JR AEROTOW 2009 / 2010
by Stéphane R
I landed in this country in 2008 with all my family and all my sailplanes. I have overlooked the activity that was sort of divided in two groups. On one side, the East Coast guy and on the other the West Coast guys. Not a great deal of activity elsewhere.
Luckily I have been able to find a sailplane guy in my city, with a tow plane! Sometime life is just good! We have started to fly together in our club. I was then made aware of the JR Aerotow in 2008 but time was too short to be able to make the drive, so I did decide to make it for the 2009 edition.
Boys! You have a big country, and I am super close! Only a 7 hour drive! In Europe, you don’t even think about driving more than one hour to go to club meet! But anyway I took it as an integration process…
In 2009, during the drive, I just hit a storm between Indiana and Illinois. The start wasn’t looking good! But driving down south, the sky began to clear up and finally sun was there. That’s one thing that I have learned in Michigan: if you don’t like the weather, just wait 5 minutes, it will change!
Arriving at Monticello the airport is really easy to find and you discover the beauty of the place, nice grass strip and lots of space in your front, space at your left and space at you right too; I was forgetting space on your back too!
Getting signed up was easy; I put the plane together and right away into the air. Peter Goldsmith has been really dedicated to the cause! He is always available for whatever you need, trying to make you as comfortable as possible to decrease your stress, really helpful in my case. That is the pure JR Aerotow spirit, all that counts is getting as many sailplane pilots together to have good time and meet pilots from all over the country. I have met probably more people from different states than I will ever meet! That is the place where you can put some faces on the names you see in the sailplanes forums.
The site is beautiful, and what a place to see some gorgeous Sailplanes; from the latest top of the line machines from Europe to the 100% scratch built all wood Sailplanes, they are there. All the sailplane community is here to share around the hobby, not a minute goes by without hearing one of the never-ending stories about great flying sessions, the detail of the build of the model in the front of your eyes or the latest discovery in airfoil design, and how it is used in this or that model…. Not only do the discussions go on and on for the day but all the night too. It is very common to finish the talk at the hotel; it is well known that 12h is not enough time to share about passion of the hobby! Same in the morning, usually 2 to 5 pilot already flying their electric or DLG before the “Bar” gets open!
I stayed three days, and probably been in touch with all peoples present. When you are leaving the event you just can’t stop thinking only one thing: I have to be back next year to meet my friend and have good time again: this is what the sailplane community is in this country, and I am very impressed. The next year, 2010, I went again, and standing in the field, looking out at the planes once again, thinking how I was glad to be back here.
Thanks to all the JR woman and men for making this event such a good fun time. And also, thanks to everyone that goes to the event, the crowd makes it fun. Don’t forget the date of 2012 edition June 2nd to 5th, I will be there, make sure you say hi.
JR Aerotow 2009 Pictures
JR Aerotow 2010 Pictures
