News

2024 Spot Landing Contest Results

This year’s spot landing contest was held on Feb. 24, 2024, at Gila Bend airport (E63). We had a good time, and encourage others to join in next year. It’s a fun outing, and good training too!

Here are the results.

2023 Poker Run Results

The 2023 Poker Run was held on Dec. 2, 2023. This year’s route went to Kearny, San Manuel, Pinal Airpark, and Ak Chin. The weather was great after a two week rain delay, and we had an excellent turn-out with 8 airplanes and 18 competitors. The results of the competition are as follows:

Here are a few pictures (click on an image for a bigger view):

2023 Spot Landing Contest Results

The club’s annual spot landing contest was held on Feb. 25, 2023. We had a small group, but we all had a good time, and the day turned out to be very pleasant, even though a storm is forecast for later in the day.

Here are the results. Andy brought his new Carbon Cub and as you can see, he showed us all how to land slowly and accurately. Well done!

2023 Spot Landing Contest

It’s time to save the date, February 25, for this year’s Star Aero Club Spot Landing Contest. More information will be provided in the coming weeks, but here are a few details:

We will meet at the Gila Bend airport (E63) at 9:30am. As we did last year, we will allow both the power-on and power-off options, and the scoring method will use the shortest distance of each pilot’s landings rather than the sum of the distances. The rules are available here.

Rather than going out for lunch, we will have a bring-your-own picnic lunch at Gila Bend following the competition. Bring your lunch and a lawn chair.

If you’re planning to participate, please RSVP 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!

In picking a date for this event, we noticed several other aviation events in the valley you might be interested in.

The Buckeye Air Fair will be held the previous weekend, Feb 17-19. This year it is expanded to include an AOPA regional fly-in. More information is available here: https://www.buckeyeaz.gov/community/residents/events-in-buckeye/buckeye-air-fair

Also, the Copperstate Fly-in will be held March 24-26 at Falcon Field, Mesa. More info here: https://www.copperstateflyin.org

2022 Poker Run Results

The 2022 Poker Run was held on Nov. 19, 2022. This year’s run went to Bagdad, Wickenburg, Buckeye, and Gila Bend. The participants and winners are as follows:

The 2022 Poker Run is Coming

Preparations are underway for the 2022 Star Aero Club Poker Run. If you  plan to participate, please let me know as soon as possible. Participation is open to anyone. 

 Date: Saturday, Nov. 19
 
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.
 
The DVT restaurant is closed, so we will meet after the run at the DVT picnic area (near the police hangar, east of the south hangar complex). We are not planning an organized picnic, but hope everyone will BYOL – Bring Your Own Lunch to the picnic grounds, for lunch, the card showdown, and awards.
 
More information is available here: http://staraeroclub.com/poker-run-rules 
 

2022 Spot Landing Contest Results

Our annual Spot Landing Contest was held today at Gila Bend (E63). We had a good turnout with 6 contestants ready to show their stuff in some blustery and inconsistent conditions. We all had a good time and enjoyed the occasion.

Results are as follows:

  1. First place goes to Andy Durbin with a 49′ power off landing, for a scored distance of 24.5′
  2. Second place goes to Jim Gard with a distance of 32′
  3. Third place goes to Mike Adams with a distance of 41′

Complete results are as follows:

Here are a few pictures of the deluxe lunch venue in the airport maintenance carport! (but it was shady and out of the wind)

Poker Run Results for 2021

The 2021 Poker Run was held on November 20, 2021. It was a very successful event with 6 planes and 12 contestants competing. This year’s run took us to Payson, Winslow, Sedona, and Cottonwood.  The poker hand results and prizes are as follows:

Here are a few pictures.

2021 Spot Landing Contest Results

We had a successful Spot Landing Contest this morning at Gila Bend (E63), with six contestants stepping up to compete. We followed the competition with a socially-distanced picnic lunch under the tie-down shade. The results are as follows:

1&2: Brad Carey and Mike Gibbs tied for 1st place with a distance of 35’
3: Kevin Vetter took 3rd place with a distance of 48’

Detailed results are as shown here:

Here are a few pictures from the event:

2021 Spot Landing Contest – Feb. 20

It’s time to save the date, February 20, for the upcoming Star Aero Club Spot Landing Contest. More information will be provided in the coming weeks, but here are a few details:

We will meet at the Gila Bend airport (E63) at 8:30am. As we did last year, we will allow both the power-on and power-off options, and the scoring method will use the shortest distance of each pilot’s landings rather than the sum of the distances.   The rules are available here.

Rather than going out for lunch, we will have a bring-your-own picnic lunch at Gila Bend following the competition. Bring your lunch and a lawn chair for a socially distanced outdoor lunch.

As further incentive, two of our members have new airplanes that will possibly be ready to show off this year. Mike Gibbs has his Series 7 Kitfox back in the air, and Andy Durbin has his new Carbon Cub FX-3. Both of these will add an interesting new mix to the landing contest. Another rumor is we might even see a skydiver or two join in!

If you’re planning to participate, please RSVP 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!