01/01/2025
The first day of flying at 2025 went pretty well this morning. Here's the overly dramatic report! (from Marc)
This morning I woke up to about 3 inches of wet snow, covering every branch of the trees - it was quite pretty as you can see in the picture.
The roads were snow-covered and it was snowing... and it was about 32 degrees. As I passed through Thompson and headed downhill towards Madison, the snow stopped and the temperature went up to 35 - and there was no snow on the ground (or on the trees) - completely surreal. There was no snow at the field and the winds were calm. It was wet but not as wet as we expected.
I was joined by Chuck Mettler, Dave Tomaric, Myron Clark, Barry Bertagnolli, and Jim Zeroff. Chuck brought some wood and we made a fire to keep warm, but it wasn't that bad. The wind really never came up and the precipitation held off. Compared to past years, it wasn't that bad.
Dave was first in the air with his Yellow Ag "cropduster", he flew around and made a perfect landing on the runway.... and the metal axle on one wheel broke in half! Then Myron flew his foam Edge-540. I brought a "swamp buggy" which I drove around through the puddles for a few minutes until the 3D-printed prop exploded. (the pieces went UP). Myron flew the Edge again and during his flight he ran into a problem - either a wind gust or a battery shift or a mistake sent his plane out of control and he crashed into the trees on the far side of the field. Myron was able to retrieve the plane - the picture shows the results. I flew a Zagi (flying wing) and was joined by two eagles (or large hawks, or vultures) who were not impressed with my flying at all, but it was uneventful.
After thinking about how all of us had less than perfect results, we decided that Myron should be awarded the "First Dork of the Year" trophy - although Myron disagreed with the decision!
Happy new year to everyone! - Marc
