Current events by John and Peggy

Sunday, October 13, 2013

John wins "All Around" trophy at Mack Mesa Airplane Rodeo. 10-5-2013, Peggy produces a 54 sec. movie.

Approximately 35 contestants from Colorado and several neighboring states turned out in Mack, Colorado for this popular annual event put on by airport owners Steve and Lexi Brown and airport manager Ladd Klinglesmith. It was a perfect fall day in western Colorado. 10-5-2013

This year the three events were as follows.

Spot Landing   Most pilots come in low and slow with power.

Zero Thrust   For example, pilot goes to zero power at 1,000 feet above the ground one half mile from the airport. The object is to finesse with angle of attack, air speed, flap, slip, and any other technique possible to land with touch down just past the line.

Landing Over Obstacle   The obstacle was a ribbon approximately 8 feet high. This ribbon was very close to the line which made it very difficult to get down.

John came in first in the spot landing and won the "Top Gun" all around trophy by placing the highest in all three events.

Does John look happy or what? For a 54 second movie of his landings click on the link below.

Movie taken by Peggy.http://youtu.be/ZOmC6lKXF6o

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Air Rodeo attracts 35 contestants.

October 5, 2013

The annual, Mack Mesa, Colorado, Air Rodeo was held on a perfect fall day and gathered a large crowd of spectators and airplane rodeoers.

Peggy was one of two girls that entered. Here she is shown getting recordable scores in each event.

Click here for a 31 second video. Peggy wins ladies division.

Spot landing

Zero Thrust landing

Landing Over Obstacle

Monday, September 13, 2010

John's first Go Kart race

1:58

Every muscle in my body is still sore today. My fastest laps Sunday were in the 1:03 range for the mile long track. Need to get the time down under a minute to be competative. Sabra' Cook, my driving instructor pictured above, is the daughter of the track owner. She is 16 and a 4.0 Junior at Fruita High. At 105 lbs. she is the fastest driver in the area. Her times are in the 56 to 57 second range.

I race in the Senior Max Class. I managed to come in third yesterday. This class is for 35 year olds and up. Cart and driver must weigh at least 390 lbs. The cart weighs 200. Therefore weight must be added to the carts for the drivers that weigh less than 190. I add no weight.

Average speed is around 60 mph. The track has multiple difficult corners. We estimate the straight away speeds in excess of 80 mph.

The CRG cart is built in Italy. The Rotax engine is made in Austria. The MG racing tires come from Brazil. At 14,000 rpm, the highest allowable, the piston in the 26 pound engine is going up and down 233 times per second. The expected engine life is 50 hours.

Kids begin in the Comer 50 class at age 4. Granddaughter, Brooke, was racing Go Karts before she had the training wheels removed from her bicycle. Grandson, Parker, races in the Comer 80 class. At the race last month a 9 year old girl from Denver was fatially injured in a terrible accident.