Inn, practically across the street, and it IS much nicer, newer and just brighter all round.  The manager came down to $61/night and would come down further, if we could guarantee so many rooms (maybe in the mid-50's), and that comes with a Continental breakfast and they even bake cookies and have popcorn in the evenings. They have a microwave and refrig in room and an outdoor pool.  Glenn suggested the Red Roof Inn.  I didn't get a chance to look at it or get rates.  It's right next door to the Signature Inn and has outside entry into the rooms.</div> <bR> <div> The manager at the Signature Inn is Trent Sibley, who offered the lower rate for the Kitty Hawk Trip participants.  He seemed to hint that he gets people switching from the Ramada, so that might be a pitch or there is something to it.</div> <bR> <div> Signature Inn Phone:  937-865-0077</div> <bR> <div> It's up to you guys.  I know that some of you have changed rooms once or twice, but I wanted to give you the information.   Entry onto SR725 to I-75 and I-675 is much easier from the Signature Inn or Red Roof Inn and you can walk to Bob Evans.    ---Mike</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/11/03  -  Wright Around Dayton</B></div> <div> Here is a link that references Wright related sites in the Dayton Area, including "The Aviation Trail": <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.inventingflight.com/invention/wright_around_town.php" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.inventingflight.com/invention"><U>http://www.inventingflight.com/invention/wright_around_town.php</U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>6/11/03  -  Ramada Inn Phone# Correction</B></div> <div> I corrected the phone# below this morning, for the Ramada Inn.  The correct number is: 937-847-8422.  --Mike</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/11/03  -  Bring your Video Camera</B></div> <div> Last week I received word from Mike Zimmerman that he would be unable to participate in the flight with us. I've mentioned Mike in past 'postings', about how much flying experience he has (11,000+ hour CFII, corporate jet pilot, military, UL instructor in his QS Sport II, etc etc).   I've also mentioned that Mike is a professional videographer that 'works his magic' at airshows all over the country. Well, because his main source of income is currently doing airshow work,  he won't be able to give up a couple of weeks worth of income to be part of the trip. He had looked forward to being part of the fun, and we all would have greatly enjoyed having him along. But 'paying the bills' is one of those 'life-gets-in-the-way' things I've talked about before. </div> <bR> <div> Mike has offered to put together a nice video of the trip if we all can supply him with some good 'footage' that we take during the trip. His professional editing equipment is all state-of the-art high dollar, studio stuff that is all digital. So if any of you have digital video cameras, please remember to bring them along. Mike can also convert VHS video to digital, so if you have a regular video camera, bring it along and use it. Just remember to give me a copy of your tapes after the trip so that I can take them to Mike. I will remind everyone of this after the trip.</div> <bR> <div>  Tips on what/ who/how/etc to shoot during the trip: </div> <div>  Don't get 'artsy' with your shots. Unless you are a professional videographer, those kind of shots end up being a waste of time and film. Keep it steady and smooth, uncluttered as much as possible and each 'clip' should be more than long enough to use (in order words, don't use your video camera as if it were a still camera). Shoot people and planes, and places, and scenes. Don't use 'posed' shoots. Catch people doing 'interesting' stuff around their planes and in the air if possible. Cameras mounted on planes are always interesting shots as long as they are vibration-free. Shots of people and places that we fly over are great to include. Shots that show anything 'related' to the theme of the trip (Honoring the Wright Brothers by flying planes as close to what they flew as there is in 'modern' aviation), are of course a HIGH priority.</div> <bR> <div> Since Mike is a professional in this business, we would not expect to get the 'final'  tape/program done for free. There will be a cost to produce the tape for everyone that would want one. I am sure it would not be priced 'out of reason' for anyone. I am equally sure that you will greatly enjoy the tape. In fact, I will guarantee you that if you don't, I'll buy your tape back.</div> <div> So...one last reminder...bring your cameras...and USE THEM !</div> <bR> <div> Thanks, Rich Jennings</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/10/03  -  UL Pattern at Dayton-New Lebanon Airport</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id312.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="DNL UL Pattern"><U><I>(Click here for UL pattern)</I></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>6/10/03  -  Hotels in Dayton</B></div> <div> I negotiated a group rate at the Ramada Inn by the Dayton Mall (937) 847-8422.  It's about 20 minutes from Dayton-New Lebanon Airport and 15 to 20 from the Air Force Museum.  Plenty of restaurants/bars/shopping!  You will need a Credit Card for reservation and mention that you are part of the Dayton Ultralight Club flight to Kitty Hawk.  Other discounts do not apply.  Indoor Pool & Outdoor pool.</div> <div> $59+tax Doubles</div> <div> $64+tax Exec. King</div> <bR> <div> I also called the Quality Inn Dayton South (937)435-1550.  They have a few rooms available on the 20th and 21st.  It's a nice small place that use to be a privately owned Motel.  It is just off 675 on SR725, just East of the Dayton Mall.  The rooms are in the $59.95+tax range.  It's a good 25 minutes from the airport and about 15 from the museum.  Good area though!</div> <bR> <div> West of the Dayton Mall, all pretty close together:</div> <bR> <div> Holiday Inn Holidome 937-434-8030 (Indoor Pool, etc...) more bucks</div> <bR> <div> Red Roof Inn 937-866-0705</div> <bR> <div> Comfort Suites 937-436-4529....$67.79+tax with AAA, AARP discount available, for us old farts.</div> <bR> <div> Rich Jennings also listed some of the Hotels near the Fairfield Mall in his Trip updates.</div> <bR> <div> Mike Peters</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/10/03  -  Kitty Hawk Flyers E-mail list</B></div> <div> Dean Batman, of the Indy Flyers, has set up a Yahoo email group for the flyers participating in the Dayton to Kitty Hawk trip.  Go to:  <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KittyHawkFlyers/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KittyHawkF"><U>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KittyHawkFlyers/</U></A></FONT>  to join the email list.  Thanks, Dean!</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/07/03  -  </B><B>LAST MINUTE (maybe) RAMBLINGS, about the Flight to Kitty Hawk...</B></div> <div> Fellow flyers and ground support VIPs,</div> <div> We're just two weeks away from the date of departure of our 'adventure' to Kitty Hawk. I hope you are all ready to make the trip. I'm losing enough sleep lately worrying about every last detail, so you could ease my mind a bit if you're doing your "full planning".</div> <bR> <div> Overriding everything of course, is the weather. Being that we're still two weeks away, any 'predications' for the week of the trip would be pure guesswork. It 'looks' like the 'normal' weather patterns are slooooowly starting to fall into place. This Spring has been cold and wet across the country, not just for our planned route. With God's blessing, we'll get this trip done 'as scheduled' and with few delays. BUT...as we've said all along...be ready to go with the flow, and be ready to 'ride out' any delays. Your personal 'fall-back' plans are important to you, if time and/or money is a critical factor in doing this trip.</div> <bR> <div> Currently, there are 31 aircraft participating in the flight. There are about a dozen two-seat UL trainers or N-numbered aircraft. The rest are single seat ULs. We have 'fast' Titan Tornados and 'slow'  Swallows and N-3 Pups, and everything in-between. There are about 18 different brands of ULs involved and various models of Trike brands, as well as Kolb and Challenger models. So, you can see that "variety" will be both a 'blessing' and a 'curse' in trying to organize the groups of planes that will fly together. I consider this 'task' one of the most important things we'll undertake during our Pre-Flight Meeting.</div> <bR> <div> Since we're talking about the Pre-Flight Meeting...you should ABSOLUTELY make it your priority to be at Dayton-New Lebanon Airport from 3:00PM to 6:00PM on Saturday June 21st. No matter what other day or time you plan to come to Dayton, just make SURE you are on the grounds for this meeting. The importance of this meeting can not be stressed enough. With one or two exceptions, IF you do not attend this meeting, you may not be allowed to be part of the trip. That's how important I consider it to be.</div> <bR> <div> We have (currently) 10 ground crews drivers/vehicles lined up to support us. Many of you have already hooked up with others that will  serve as your ground support. In looking over my paperwork, it looks like that we will have to make arrangements for only about six of you who do not already have someone lined up to carry your 'stuff' and serve as your ground support. Lining these six people up with the 10 ground crew drivers will not be a problem, so do not worry about that.</div> <bR> <div> I have asked that all of our participants have cell phones. It's not an "absolute"...but is a wise idea. I have given out my cell phone number in past mailings, but just in case you've forgotten or lost it, it is 937-554-2221. I am not a big cell phone user, so normally it is off. I WILL leave it on and carry it with me beginning Thursday June 19th. My home number is  937-256-2211. My work number is 937-255-2838 ext 364. (6AM-2:30PM). I will be off from work starting on Friday the 20th. The 'California contingent' will be arriving on Friday morning, and I consider it to be very important that I help these guys as much as possible that day. So we'll be out at the airport for a good portion of Friday.</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/06/03  </B><B>- </B><B> </B><B>Attention all Fight to Kitty Hawk Participants</B></div> <div> I know a number of you have made reservations at motels around the Dayton area for the night or two, before the 22nd departure.  I had made reservations for the guys coming from California at a motel near my house (the Microtel Inn & Suites on Linden Ave.).  Because of a slight change in plans, these two rooms are not needed for the CA guys.  (They will be staying with me or at the Hope Hotel on Wright-Patt).</div> <div> SO...if you are in need of a room (rate is $55 per night) and haven't found one yet, I have these two rooms available that you can use.  Unfortunitely, when I made the reservation they only had 'smoking rooms' available...so that's what these are.  The desk clerk showed me the rooms, and I couldn't smell anything 'offensive' about them, so I'd say they are OK. The motel is fairly new, only about 2 years old, and in a good location.</div> <div> The first two participants that let me know they'd like to have the rooms, will get them.  Contact me via email (richard.jennings@wpafb.af.mil) ASAP.</div> <bR> <div> Rich Jennings</div> <bR> <div> <B>6/03/03  -  Golf Shirt Embroidery</B></div> <div> Click on the thumbnail to enlarge: </div> <div>                                                            <A HREF="id333.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Golf Shirt Embroidery"><U><IMG SRC="2f4554d0.jpg" border=0 width="85" height="77" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>6/02/03  -  Weather and "Peer Pressure"</B></div> <div> Naturally, someone will call flight service each morning for a briefing for the group I suppose.  But as we split up into "groups" for the actual flying, I think it would be a good idea for each group to have assigned a "weather briefer", that will call Flight Service at each fuel stop as the need arises for his group.  I see potential weather problems as the biggest</div> <div> issue.  I also feel that if ANY ONE MEMBER of a group decides he needs to land for any reason, then EVERYONE in his group lands also. (In-flight emergencies excluded)</div> <bR> <div> I've been on trips where Peer Pressue caused  pilots to fly in conditions they were not comfortable with for fear of being left behind.  Each Group should function as a "Team".  Just Thinking....              Chad</div> <div> _______________________________________________</div> <bR> <div> I've seen this, as well.  I was flying with a group on a poker run and there was a large storm brewing in the direction of the next airport.  It was getting incredibly dark that direction, but everybody just kept heading toward it.  We had just passed the airport that was our home base.  I broke and turned back.  Once I broke formation, many behind me followed.  The aircraft in front kept on flying to the scheduled destination.  "Group mentality"!    I didn't have a radio at the time, most didn't.                       Mike</div> <bR> <div> <B>5/31/03  -  Raleigh County Airport Manager Touching Base</B></div> <div> John Cockran, the airport manager at Raleigh County Airport in Beckley W.V. called and wanted to "touch base" with us, and let us know how pleased they will be to have our group arrive at their airport. He plans to have the local TV station's video crews there, so that it could be on the local news that Sunday evening. (If weather delays cause a change in plans, I will call him to let him know of any changes).</div> <bR> <div> This is 'typical' of all the airport managers I have talked to in person and on the phone. It's great that we are getting some recognition for our efforts to honor the Wright Brothers.    ---Rich</div> <bR> <div> <B>5/30/03  -  Mountain Flying links provided by DJ Van Well</B></div> <div> This site is promoting a book on mountain flying. However there is still a wealth of information at the site to help us all feel a little better about beginning day two.</div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.mountainflying.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.mountainflying.com"><U>http://www.mountainflying.com</U></A></div> <div> A very condensed version for the busy, very busy person.</div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.net-magic.net/users/gordo55j/mountain.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.net-magic.net/users/gordo55j/"><U>http://www.net-magic.net/users/gordo55j/mountain.htm</U></A>    ---dj</div> <bR> <div> <B>5/30/03  -  Thank you MEAA</B></div> <div> We received a check today from MEAA of Mason Ohio (just South of Dayton), to help support the participants' efforts during the Kitty Hawk trip.  MEAA stands for Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America, Inc.</div> <div> This is a wonderful gesture by a group that does very special charity work of their own (The Car Show for Special Olympics). We ask that all DUC members who are interested in car shows, to please check out their web site <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.meaacarshow.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.meaacarshow.com"><U>http://www.meaacarshow.com</U></A></FONT> for complete details, and attend if possible.  </div> <bR> <div> The money will be used to benefit all participants of the flight to Kitty Hawk in some manner.  In addition, all due recognition for this generous donation, will be given in the press and media contacts that we'll have during the trip.</div> <bR> <div> Thanks, Rich</div> <bR> <div> <B>5/29/03  -  Colibri Badges</B></div> <div> If there is interest in obtaining Colibri Badges on this trip, we can get someone signed-up as an Observer, if there is not already an Observer making the flight, so that badges could be awarded.  Dave Hempy was telling me that it might be possible to get the Bronze and Silver badges on the trip there and the Gold Colibri on the trip back.  Please let me know, so that we can make the necessary arrangements.</div> <div> Mike Peters (mike@daytonulclub.org)</div> <bR> <div> <B>5/29/03  -  Weather - multiple replies</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Reply from Tim Searle</B></div> <div> I would agree that with this many participants and "home bases", it is impossible to construct a plan B to suit everyone. Some thoughts....... though you have probably considered all of these and more:</div> <bR> <div> 1] We will be blessed with long days. If we can start at sunrise (weather permitting), we will enjoy the best flying air and make maximum use of the available flying weather.</div> <div> 2] 100 miles + would be a typical range for our aircraft??? If weather forced us to, we could do touch and go's or just fly over some airports on route.</div> <div> 3] To save time above, we would not wait for ground support to "catch up", but refuel at the airports. though this would be a slow process with so many aircraft.</div> <div> 4] To address the above, on long cross country flights with aircraft of different speeds, we have refueled the slower aircraft first, and they depart first.We keep in radio contact in the air and check in every 15 or 30 minutes. Aircraft of similar performance could be "paired off", if you are concerned about people flying alone. We can all "regroup" at the next landing airport, and get together with ground support (worst case) at the</div> <div> end of the day.  The plan you have so carefully constructed, will make it a fun and very relaxed experience, and is in many ways the optimum solution.  I believe that there is significant opportunity to accelerate/compress the plan should weather force us to do so.  I am really looking forward to meeting a lot of new friends on this trip.</div> <div> Regards to all</div> <div> Tim Searle</div> <bR> <div> <B>More regarding weather - Rich Jennings</B></div> <div> All participants of the Dayton to Kitty Hawk trip,</div> <bR> <div>   The topic of possible weather delays was discussed yesterday. Tim Searle 'threw in' his two cents worth and I think that he makes several good points, and agree with his view on this. Any plan (A thru Z) we come up with...will still be at the mercy of the weather. That's the nature of the type of flying we're involved with.</div> <div>   All that said though, I think that really the VERY BEST I can do for each and every participant is to try to give you as much 'forewarning' as possible about the 'chance' of weather that would be LONG TERM enough to warrant a cancellation of the trip. We're still 23 days away from the day of planned departure, so it is impossible to give you any weather forecast for the week of June 22-28. I'm sure you are watching the weather each day, and taking a very close look at the weather for Southeastern Ohio, southern West Virginia, southern Virginia, and the Outer Banks area. </div> <div>   There is a final "GO / NO GO" day that each of you have, in which you'll make up your mind to head for Dayton and do the trip. For the guys coming from California, that day is Monday June 16th. At that time, they will have to commit to driving across the country, so the weather predictions for the 22-28 time frame will HAVE to be good enough to justify the effort and expense of making the trip. The same would apply to everyone else. The final decision will be your own, of course.</div> <div>    Getting back to one comment that Tim made that I think is very important to put an 'emphasis' on, is that with the long days of sunlight we'll have during the trip's scheduled timeframe, it will be nice to have quite a few 'flying hours' available during each particular day. The only thing that would keep us grounded for an real 'length' of time would be a 'stalled out' or 'stationary' front. Otherwise, we're generally looking at 'typical' midwest rain showers or thunderstorms that move through fairly quickly. The whole day is not usually 'shot down'and there would still be many hours of flying time. We'd try to make whatever progress we could make during each day. </div> <div>   In other words...it all gets back to what we've said all along. BE PREPARED TO GO WITH THE FLOW.</div> <bR> <div>   So...that's my thoughts for today. Yours comments are welcome too......!</div> <div> Rich Jennings</div> <bR> <div> <B>Response from Tim Gaffney</B></div> <div> >>>>we're generally looking at 'typical' midwest rain showers or thunderstorms that move through fairly quickly. The whole day is not usually 'shot down'and there would still be many hours of flying time. We'd try to make whatever progress we could make during each day.<<<<</div> <bR> <div> Based on my experience as a VFR pilot, I think this is the best way to plan for that time of year. Once you start the flight, the important thing will be communication.  As the "gaggle" gets stretched out, individuals may find different weather conditions in their individual areas, so some might get weathered in at one stop while others are still going.</div> <div> Best rule of thumb: relax and keep reminding people that staying safe is more important than staying on schedule. </div> <div> Tim </div> <bR> <div> <B>Response from Chad Hilbert</B></div> <div> We've found it is best to let the faster planes go first. This way, they are already refueled by the time the slower planes arrive. In this way, no one has to wait. </div> <div> As far as the weather/delays are concerned. This is an adventure for all of us. We will all fly when we can, and sit on the ground when we can't. When your alloted time is up, go home with the experiences you've gathered. Some may make it all the way....some may not. But ALL will have a memorable experience. </div> <div> Chad</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>5/28/03  -  Kitty Hawk Trip Update - Rich Jennings</B></div> <div> Dear Fellow Participant in the Flight to Kitty Hawk:</div> <bR> <div> I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable Memorial Day Holiday. Now, comes the 'rush' towards making final preparations for the flight to Kitty Hawk. We are less than 4 weeks away from June 22nd. Many of you are even less than that away from the time you plan to leave home and travel to Dayton.</div> <bR> <div> It's going to be an extremely busy two days prior to leaving on the 22nd, what with all of the participants arriving in Dayton and at the airport (Dayton-New Lebanon Airport). (By the way, Dayton-New Lebanon Airport is referred to by us local pilots as DAHIO airport. That was the 'old' name' and it is still used by us 'old farts', as it's hard to let go of a 'favorite' name. So, when you hear us refer to the airport as DAHIO, please understand we're not talking about a different place). The 'California Contingent' is leaving earlier in the week, so that they can be on-site by Friday morning. I plan to be at the airport most of that day, helping them  assemble their planes. Of course, Dave Gardner should be arriving in his RANS S-12XL on Thursday or Friday, having flown all the way from his home airport in the L.A. area. I expect (and certainly hope), that the local media will be on hand to document this tremendous effort by Dave. I think it will be a wonderful 'human interest' story to feature a guy who grew up in Bellbrook (a Dayton suburb),  doing a flight from coast to coast in an Ultralight (albeit...an Ultralight trainer..with a very nice motor).</div> <bR> <div> A brief word about the weather...as I have mentioned in the past few weeks, the Spring weather in this part of the country, (and really, from what I've observed by keeping up with it on the Weather Channel, MOST of the eastern half of the country), has been on the cool and wet side. I don't know if this trend will continue, or it may start to 'settle down' into a more normal pattern. We would certainly expect 'late June' to be mostly dry,  with warm but not overly-hot temperatures. Last year, the week of the June 21 - 27 was 'just about right', for the conditions we would like to fly in. It was partly because of this good 'weather history', that the dates of June 22-28 were chosen this year. (That, and we did not want to be traveling during a Holiday week). All that said though... I still want to stress the point that you should come with clothing 'suitable' for whatever we might have to deal with. This would mean that, early starts in the morning when the winds are light and the sun is still rising,  would be mighty nippy for you. For you guys flying enclosed planes it might not make much of a difference. But for those of us who fly 'neckid' (exposed to the wind and temperatures) it could mean a very uncomfortable flight or a flight not made at all. ( I use the 'neckid' term in jest of course, because while many of you are good looking to 'someone' I'm sure, I don't want to see you in the 'altogether' !  And believe me...you definitely don't want to see me that way !). So common sense dictates that you dress in layers, so that as the day goes on and the sun warms things up, you can peal off layers at each fuel/rest stop. Don't forget gloves too. We don't want any accidents from frostbitten fingers. Bottom line...come prepared to deal with anything, weather-wise. The old saying, "The two most useless things to a pilot in trouble are the altitude above you and the runway behind you", can be modified to include "the gloves and coat that I left behind" when dealing with the cool morning air.</div> <bR> <div> 'Plane prep' .  I know many of you have ground crews coming along with you that will carry all of the 'stuff' that you 'might' need for your plane. And for those of you don't have a ground crew (as such), there is no need for you to worry either. We have more than enough "trailer space" to haul everyone's 'stuff'.  Just about the only thing I can think of that would be wise to carry on board your plane is a set of tie-downs. You never know when we might have to land because we've run into unexpected winds beyond what we'd feel comfortable flying in. Also, if we are at a fuel or rest stop, (and it will not be one of our quick-turn-around stops), we will need to tie down our planes....just in case. With your tie-downs onboard your plane, you won't have to wait for the ground crews and/or 'hunt up' your tie downs.    Radios...While it's not an absolute requirement that you have a radio on board (unless you're the lead plane in your group), it is still a very wise item to have!</div> <div> We will go over a set of guidelines as to what we will consider "proper radio use", while flying together. As fun as it would seem to 'yak with each other' along the route, you can imagine that with 30+ planes in the air in relatively close proximity to each other, the chances are too great that an 'important' transmission by a lead aircraft might get 'walked' on. We can't afford for that to happen. We'll use 123.45 as the enroute com frequency. And of course everyone should switch to the unicom frequency when we're 5  miles out from each airport. Listen carefully to the lead aircraft's transmissions, and follow our 'pre-determined' guidelines for your group's landing sequence. As I said earlier, this is one important area we'll discuss during the pre-flight meeting on Saturday afternoon. </div> <bR> <div> While writting this 'Update', I had an email from Dick Graham, our 'brain trust' in much of the planning of the trip. Here's what Dick sent me, and my reply to him. Your comments, (sent to me or Mike Peters for posting on the DUC web site) would be helpful to everyone I'm sure.</div> <div> ______________________________________________  </div> <div> Rich,</div> <div> I'm not trying to be negative here, but have you given any thought to Plan "B" weather contingencies?</div> <div> If on the 19th, the weather forecast for the 22nd is for rain, what do you do?</div> <div>  A) Postpone departure until the next decent day (even if that might be Tuesday or Wednesday).</div> <div>  B) Postpone to the next weekend.</div> <div>  C) Cancel the event.</div> <div>  D) You're on your own.</div> <div>  E) Something else.</div> <div> If the forecast for the 22nd is good, but rain is in the picture for the 23th and/or the 24th, what do you do?</div> <div>  A) Postpone departure until the 24th or 25th.</div> <div>  B) Postpone to the next weekend.</div> <div>  C) Cancel the event.</div> <div>  D) You're on your own.</div> <div>  E) Something else.</div> <div> If it were only us local guys it might be easier to be flexible on scheduling the start, but with people coming from out of town, we</div> <div> need to be able to notify them as early as possible if plans change.</div> <div> Dick</div> <div> ______________________________________________</div> <div> Dick,</div> <div> I don't have a good answer to these questions. They've been there from day-one, and yet it's hard to say what the best plan to follow is. I think I've tried to reinforce the basic fact in letters, postings on the web site, and emails, just how important it is to be ready to be as flexible as possible. But like you say, with so many coming from out of town, a plan B that would include moving the trip back MORE than a day or so, would mean that ANY "Plan A" that is established could not be 'counted on'.</div> <div> I am working on another update today (I'm about half way done with it), but I'll try once again to let everyone know that really, the only way to have a 'plan B' for everyone is for each participant to determine what their personal 'plan B' is. If they have only a 'set number of days off from work' or away from home, then they'll have to drop out at whatever point we're at, and go home on their own. With so many various 'personal situations' it is virtually impossible to come up with a workable 'plan B' that everyone could follow.</div> <bR> <div> My personal 'plan B' would be a return home of any weather delay that would be more than two days long. This applies to the trip down there of course. The trip back home...takes whatever it takes.</div> <div> I can't see that having a 'plan' that says "IF weather looks bad for one week, then we "push it back to a following week" makes much sense. We'd still be in the same boat by 'betting' that weather would have 'improved' for that following week.</div> <div> So, I say we pray for good weather each day, and then use the 'available flying hours' within each day, to make as much progress as we can for that day.</div> <bR> <div>  If you've got any other ideas, please let me know. Better yet, send them to Mike, so he can post it for "comments" on the web site.</div> <div> Thanks, Rich</div> <div> _____________________________________________</div> <bR> <div> Well, I've bored you enough for one day, and given you some things to think about too...I hope. </div> <div> So, until the next 'posting',  I remain forever gratefully yours,</div> <bR> <div> Rich Jennings</div> <bR> <div> <B>5/24/03  -  Check the Checklist section</B></div> <div> I've added an item to start the "Checklist".  A member of the club recently visited First Flight Airport and brought back a Sand Burr and said that they are all over First Flight.  They have fairly long stickers on them and very well could puncture a tire.  One member of the club said that he might inflate his tires with no-flat foam in a can.  At the very least, it might be a good idea to carry a patch kit or spare tubes.  My tires are tubeless, but I might bring a set of tubes, just in case.</div> <bR> <div> <B>5/23/03  -  T-Shirt design</B></div> <div> <B>                   </B><A HREF="id307.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Trip TShirt Logo"><U><B><IMG SRC="2ec556a0.jpg" border=0 width="85" height="106" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>5/22/03  -  Day2KH trip has special meaning for Chad Hilbert</B></div> <div> I just finished a book my son gave me for an early birthday present.  "The Wright Brothers, and the invention of the Aerial Age", by Tom D. Crouch and Peter L. Jakab.  Smithsonian Institution, 2003.</div> <bR> <div> Most facinating book on the Wright Brothers I have ever read.  My son gave it too me early, cause I am leaving on my Birthday (June 13th) to fly to Dayton, Ohio to join the Dayton Ultralight Club on their "Wright Brothers Centenial Flight" from Dayton to Kitty Hawk.</div> <bR> <div> This trip is also a sentimental flight.  This year is my wife's and my thirty seventh year, since we eloped from Dayton, Ohio to Kitty Hawk, NC to get married. (I was an airplane nut even back then).</div> <bR> <div> My wife will join me in December.  We have reservations to attend the Wright Brothers Anniversary in Kitty Hawk from December 12th through December 18th.</div> <bR> <div> I've never looked forward to a flying trip as I am toward our trip next month.  Our trip in December will be icing on the cake.</div> <bR> <div> Chad</div> <bR> <div> <B>5/20/03  -  </B><B>NEWS / UPDATE FOR KITTY HAWK TRIP PARTICIPANTS</B></div> <div> On Saturday (the 17th), I received a very unexpected piece of mail !  Jim Stephenson of Aero Sports Connection (ASC), sent a check for two hundred dollars to help support our group's effort in the flight from Dayton to Kitty Hawk. This money will be equally shared by all participants in some form of gift or support for each. We'll determine just how best to spend this money within the next couple of weeks. </div> <bR> <div> Now, you might say, well..."$200 isn't much money to share among 30+ pilots"....but that's not the point. The old saying "It's not the gift that's important, but the thought behind it", was never more true than in this case.  In the letter that accompanied the check, Jim states, "Support is what ASC does.  Now you can see it even more clearly.  We hope this is the help that makes yours the best event yet."   I whole heartedly agree...support from "Ultralight Community" organizations is what makes the sport grow.   ASC is certainly putting their "money where their month is".</div> <bR> <div> We are all grateful to Jim for this donation, and for the publicity that the event will receive in ASC's magazine. Ann Sorrels of ASC Magazine will be along on the trip, to cover it each step of the way.  I hope to see a photo of each of our pilots and their planes in the magazine !</div> <bR> <div>                                                        -------------------------------------------------------------</div> <bR> <div> On to other news... Last week I sent an email to all the signed-up participants, about the change made from t-shirts for all pilots, to  the next-best idea, an embroidered golf shirt for each participant.  I've received responses back from about half of you concerning what size shirt you'd like.  I've responded to each of you who have let me know what to order for you.  But for those of you I haven't heard back from yet, if you don't let me know by Wednesday what size you'd like, I'll have to use my own best 'guesstimate' to place the order.  As I said last week, we have only enough money to cover the production of the embroidered shirts to have one for each pilot.  Some of you have requested additional shirts. Obviously at this point, that isn't possible. If enough of you want additional shirts, maybe after the event we could pool our money together to get an additional 'run' of the shirts done.  At this point, that is about the only way I can see getting more shirts. I said at the outset of this whole trip/plan,  I am not trying to make a penny off of this event, and in fact did not mind spending whatever I could afford out of my pocket to make it  happen for everyone. But my budget is limited, just as yours is. I hope you all understand this situation.</div> <bR> <div> We're about one month away from the trip date.  I hope you all are making final preparations to your plane, and your "worse-case senario" planning....which would include everything from in-air planning down to simply...what if I can't get a motel room?  I was thinking along those lines while shopping at Walmart the other day, and thought....maybe it would be wise to buy a new sleeping bag....just in case!  We all have 'agreed' at the outset (during your first communication with me) that you would be "prepared to deal with whatever-may-come".  So, I'm putting a 're-emphasis' on this point today !   The weather has been 'less than great' so far this Spring.  Hopefully, the rainy season will come to an end in the next couple of weeks, and the weather will settle down into something a bit more 'reliable' and flyable by the end of June.  So think...one last time...about whether you are prepared to deal with delays along the trip.  If you aren't, and have only a 'set-in-stone' amount of days off from work or limits to your budget, then you may not want to go.  That makes it sound kinda harsh doesn't it....I certainly don't mean for it too...but them's the facts of life some time. I personally have a limit to my vacation days available and my budget, so I don't want to come off as sounding like we're not all in the same boat here.  I know there is a point at which I would have to 'terminate' my trip....if it became that drastic. So I'm no different than you, in that respect.</div> <bR> <div> But enough negativity !  Let's THINK POSITIVE HERE !   We WILL complete this trip ! We WILL have fun!  We WILL remember it the rest of our lives !</div> <bR> <div> Are you with me guys ? 'Course you are !!!  </div> <bR> <div> Rich Jennings</div> <bR> <div> <B>5/16/03  -  ASC Making Contribution</B></div> <div> Jim Stephenson of Aero Sports Connection has graciously volunteered to make a contribution toward the Centennial Flight to Kitty Hawk.  This is most appreciated!  Also, check out the June issue of their Aero Connections Magazine about the upcoming trip.  </div> <bR> <div> <B>5/15/03  - </B><B> </B><B>UPDATED INFORMATION AND GENERAL 'RAMBLINGS'</B><B>, FOR PARTICIPANTS OF THE KITTY HAWK FLIGHT</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier New" >                                                             </FONT>Good Morning to all of you who have signed up to be part of the flight from Dayton to Kitty Hawk. Currently we stand at 32 planes and pilots and 5 'formal' members of ground crews. ( Of course there will be a considerably larger number of ground crew members, I just don't have their names to include on the web site right now). So if you would like to have them 'recognized' in a formal manner by having them posted on the web site, please send me an email and let me know who these MVPs are). I call them MVPs because, without the hard work and driving that the ground crews will be doing, our trip would be considerably more difficult.</div> <bR> <div> We are rapidly closing in on the date for the flight. With just a little over 5 weeks to go, I am sure you are in the midst of prepping your plane and thinking about what you'll need to bring along for the trip. You don't really need to worry about the route planning (at least the 'actual' flight from Dayton to Kitty Hawk), but it would still be wise to purchase a couple of up-to-date sectionals and review the route for yourself. Buy a new Cincinnati and Washington sectional, then find the various airports along the route and highlight that. Then buy some road maps for your ground crew members to use. I've tried to be as 'detailed' as I could in describing the driving directions as well as I could, from having actually driven the route during my 'pre-run' of the trip. Really, there are only one or two really 'difficult' areas of the trip for the ground crews to deal with. You might want to really go over the routes from Blacksburg VA (Virginia Tech Airport BCB) to Smith Mountain Lake Airport (W91), and then from Smith Mountain Lake to South Boston (William Tuck Airport W78). There is no 'easy' way to get to and from these airports. It's just that back country roads make it hard to make 'good time'.</div> <bR> <div> We have had a number of recent new 'joiners' for the trip and unfortunately three guys had to drop out of the trip because they had just sold their planes and didn't think they would have another plane in time to be prepared to do the trip. Sometimes, timing...good or bad... just doesn't work out for you. It's unfortunate for Doug Carroll of Concord NC, and Pete George of Warner Robins GA, and Dick Banner of Eureka IL, that all of them had offers on their planes that were "too good to pass up".  On the other hand, we've had 6 new pilots (all well-qualified of course), join up within the last three weeks. Dave Sweeney of Bloomfield IN with his Astra Trike, Richard Beamer of Wabash IN with his RANS S-4, Steve Ledbetter of Pendelton IN with his Kolb Mark III, John McCarter of Shelby OH with his Challenger II, Larry Lindsey of Columbus OH with his Swallow, and Bob Erndt of Mansfield OH with his Titan Tornado. Welcome to all these 'late additions'.  As I said, they are highly qualified to make the trip, and many have very interesting stories to tell I'm sure.</div> <bR> <div> In discussions with Mike Peters (our DUC webmaster) (and Hurricane owner), we need to get some input from as many of the pilots as we can about what items we should ALL pack to have on hand for the trip. Naturally we'll need to have fuel containers and oil, and some minor spare parts. But would we need to go as far as bringing along spare parts such as tires/tubes nuts/bolts etc/etc?  I don't really know. As I've said before, my long distance cross country experience (via UL) is zilch, so don't look to me to make recommendations.  We have people going on this trip that have made trips of hundreds, even thousands, of miles before. So it's up to you...(Doc Williams, Dick Banner, Dean Batman, Dave Gardner, Dick Graham, Chad Hilbert, Nick Hunsucker,Tim Searle, Guy Stayner, and Steve Tweedt)  to recommend what the rest of us should pack for the trip. Please email Mike Peters (mike@daytonulclub.org) with your suggestions and he'll post them in the "Checklist" section of the web site.</div> <bR> <div> If you have a video camera, please plan to bring that along and use it!  As far as I know, Mike Zimmerman still plans to do a documentary type program of the flight. Not only is Mike a 'Jack Of All Trades' (and in this case...a Master at all too, as you will find out), but he could also use as much 'input' and help as we all can supply to make the most of the trip footage. Digital video is best of course, but he can also use 'regular' video.  Believe me guys, when you've seen some of Mike's work, you will know that we're blessed to have one of the best in the biz. (Just for the heck of it... I'll do a little name dropping here...ESPN, CSPAN, NFL, Sean D. Tucker, and airshows all over the country.  That's the kind of professional work he does). In addition to that, Mike is a CFII, and has flown everything from his QS Sport II to Cessna Citations and a bunch of military 'hardware'.</div> <bR> <div> I hope that everyone has kept their copy of the "Update letter" (dated April 14th) that I sent out with the 'last' version of the Participants Information Packet. I know that more than fifty percent of you will be coming to Dayton at least a day early, so you will be staying overnight at a motel somewhere in the Dayton area. I suggested a few good motels (although probably not on the 'inexpensive' side) to stay at in the letter. Of course there are plenty of other places to stay besides what I've listed. I think the key thing to remember is that you should plan on being out at Dayton-New Lebanon Airport during the late afternoon so that we can gather together to get to know each other, and have a "formal" (more likely, an informal) meeting to hash out some final details on trip planning, flight grouping, etc.  As I've said before, don't look to me to know what we ought to do, when we ought to do it, and how we ought to do it, as my experience level in this type of trip is FAR below what many of you have. So, hopefully, during discussions at the pre-trip meeting, we'll be able to use the 'experienced minds' of those of you who have done long distance Ultralight trips. I feel confident that we are all pilots with enough experience, that we can 'follow orders' competently and safely.</div> <bR> <div> Well, I guess that's about all I can relay to you today about the trip.  I really would like to encourage all of you to go to the DUC's web site and input yours thoughts about trip planning and anything else you may wish to say. There is a 'Guest Comments' area on the site where you can write your comments.  The site is updated each day by Mike, so we'll all be able to learn from you,  your thoughts, plans, and suggestions.  The better prepared we all are, the less chance we could have any 'inconveniences'.  I am getting calls and emails on a regular basis now that the trip date is growing closer.  All are from participants that are expressing how glad they are to be part of "Ultralight History" in this wonderful trip from the home town of the Wrights Brothers, to the place where "dreams come true". I want to thank each and every one of you for having the foresight to know that this trip will be something to remember the rest of your life.</div> <bR> <div> Till the next 'update'...blue skies and easy breezes,</div> <div> Rich Jennings</div> <bR> <div> <B>5/14/03  -  Kitty Hawk Participants on the Rise</B></div> <div> Several people have had to cancel, but for the most part, the participant list has been growing.  We have picked up several people in the last couple of weeks, including Ann Sorrells, who will be reporting for the ASC magazine. </div> <bR> <div> <B>4/21/03  -  Message from an Indy Flyer</B></div> <div> Hi Richard , This is the ground crew from the Indy Flyers with a few questions . Do you know if auto gas is available at which airport and is there on field or near field camping going to be permitted? On previous trips we camped under wing and had daybreak coffee,etc. But we also did the hotel -motel thing. If there is any thing I can help you with just ask. Each trip has been different. The last one was 28 days to and return from the state of Washington. <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><U>http://www.msdwc.k12in.us/ses/gr5adv.htm</U></FONT> is where you can go to get some of the details of our Seattle trip. I truly enjoy these trips and try to be prepared for the unexpected. </div> <div> I do haul with me an mixture of rivets, bolts , nuts and extra parts . plus tools to make simple repairs.and am willing to help others not just my fellow flyers. I own and fly a two place Flightstar, but due to back surgery am not getting much air time. </div> <div> Good luck on your planning Just checked on the up dates . Have a nice day. Louise</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>4/21/03  -  Message from Virginia</B></div> <div> Hi guys</div> <bR> <div> My name is Bob Metzler.  I live in Roanoke, Va. and I am very</div> <div> familar with the area.  It looks like you are going thru my</div> <div> stomping grounds so I thought I would offer any help that I can.</div> <bR> <div> The Virginia Tech airport is indeed very nice.  Also friendly to</div> <div> UL but they don't get many.  Not many in this area because of the</div> <div> mountains I guess.  There is a fair amount of traffic some days</div> <div> but nothing to worry about.</div> <bR> <div> The Smith Mountain Lake airport is a bit of a problem for you as</div> <div> you have mentioned.  One thing you didn't mention is that has a</div> <div> very active drop zone that is in heavy use most good weather</div> <div> days.  The jumper plane is very good about announceing their</div> <div> location and intentions if you monitor 122.800.  Feel free to</div> <div> talk to him and he will help guide you away from them and co</div> <div> ordinate his drops to let you in safely.  One UL drops in there</div> <div> regularly and I get there once in a while.  Seems UL friendly</div> <div> enough but like you said, there is no food.  I do remember a coke</div> <div> machine and maybe a snack machine.  Carry something with you</div> <div> because you will have to wait on the ground crew.  It's a long</div> <div> slow haul from Virginia Tech by car.</div> <bR> <div> If you let me know when you will arrive at Virgina Tech, I will</div> <div> meet you there and fly with you to Smith Mountain if thats ok. </div> <div> Let me know if there is any way I can help.</div> <bR> <div> Bob</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>4/14/03  -  </B><B>Updated information for all Participants of the Flight to Kitty Hawk...</B></div> <div> I have just completed the 're-do' of the Participants Information Packet.  I am printing them out and assembling them today.  Hopefully by tomorrow, I will have them in the mail to all 34 people that are planning to be part of the trip. Unless something really unexpected comes up, this will be the last mailing I will do to all the people on the list.  It will NOT be the last bit of information that you will receive.  It just means that since I  now have email addresses for almost all of you, from now on out I'll save myself a lot of money by just sending you the information via email.  So....PLEASE watch the Dayton Ultralight Club's web site (and your own email too of course) for anything 'new' in the coming weeks.  We are approaching just two months to go, so time is of the essence now.</div> <bR> <div>   I was talking to one of our key planners, Dick Graham, about what we consider to be, THE MOST important obstacle yet to be figured out.  Namely, that would be "just how do we 'organize' this flight of ULs so that we don't end up at airports along the way at the same time, and what should be the proper (established) rules for staying 'organized' within each little group ('flight') of planes?  As you can imagine, with the ultimate goal of keeping the flying as safe as is humanly possible, we will need to lay down a firm set of guidelines that all pilots will follow so that 'conflicts' can be avoided.  Having never tried to 'organize' such a large number of planes to be a 'group' like this before, these problems are quite new to me.  I have been part of a poker run before, that involved 7 or 8 planes, and learned from that experience that there are always possible conflicts in procedures that can occur IF everyone is not on the same page.  So, what I am asking from you (the participants) is your best recommendations for a set of guidelines that we can print up and talk about before the trip.  Dick and I are working to come up with some, but if you've been involved in a large group flight before, then that means you would more than likely have some good (and bad) experiences from which you have learned. Your expertise' will be greatly appreciated. Please email me or Dick with your ideas and/or suggestions.</div> <bR> <div> Rich Jennings,   richard.jennings@wpafb.af.mil</div> <div> Dick Graham,    ULAce@netzero.net</div> <bR> <div> <B>4/07/04  -  Direct URLs to Kitty Hawk Trip Page</B></div> <div> There have been two sub-domains setup, so that you can go directly to this page using either of the following URLs:</div> <bR> <div> http://day2kh.daytonulclub.org</div> <div> http://daytontokittyhawk.daytonulclub.org</div> <bR> <div> This page will be expanded to include the route maps, check lists, and much more.</div> <bR> <div> <B>4/01/03  -  </B><B>Update for Dayton to Kitty Hawk Trip Participants</B></div> <div>   <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >As mentioned in my last posting to the web site, last week (on Wednesday March 26th and Thursday March 27th), I made a "pre-run" trip down to the other airports listed on the itinerary. I could only afford to take two days off from work to do this 'pre-run', and unfortunately it was not enough time to get all the way to the Outer Banks, before I had to turn around and drive home, in order to be at work on Friday. It was a hectic two days of driving (over 1400 miles total), but I'm glad I did it because I learned a few valuable things that will help everyone. </FONT></div> <bR> <div>   The new route, (starting on the second day of the trip), departs from Mercer County Airport in Princeton W.V... (actually it's closer to Bluefield...but that's getting picky), and goes to our first stop of the day, Virginia Tech Airport in Blacksburg Virginia. This is the highest elevations of terrain we'll encounter along the route. It basically follows the New River along the West Virginia and Virginia border. While this route is 'safer' than crossing directly over the mountains, (I will not kid you), it is still going to put everyone on the edge of their seats with all senses at full attention. The engine-out landing sites are few and far between. The route plotted out on a sectional, is 48 statute miles in length. If the weather is cooperative (light winds and no fog) we should make it in about an hour or less. But I feel this will be the longest hour of the trip. Still...this is the best route that can be chosen, as it keeps the pilots and ground crews relatively close to each other, and does not require any 'mountain-topping' climbs.</div> <bR> <div>   Once on the ground at Virginia Tech Airport (beautiful facility by the way!), we'll rest up for a while, calm down our nerves, refuel and 'unfuel', while waiting for the ground crews to catch up. I think it will take them a bit longer than the pilots to make this leg of the trip.</div> <bR> <div>   The next leg is from Virginia Tech to Smith Mountain Lake Airport, in Montea Virginia. This airport has the 'least going for it' of any airport along the entire route, but because it is on a 'direct line' of the trip, we'll have to use it. The airport may be convenient for the pilots to get to, but believe me it will be the most difficult one for the ground crews to get to. The 'back country' location of this airport will require that the ground crew will spend a couple of hours driving from Virginia Tech to Smith Mountain.  Almost all of the other driving distances between airports of the trip are nice and easy rides of an hour or less. Not so with this one.   It would be nice to have the ground crews bring a mid-morning snack to this airport. There are no country stores, MacDonalds, or anything within 12 miles of this airport and I don't believe they have anything 'on-site' to buy, so the pilots are at the mercy of whatever the ground crews have available.</div> <bR> <div>    OK, after we're ready again, we'll fly to our next stop, William Tuck airport (home base airport of the Jeff and Ward Burton ...for you NASCAR fans)!  Nice enough airport, but not 'overloaded' with 'facilities'. This will be our mid-day lunch stop as the town of South Boston is close by and full of nice places to eat.  I can see that by this time both the pilots and the ground crews will be ready for the lengthy break of a nice lunch.</div> <bR> <div>    So, now that we've relaxed a bit, we should be ready to take off around 1:30 to 2:30. The next stop is Mecklenburg-Brunswick Airport at South Hill, Virginia.  A easy flight for the pilots and an easy drive for the ground crews. The airport is only a mile off the ground route (Virginia Route 58). The facilities are top-notch ! Beautiful airport! The ground crews should beat the pilots there, as it's a straight shot from the last airport. We'll refuel, and be ready to make our last leg of the day. And it's a short one to Emporia Airport, Emporia Virginia.</div> <bR> <div>    After the 32 mile flight to Emporia (which will seem like 'nothing' after some of the legs we've done today), we'll touch down at Emporia Airport (another beautiful facility).  Tie the planes down for the evening, and go check into motels. After a little rest up & clean up, we'll meet at a restaurant of mutual choice for a nice dinner. Emporia Airport and the City of Emporia seem to be the perfect stopping point for this day. There are many motels, restaurants, and shopping facilities to accommodate everyones' needs.</div> <bR> <div>    The next morning we will depart Emporia and go to Tri-County Airport (ASJ) in Woodland North Carolina. PLEASE NOTE, that this is a CHANGE from what was previously posted. Previously, we were going to go to Franklin-Rose Airport in Franklin Virginia and then to Currituck. The reason for this change is very important. In doing the pre-run, I went to Franklin-Rose and then followed the roads to Currituck. In doing so, I had to drive 'around' the "GREAT DISMAL SWAMP". If you'll look at your Washington Sectional, you'll see just how humongous an area this is. It got me to thinking, that IF anyone had an engine problem while flying over this area, there would be no way of helping that poor soul....(and that's assuming they managed to survive the 'landing' in the Great Dismal Swamp). There are very few roads through that area.  I believe the only rescue possible of a downed pilot in this area would have to be by Coast Guard helicopter. So, since it genuinely scared me, I will not ask anyone to fly over that stretch of 30 to 40 miles.</div> <div>   Back to our trip planning now. As I said, we'll go to Tri-County, take a mid morning rest and refuel. The roads that the ground crews will have to take may cause them to be a little behind the pilots' arrival time. But that's OK.</div> <bR> <div>    From Tri-County, we'll go down to Northeastern Regional Airport (EDE) at Edenton N.C.  We will have a lunch stop here, and the folks at EDE have already offered to host us for lunch. Details..?..I'm not sure of right now...I just thought I'd pass along to you their comments of a few weeks back about how pleased they would be to have us fly into their airport as part of our historic trip.</div> <bR> <div>   After lunch, we'll complete our days journey, by flying to Currituck Airport. Currituck will be our 'home base' while we're in the Outer Banks area. It's a very 'Ultralight Friendly' airport, so we should receive a nice welcome. Unfortunately the airport is not really close to motels or restaurants. Those are at smaller towns nearby or at Elizabeth City about 10 miles away. Since we will be 'playing the motel situation' on a day-by-day basis anyway, we'll find places to stay once we're there. If the weather and planning goes "on schedule" we should have most of the afternoon to relax anyway.  We'd like to have a really nice dinner at a really nice restaurant that evening and talk about the next days' flight to First Flight Airport early in the morning. </div> <bR> <div>    You'll have to get to bed early, as we'll need an early wakeup call to get to the airport, prep our planes, etc for the early morning flight down the beach to Kitty Hawk/ First Flight Airport. We need to do this early in the morning because the winds can really get hairy as the day gets older. We really should be out of the Kitty Hawk area before 10:30 or 11:00 in order to avoid that. Of course, Mother Nature may take a sudden liking to us, and grant us some calm winds and beautiful weather that day and if so we could stay and play for a while longer...but that's just dreamin' !</div> <bR> <div>   OK...I've told you what I know so far. I now need to write up the new/revised trip plan and ground route driving directions for the ground crews. That will take a couple of days or so, and then I'll mail out the entirely new Participants Information Packets to all the people I know for sure that are planning to do the trip.  Look for it in the mail soon!</div> <bR> <div>   Thanks for your support and participation, </div> <div>   Rich Jennings</div> <bR> <div> <B>3/25/03  -  Dayton Motel Info</B></div> <div> The closest decent, reasonable Motel to Rich's place and the AFB Museum is probably the Microtel Inn & Suites.  The address is 4500 Linden Avenue, Dayton OH 45432.  Phone number is (937) 252-7065.  There is not a lot of exciting stuff around this Motel, such as restaurants or shopping, so we will get some info on several Motels/Hotels near the Fairfield Mall also.  Lot's of restaurants there and still relatively close to the Museum.  The departure point, Dayton-New Lebanon Airport is on the opposite side of Dayton from either area though, but a straight shot West on SR 35 will get you there in 20 - 25 minutes.  For a pic of the Microtel Inn click on this link: </div> <div> <A HREF="id191.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Microtel"><U><IMG SRC="220473b0.jpg" border=0 width="71" height="59" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>3/25/03  -  Pre-Run of the Route to Kitty Hawk</B></div> <div> Rich Jennings will complete the pre-run of the route to Kitty Hawk on March 26th and 27th.  He will have personally met with airport managers and other sources of information to make the trip efficient and safe as possible.  Rich also plans to talk with the National Park Service Office at Kitty Hawk about the memorial fly-by plans.</div> <bR> <div> <B>3/14/03  -  Letter to all "signed-up" Participants</B></div> <div>   <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >During the next few weeks I will be a very busy boy. Not only will I be completing the 'pre-run' of the trip, stopping at all airports and cities along the route from Dayton to Kitty Hawk, but I will be completely revising the Participants Information Packet. With the helpful suggestions from a couple of fellow Dayton Ultralight Club members (Dick Graham and Mike Zimmerman), the route has changed starting at the first airport of the second day of flying. All the Ohio airports and the West Virginia airports remain the same.</FONT></div> <bR> <div>   If you'd like to plot out the route (and it is highly suggested that you do so),  you will need to purchase a couple of new Sectionals, Cincinnati and Washington. These two Sectionals cover all but the last 40 miles of the route. You can go ahead and purchase the Charlotte Sectional if you want to, but it really is not an absolute necessity. For those of you looking for a great price on Sectionals, go to ipilot.com and look for their online Sectional buyers club. The prices are at the lowest I know of, and the shipping is free, so what more could you ask than that. (If only they would throw a little money our way for this free advertising ...fat chance huh).</div> <bR> <div>   Anyway, once you've plotted out the new route you will see that now all the airports are pretty equally spaced in distance, they are not as close to major congested areas as they were before, and the terrain is a bit more "comfortable" (safety-wise) than before. It does mean that North Carolina "loses out" a bit by not having us fly to their airports. But one of the primary goals of doing this trip, has always been to put a high priority on participant safety. If a better idea comes along, and it means the trip will be smoother, safer, or whatever, then I am all for it.</div> <bR> <div>    While I am rewriting the Participants Information Packet (as talked about above), I can give you the airport names and symbols here, so that you will be able to plot them out on your Cincinnati and Washington Sectionals. The complete route is as follows:</div> <div>     Dayton-New Lebanon Airport (I44), Fayette County Airport (I23), Ross County Airport (RTZ), Rhodes Airport (I43), Galla Meigs Airport (GAS), Mallory Airport (Private), Raleigh County Airport (BKW), Mercer County Airport (BLF).  End of first day.</div> <div>     Mercer County Airport (BLF), Virginia Tech Airport (BCB),  Smith Mountain Lake Airport (W91), William Tuck Airport (W78), Mecklenburg-Brunswick Airport (AVC), Emporia Airport (EMV).   End of second day.</div> <div>     Emporia Airport (EMV), Franklin-Rose Airport (FKN),  Currituck County Airport (9W7).  End of third day.</div> <div>    The fourth day is our biggie of course, and that will be our flight from Currituck down to the Wright Memorial. I can't say right now, but we may be able to fly into First Flight Airport . This is one thing I will be checking on next week when I do the in person, site-visit. If we get the OK and the flying conditions will permit us to land there safely (I've been told some horror stories about landing there...so we'll see), then everything will be cool !</div> <bR> <div>    In other news....I met with the company that will be producing the trip's t-shirts yesterday. Logos@Work is the company's name and they are a first class business that can produce excellent products. The funding of these shirts was made possible by a generous donation from the Montgomery County Public Works Department. We want to fully recognize the MCPWB, Kim Farrell, and Steve Goeke for making this possible. Anyway...the shirts will have the trip logo on the front, and the MCPWB logo on the back (and their logo is pretty cool in itself, because it has the image of the Wright Flyer incorporated in it!  We will have enough t-shirts to give one to each participant of the event  (the pilots, primarily I mean), and then there will be some shirts left to give to the primary ground support people. There will not be any extra shirts available for purchase. Sorry. But that also means that the shirts that are given out, will be pretty much an "exclusive" to the people who have actually made the tremendous effort to be part of this trip. It isn't much in the way of a "thank you" , but I hope you'll treasure the shirt as a memento of our adventure.</div> <bR> <div>    One last thing I'd like to talk about today....You know of course that there are many people involved in this trip that I know personally. And I can attest that they are all highly qualified pilots...but just as important...they are all genuinely nice people, easy to get along with and enjoy spending the trip "on the road" with. Of the remaining people, who I've never met, I get the same feeling from talking to them that they are likewise, really good people. I know they are highly qualified pilots, so no worry there. But I did want to emphasize to ALL participants that I place a great deal of importance on being able to get along with others while on this trip. That doesn't just mean on the ground either. You may have to "modify" the way you might normally fly, just a bit, to stay with the group and keep all our stops as 'on-schedule' as possible. Some of our participants may have planes that are considerably faster than others. That's great IF you were wanting to make this trip as quickly as possible, but that is not the object. The 'adventure' in doing this trip is in the sharing of 'experiences' while enroute. We are not out to show off, (either your plane or your piloting skills (read that as meaning 'tricks'). There will be no bragging about who's plane is faster/prettier/better than anyone else's.  So....bottom line...be considerate of others on the ground, in the air, and everywhere else (is there anywhere else?). Remember what I said on the Hold-Harmless Agreement...you will be an Ambassador of Ultralight Aviation by being part of this trip. I'll hold you to that agreement !</div> <bR> <div> That's' about it for now. I have heard some 'rumblings' about ASC doing a feature article on us in their magazine...but at this point I don't want to 'spoil the broth' by talking about it.</div> <bR> <div>  Thank you to each and every one of the signed-up participants. You are going to be a part of Ultralight History in about 3 and a half months !</div> <bR> <div> Rich Jennings, </div> <div> Chief Cook and Bottle Washer for the Dayton to Kitty Hawk trip.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>