Author: Mike

The Star Aero Club’s annual Poker Run is coming up soon. We will be providing more information, but save the date, November 23, 2019 for this always fun and well-attended event. If you need a refresher, here is a description of the event.
 
Please let Mike Gibbs or Mike Adams know if you would be willing to help with the preparations.
 
Also, to give us a preliminary indication of the level of interest, please reply and let us know if you are planning to participate.

After several delays as mentioned earlier, the 2019 Spot Landing Contest was held on May 7th. Despite the late date in the season, the limited participation, and even some rainy weather, we had a very successful event with four pilots participating.

The winning scored distance was 15 feet, achieved by Andy Durbin. Second place went to Mike Gibbs with a scored distance of 55 feet, and third place went to Mike Adams with a scored distance of 90 feet.

Once again, we have rescheduled the spot landing contest. The April 13 date didn’t work out due to a variety of airplane and pilot availability issues. In an attempt to hold this event before the summer heat settles in, and because most of the regular participants are not available for the upcoming Saturday mornings, we have rescheduled the contest to this Tuesday morning, May 7th. The forecast high temp for Gila Bend on Tuesday is only 83º. So, call in sick and take a few hours to come flying on a weekday morning. After all, it’s a training flight!

The contest will be held at the Gila Bend (E63) airport with the same format as past years. Please let us know if you are interested and available. Rules for the spot landing contest are available here. We will meet at the Gila Bend airport at 8:30am. We will finish up before lunch, and return to the DVT airport restaurant for lunch. If you’re planning to participate, please RSVP to Michael Gibbs as soon as possible. If you haven’t tried this before, come join us. The more the merrier!

As we announced previously, we have rescheduled the spot landing contest to April 13. It will be held at the Gila Bend airport with the same format as past years, and hopefully this new date will allow greater participation this year. Please let us know if you are interested and available for this new date. Rules for the spot landing contest are available here. We will meet at the Gila Bend airport at 8:30am. We will finish up before lunch, and return to the DVT airport restaurant for lunch. If you’re planning to participate, please RSVP to Michael Gibbs as soon as possible. We need a good turn-out to have a decent competition, so we encourage your participation. If you haven’t tried this before, come join us. The more the merrier!

February is typically the time for our annual Spot Landing Contest, however due to the (lack of) availability of several of the regular participants, we are moving this event to April 13. It will be held at the Gila Bend airport with the same format as past years, and hopefully this new date will allow greater participation this year. Please let us know if you are interested and available for this new date. Rules for the spot landing contest are available here.

Also, the Copperstate Fly-in is coming next week. Copperstate has moved to the Buckeye airport this year, and is combined with the Buckeye Air Fair. Please check here for more information: www.copperstate.org  If anyone is interested in a group outing to Buckeye on Feb 8, 9, or 10, please reply and we’ll see the level of interest and which day works best for the group.

Here are the results of the Poker Run held earlier today. We had good weather, a fun time, and a good lunch afterward. Our route this year was Deer Valley to Globe, Kearny, Coolidge, Ak-Chin, and then back to Deer Valley.

The card drawing and results are as follows:

Congratulations to Steve with the winning hand of 2 pairs.

Final preparations are underway for the 2018 Star Aero Club Poker Run. So far we have 4 airplanes and 8 or more contestants as shown below.  If you are not on this list and plan to participate, please let me know as soon as possible.

Participation is open to anyone, and the funding will be through a $20 ante, but no longer requires a separate dues payment.

Name and Aircraft
——————————
Jim Gard,  N1582H
Andy Durbin + Mark Henninger, N33666
Rod Kennan +2, N47601
Pat Scott + Mike Adams, N9890Y (distributing boxes in advance)

Date: Saturday, Nov. 17

Ante: $20 per person playing a hand for prize money

Time:  We will meet at 8:00 a.m. for check-in and a pre-flight briefing. Departure time will be approximately 8:30 a.m.

Place:  We will meet at the DVT airport terminal lobby.

This year’s run will take us east of the valley. The route is as follows:

Deer Valley (KDVT) – Globe (P13) – Kearny (E67) – Coolidge (P08) – Ak Chin (A39) – Deer Valley (KDVT)

Total distance: 190 nm

We will meet after the run at the DVT airport restaurant for lunch, the card showdown, and awards.

See you there!

Mike

————————————

Here is a summary of the Poker Run rules.

With the return of cooler flying weather, it’s time to think about the Poker Run coming up in November. Please save the date of November 17 for the Poker Run. More information will be provided as it gets closer. If anyone has ideas for an October event, please let us know.

From the initial idea to capture some of the early history of the Star Aero Club, it’s taken us all summer, but we have now added a page to the website with a few highlights of the early years. If anyone has additional pictures or other recollections that would be interesting to include, please send them to us.

In the process, I also thought it was time for a refresh of the website. Some of the information was obsolete and hard to maintain, and we have updated to a cleaner design and easier editing system.  The pictures and early history pages are under the Activities menu tab.

February Activity — Spot Landing Contest

February is traditionally the time for our spot landing contest. This year, the contest will be held at Gila Bend (E63) on Saturday, Feb 17.  We will meet at the Gila Bend airport at 8:30am. We will finish up before lunch, and return to the DVT airport restaurant for lunch. If you’re planning to participate, please RSVP to Michael Gibbs as soon as possible. We need a good turn-out to have a decent competition, so we encourage your participation. If you haven’t tried this before, come join us. The more the merrier!

As we did last year, we will use the revised scoring method, using the shortest distance of each pilot’s landings rather than the sum of the distances.  The rules are available here.

We are again including the “dead-stick” landing option in the competition. Each pilot will have the option of making any landing from a power-off approach. For this option, power will be reduced to idle at the start of descent on downwind, and is not to be reapplied prior to landing. Spot landing performance based on the reference line will be evaluated with a scoring incentive for the dead-stick option:  half (50%) of the measured landing distance will be used for the scoring of the power-off landing.. The goal is to demonstrate landing performance in a simulated engine-out situation. The pilot will adjust pattern size and application of drag to land on the desired spot. As always, safety is the primary consideration, so any reapplication of power necessary to ensure a safe landing is always the first priority.

Poker Run Results

The Poker Run was held Nov. 18th and was very successful. We had good weather, great participation, and a good lunch afterward. Our route this year was Deer Valley to Casa Grande, Coolidge, Marana, Ak-Chin, and then back to Deer Valley. This southerly journey worked out fine except for Casa Grande. For some reason every other Saturday pilot in the valley wanted to go there at the same time we did. Didn’t they realize we had it reserved?!

The card drawing and results are as shown here:

Congratulations to Kevin with a Full house with Jacks and Aces. Hmmm, this excellent hand was very suspicious but we had 10 witnesses, so it must be legit.

February Activity

Our next event,  the Spot Landing Contest, will be held on February 17. Start practicing.