The two full-scale participants this year. Mike Weltyk from Oxford, MI flew in on Saturday with his beautiful Maule Rocket(above left). On Sunday, Walt Plentis and his son, Walt, joined us with their J-3 Cub (above right). Mike Cisler of Brighton, MI converted an Aeronaut Aero-Master (below left) to a flying boat
configuration. Mike was the winner in the Sport Category. Robin Rissell does a low pass with his Canadair Water Bomber (below center). Joe Hass from Rochester, MI was behind the sticks of his Arrow (below right)—a Laddie Mikulasko design that was built by Vince Pettke.
plane retrievers and the photographer! (I spent much of the weekend waist deep in water with my Nikon.)
Of course not all flights end up returning to the beach under their own power. A neces- sary component of a float fly is aircraft re- trieval. Club members provide the retrieval via powered boats, kayaks, and beach waders depending on the distance from shore. The water can be very forgiving, and also provides some good “splash” photos for the camera. Keeping the attendees, workers, and spec- tators well fed is an important part of the
event. “Billy D’s Burger Shack” was open for lunch both days, a catered “chicken and pas- ta” dinner Saturday night from Bar None Catering, a local restaurant in Brighton, a peach cobbler dessert, and a Sunday morn- ing Pancake and Egg Breakfast round out the food offerings.
Skymasters offers thanks to the sponsors of this event. Their generosity in donations and discounts is a tremendous help in run- ning the event. A pilots drawing on Sunday had all entrants going home with a prize at the end of the weekend.
The next Midwest Regional Float Fly will be on September 7–8, 2013! I’ve been asked to return to run the 2013 event. I welcome you to come join the fun—whether to fly, or watch. If you haven’t flown from the water before, I hope you give it a try and find it as enjoyable as I have. Find out more about Skymasters and the Midwest Regional Float fly on their website at
www.skymasters.org, e-mail to floatfly@
skymasters.org or call me at 248-431-5562. Come on in—the water’s fine! Happy landings!
Mark Smith from Seaplane Supply provided retrieval services (above) for many planes that needed a little help returning to the beach. Seaplane Supply provides a variety of float styles and sizes for putting your plane on water. One of the more colorful models (at right), a rare Piaggio P.136 Royal Gullby Paul Daniel of Pewakee, WI. Paul scratchbuilt this model from plans.
FLYING MODELS 31
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