Tavares Pond Picnic Review

[piker]

So, Ken Ross, Bill Quantock, my wife, Tara, and I, had a very interesting day of float flying today!

A while ago, David Tavares' assistant, Hugo, contacted me to see if I, and a small group of helpers would be interested in taking part in their annual charity picnic, for the Portuguese church, at David's property.  We were to fly our seaplanes as entertainment for the crowd.  That picnic was today.

Tara and I met Bill and Ken this morning, a little after 11:00 and headed to the event.  We parked on the far side of the pond and used my trailer lid boat to ferry our planes and equipment across to the usual flying site.  After a 12:00 Mass, and a great lunch, we started flying and we flew and flew and flew.  Bill had his Sea Master, Beaver, and his new Macchi MC72, Schneider racer, which he recently test flew at the TEMAC field, but decided not to fly at this event as it was quite windy.  Ken had his large, Carbon Cub, Mitch Polling Aqua Sport, and Tide Water.  I had my Water Bomber, Macchi M-33 Schneider racer, Toledo Special, and even my micro Carbon Cub, which I flew despite the winds.

We had lots of interest in our planes and we certainly provided some entertaining flying.  The only mishaps were a tip over of Ken's Aqua Sport and my last flight with my Toledo Special when I suddenly ran out of power, was unable to pull up to a safe height, and landed hard in the water, pulling off the floats.  Surprisingly, the plane still sat on top of the floats, so didn't get wet.

It was interesting watching the Mass, the singing and dancing, and the comedy show.  The only problem was that we couldn't understand a word they were saying.  Still, a very nice bunch of people who were really enjoying the nice weather and the time together. 

I was very happy they asked us to participate in the picnic, as it provided us an opportunity to give back a little to David, his wife Mary, and Hugo.  Thank you Bill and Ken for coming out today, for bringing a fantastic assortment of planes, and for flying up a storm.  I know it was a bit of a wait to get flying and the music coming from the speakers beside our pit was a bit deafening, but I hope you guys had a good time.  Tara and I did.  We finally left the picnic, just before 6:00.

[Papa]

Congratulations to all of you. You do the club proud and we are so grateful you could take the time to represent TEMAC.


Jack.

[sihinch]

Hear, hear!