EDITOR: CAROL & GERRY HAMPTON AV8RGNH@SBCGLOBAL.NET 530-676-7755
Westover 2013 Sept 19-22
We had 27 Swifts, 2 Meyers, 1 C-182, 1 CJ-6, and 1 C-310 over the four days for the 27th annual Westover event. By state, we had 15 Swifts from CA, 6 from WA, 2 from NV, 2 from AZ, 1 from OR, and 1 from TX. We had 13 Swifts on Thursday with 25 folks at Mel’s for dinner. We had 66 at the BBQ on Friday night in the hangar on Westover Field. Once again our Westover friends were a great help and loads of fun. 47 at the Banquet at Thomi’s on Saturday night! Great food and settings. Thanks to a lot of folks for donations of door prizes and auction items.
We were blessed in having long time Swifters Dick Collins—picked up by Gerry Mahoney, and Bill Whelchel brought by Bill Gass, attend the fly-in. The Friday night post hangar party runway walk was great, although Bill Gass managed to lose his airplane keys while lying down on the 19 numbers to view the stars—all was well however as another Swifter found them and we were able to get them back to Bill.
Paul and Sandy Mercandetti conducted a formation clinic with 4 new attending and taking the written test, with another 8 as repeats/auditing to refresh their formation knowledge/skills. They were able to get in a four ship training flight on Friday afternoon consisting of Don Bartholomew as lead; Tracy Rhodes and Paul Mercandetti as -2, Nate Andrews as -3; and Pete Donath and Sandy Mercandetti as -4.
Weather was lousy on Saturday with low ceilings and rain precluding most any flying especially formation training. However, we had 20 folks in 4 cars on the wine tasting tours of three local wineries. I don’t know about the other vehicles, but I had several cases of wine in my trunk for our carload of wine connoisseur Swifters.
The following awards were given out at the Saturday night banquet:
Tired Butt Award: Steve & Barb Wilson, TX (By Swift)
Viewers Choice Best Custom: Miguel Nelson, N34RX, Frontier Airpark, WA
Viewers Choice Best Original: Jared Smith, N3378K, Huntington Beach, CA Bud Knox Grand Champion: Kyle Hook, N90383, Petaluma, CA
Stan Price did a great job as auctioneer for the evening keeping every one entertained and engaged.
Our thanks to Karl Johanson who put together and played a great DVD throughout the evening at the banquet.
Swift National 2014
The Southern Swift Air Group is sponsoring Swift National 2014 at Wright Brothers Airport, Dayton, OH. June 4-8. The theme is “The Wright Place to be in 2014 in Your Swift”. Pre-registration forms will come out with the Jan 2014 newsletter and continuing each month. Put this on your calendar—we will tour The National Museum of the United States Air Force”—it will be a wonderful time.
Red River Swift Wing Gathering Oct 31-Nov 3
The RRSW folks will be holding their fall fly-in at Pecan Plantation, hosted by Steve and Barb Wilson. Info follows:
LOCATION: Pecan Plantation Airport 0TX1 is a residential airpark located 8NM south of Granbury, Texas 76049. On the Dallas/Ft Worth Terminal chart 45NM SW of DFW outside the Bravo. 3600’ X 50’ paved lighted runway – with PAPI (Currently 18/36 to be repainted to 1/19 this spring)
TIE DOWNS: There are a dozen permanent tie downs available.
I have a few sets of tie downs I can loan out. Suggest you bring a set, especially if you are not one of the early arrivals.
FUEL: NO FUEL available on the field, but Granbury Airport GDJ has fuel at a very competitive price.
ACCOMODATIONS: Contact Barb Wilson at barbwlson@aol.com or 817-279-1379 with your choice of option, number attending, and t-shirt sizes
Option #1
Stay with a Pecan Plantation host family in an airpark home.
(Limited rooms available)
Option #2
Pecan Plantation Clubhouse – I have all rooms blocked for this event (all non-smoking) 7900 Monticello Dr Granbury, TX 76049 – 817-573-2641
DBL Queen and King Rooms are available at a cost of $90.10 for weekdays and $100.70 for weekends.
2013 WCSW SWIFT FLY INS
Oct 31-Nov 3 Pecan Plantation Airpark RRSW Gathering
The above information is accurate as far as we know it, if we receive notification of changes to date, time, locations, etc. we will update you.
The ANNUAL DUES for 2013 for a newsletter sent by e-mail is $5.00 and you must provide us an email address. If you want it mailed, US Post office, the dues remain at $15.00 – we still have to offset the expense of printing, mailing labels, stamps, etc. For our Canadian friends, we must continue to ask for $20.00 because of the higher postage fees.
****IF your annual dues are up for renewal, please send your check to Gerry Hampton, 3195 Bonanza Dr, Cameron Park, Ca 95682. Make the check out to Gerry or Carol Hampton, WCSW. If you have already renewed, please disregard this notice. HOWEVER, all correspondence should be sent to Gerry Hampton either at the home address or to the e mail shown on page 1 of this newsletter.****