> hi brian...
>
> will you please do the nfka flyreport honors one more time?...pretty
> please?...with a cherry on top?
>
> besides, since i spent most all morning fieldstripping my porsche in a
> parking lot several miles from the ft lewis flying field, you are the
> most able to report the abuse nfka received at the hands of the military
> police.
>
> really, i'm surprised that nfka didn't simply seize the communications
> center and secure the perimeter with claymores...a full on nfka retreat
> is hardly even comprehendible...and certainly it represents a black mark
> against our fine and glorious tradition of successful seige-warfare
> conducted against unsuspecting communities throughout the pacific
> northwest.
>
> grins.
>
> d.
I thought that was a "new" vehicle ;) hmmm... Well, ok. I'll see what I can do about it. Not going to promise it before the long weekend though. I'm planning on ducking down to Malheur lake in SE Or. for a few days just to poke around.
The Boy Scouts duffed it and didn't get clearances from the base for any of the kites. Can't really blame the gvt. for that one. Besides, we barely escaped with our lives ( and flying line ) from the depredations of all those rigidly supervised khaki midgets.
"Can I have one? Huh? Huh?" Zoooooom ... CRASH
We trickled into the Fort Lewis open house day festivities
( with the exception of Dennis ) and tried to find out where we were
scheduled to fly. There was a fairly open quadrangle where the
scouts were demo-ing boomerang making and flying. Sam Huston
said that he had seen some other fighter flyers down the way, so I took off
to locate them down by the airfield apron. The wind was a bit
smoother there, but is was right on the airfield and I wasn't too sure that
was a good idea. Besides, the other fighters weren't there
either.
I went back to where I started and spotted John M. and Rich H. there. There were some overhead wires and poles down the center of the field so all the kite displays moved off to the far end where we were not so much in danger of zapping a scout. We helped John set up the weather station and get that organized, and soon we were mobbed by our reason for being there.
We handed over a number of fighters for them to try out and there was the usual number of heavy handed tyros that had difficulty, but a few seemed to have a gift for the sport and I hope we'll see more of them in future.
I set up several of the club mylar indians and spent a while taping and re-taping the skins. The field had not been mowed in a while and the stubble was about 6 inches high, and of a sort of very tough grain producing variety. I've flown in recently harvested wheat fields and it was very much like that. You don't want to be putting a mylar fighter down into it very often.
About noonish, one of the military safety officers came by the
kite field and informed us that we would not be able to fly there any longer
since there were ongoing aircraft flight displays and the scouts had not
arranged for clearances for the kites in the air.
Well. It's lunchtime innit?
We decided to retire in good order to Steilacoom Park and pick
up the lines down there after lunch. On the way out of the base
Rich spotted Dennis and his broken down jalopy at the front gate.
Chuck had recommended the Plannet Burrito just north of the
gate and we all headed down there to scarf some beans, but it has been
transmogrified into some sort of terriaki place. We wound up
at a greasy spoon down the road after running around the block a few times.
Rich went back to see what Dennis was up to and tell him of our change in plans and venue.
I completely failed to get any photos during the scouting part
of the day because I was busy keeping kites in the air so you'll have to
be happy with the SP pics this month. Dennis finally joined us
at the park and we got down to comparing new stuff and trying to keep a few
kites up in the very variable wind conditions.