Christmas weather greeted us with blowing snow and very December-like conditions as 40 plus members and families met at Mandarin Orleans for a fantastic night of seriously good food and somewhat less than serious presentations. President Pierre greeted all and got things rolling with a call to the buffet! Some waistlines may have been damaged in the ensuing culinary onslaught!
We started out the proceedings with our elf presenting Chris Simon with a pre-Christmas gift, followed by a special award to Brian Pepin for his continuing excellent work in promoting the control line activities at Stetsons. Brian showed the gathering a real live Ringmaster and gave us the low down on the World Ringmaster event we participate in each autumn.
The Excellence in Precision Landing award was given to Hal MacDonald for his Aero Scout Bulls-Eye at the Ed Rae event this spring. Hal went above and beyond in his efforts to win! Some original parts may be still flying. Not to be outdone, our President earned himself a special award for his Hammerhead maneuver with a Ringmaster at the World event this autumn. To our knowledge, this is the only recorded Hammerhead ever completed by a control line model. Some improvement is required in the pull-out however.
We were delighted to see Nigel Chippindale reporting back to duty again, having just received the green light from the Doc's. Nigel and the instructors were presented with Certificates of Appreciation from the club for their successful operation of Flight School this year.
MANY gift cards were handed out in the random draws that followed, thanks to the generosity of our local hobby shops and the Stetson Flyers. We even had a pair of Senators Tickets won by 'Lucky Louis' Simon!
The Stetson Executive thanks all our members for their support throughout the year, and wishes everyone a wonderful Christmas season.
Visit the photo gallery here: https://photos.stetsonflyers.com/index.php?/category/26
We will see you at the First Flight event, 9AM, January 1, 2025, to kick off another year of fun , friendship and flying.
Gary Robertson