High Rock weekend re-cap

[Richard Hays]

First and foremost...all I can say is.....a big hearty THANK YOU to all who attended.

Ok...some details and credits. As usual the Hays family got a late start, hauling up the food, beer, wine, tables, firewood, etc. etc. Arrived around 3pm. George Tutor and Suzanne were already there, and George had setup the lights and generator.

I'll try and keep it all short. We got everything setup and people began to arrive. Grill fired up again a little late but the buffet line was up and running. We had chili, baked chicken, macaronni and cheese, pasta salad, baked potatoes, veggies, Humas, hot dogs and hamburgers and Boca burgers. Peach cobbler and cakes were the dessert(s). We had case of wine, and several cases of beer, soda and other stuff.

Danny was the man for the wine tasting contest. Good and bad wines were bagged, numbered and tasted. Of course it basically boils down to a large group of people doing shots but..then again...thats by design. LOL. This of course led to the pumpkin toss. It was amazing to see how far a large pumkin can not only be tossed, but caught! Picture people diving for pumpkins like it was a hail mary throw in the super bowl ! To funny! And of course there was pumpkin carnage too. Winners? Kayla Campansino and Mark Gardiner! What did they win? They won the pumpkin! Other highlights were bottle rockets, men on stilts and....of course the raffle which once again had Mark "the mojo" taking the grand prize for the glider. The bonfire blazed and the talented bunch broke out guitars and began playing. This went till about 4am.

In summary; it was a BIG success for a non-flying weekend. We had about 40 attendees, lots of food, great weather and alot of fun. Special thanks to those that contributed more $$$ to the fund raising effort than required too. You know who you are. Thank you very much. There was alot of volunteerism going on before, during and after the party. Thanks to all. We raised about 540.00 (approx.) Expenses were around 475.00 (approx.) Out of that we gave Emma and family $ 200.00 cash and all the leftovers we could. So yeah...we went in the hole this year but...not to badly and well...like was was saying before...thats what your annual dues kinda goes for too.

Special thanks go to the following members,friends and boardmembers:

George Tutor and Suzannne: lights, ice, tables, setups and cleanups. And for the funny little dog.
No-show Bunkhouse Bob Buchannan: The blessed generator. And for mowing around the fire-pit previously.
Kayla ( Yes..I'm a H-2 )Campansino: Chasing peopled down for money and raffle tickets.
Dave "the amazing": for bringing down some raffle goodies and for the cool glider voucher that I forgot to give Marc. And for the stilt lessons.
Leigh "Paula Dean" Hays": for two days of cooking and preparing food until midnight. You have no idea what she actually has to do to prepare the eats.
Gene ( long hair ) Towns: For always being a major help with just about everything.And the "extra"
Janni ( where's the cake? ) Papakrivos: For providing the torches during a time of darkness.
Danny Brotto: for taking on the task of judging a bunch of wines and winos.
Randy Carbaugh: for the road-fix and the additional firewood.
Mark Gardiner: for taking on the responsability of the bottle rockets as only he could. And for the musical talent.
Rusty ( I should be a H-2 by now ) Tylenda: ice
Cragin: for the "extra"

* and to everyone else who pitched in and helped out before during and afterwards. Please forgive me if I've not included you. And for everybody else that came up to support the High Rock Flying site.

Y'know...we talk about how much effort and stuff this takes to do, and whether its worth doing or not. Nobody bitches louder than I do about it. Well.....it is worth it. One thing we forget is that the Carbaugh family actually LIKES this event and looks forward to it. And as clubmembers we forget that its actually fun to get together and have an event like this. Its your club. Its a great site with a great history. Once a year is not to much to hassle with.

Unlike maybe the VFD up at McConnellsburg, the Carbaugh family comes down, has dinner and genuinely has a good time. Our show of support and respect goes a long way. Sure....we give them some $$$ but its a token compared to what they do for us. The High Rock Fly-In is an all encompassing, important show of gratitude towards the landowners and a show of solidarity between the two clubs and its desire to keep the flying community strong locally.

Thanks guys. I'm really, really honored to be associated with you all.

Richard Hays
Pres. MHGA

[davidtheamazing1]

And a huge shoutout to Richard for making it all happen!! It was an awesome party... if you missed it you missed out.

For those in the know, the flying component of the party was at Ridgely...

[DanTuck]

Thank you, Richard and everyone who made the Fly-In possible!

Shawn and I arrived at Bill's around 1:00 on Saturday and it was STFI at 8 or 9 mph. No way! So we dropped a car in the LZ and by the time we were set up, it had backed off to about 3 or 4mph. I launched first and hit sink pretty much the whole way out. Shawn launched right after me into 2 or 3 and we were both in the LZ within 4 minutes. Several others were set up but by the time Laszlo launched, the streamers were limp. So everyone else broke down and we all headed over to High Rock.

The party was great. The punkin chunkin' was great (my arms were sore Sunday). Mark's light-up frisbee was great. The food was super great! The spoons came out, the stilts came out - you could do some serious fire jumping in those things. Good times! It was nice to finally meet Raj, Rusty, Kayla - put some faces to the screen names/avatars.The evening campfire was perfect - bright moon, hot fire, cold beer, warm guitars. Plus the roasting glow necklaces were very cool.

Now, will somebody please turn the wind on? Preferrably on a Saturday or a Sunday. Oh, and hold the thunderstorms. Thanks.

[carweill]

Thanks for everyone that made it possible. Great food as always.

A few people were able to fly on Sunday. Mark G had an early flight and put a great fight trying to follow some birds.
Later conditions seemed to improve some, drop some cars, but once we came back it lighten up again. So I had a very short flight but at least it was my 3rd time at HR this year. Charlie took off and was able to hang on for a while on his first flight of the rock. Thanks to Raj for the ride and helping us launch.

Carlos