Report by Tony McDonald, video by Julio Alvarez

Wow it was cold as everyone started showing up for the first Wine Country Flyers fun fly of 2014! There was also a five mile an hour head wind that added a extra chilling effect. We had ten pilots sign up to compete by ten o'clock.

• Julio Alvarez
• Wylie Walters
• Jacob McDonald
• Merle McGregor
• Steve Koll
• Adam Clement
• Paul Eason
• Doug Moore
• Larry Gustafson
• Bill Walters

The first event "The dice roll" had a interesting element of chance built in to it. Steve lucked out and rolled a one. That indicated the amount of loops Steve had to perform then land. With a low time of 15.6 seconds he won sixteen dollars. Adam came in second with a time of 16.22 seconds. Julio, third with 18.8 seconds.

The second event was the "Taxiway drag race". The object was to start at the designated area then to taxi as fast as you could and pop a balloon tethered to the runway at ground level. Simple right? Half of the pilots did not finish. Then came Wylie and he made it look simple with a time of 5.9 seconds he won the sixteen dollar pot for the event. Adam came in a close second with a time of 6.8 seconds. Jacob, third with 10.0 seconds.

The final event of the day was "Limbo". This was our only judged event in the contest. Charles McDonald and myself made it clear to all the contestants that we were looking to be impressed with style, flair, and a element of danger. Special consideration would given for a inverted or knife edge pass. Three pilots opted to try the inverted pass. Only Jacob pulled it off but was to high to win it. Jacob ended up one point behind the eventual winner. Our winner decided to climb to thirty thousand feet upwind. Then put it in a speed dive heading downhill and downwind and at the last second skimming inches off the runway under the pole with authority. It had all the elements we asked for. Style, who would have thought of heading upwind and speed diving downwind! Flair, the last minute skimming inches off the runway. Danger, threading the needle in between and under the poles! Congratulations Doug! Don't spend all the sixteen dollars at the taco truck. I can see that all those strafing passes paid off! Bill Walters came in third only four points behind the leader and three points behind Jacob. Not bad Bill for your first fun fly.