On Saturday, October 5 the weather finally gave us a break with sunny skies and beautiful flying conditions. Control line flyers from Central New York used the opportunity to meet at the STARS flying field in Phoenix, New York, and devoted the day to trying to break our past records for the annual Ringmaster Fly-A-Thon. And we were successful as 8 Pilots flew 11 different Ringmasters for 31 official flights!! These results were added to the worldwide tally maintained by ‘The Brotherhood of the Ring‘. Worldwide, a new record of 11,160 official Ringmaster flights were recorded!! Truly an epic feat that sets the bar very high for future years.
What follows below are a series of photos and a video of the planes, people, and actions that went on during the day at the STARS. But the most epic action was the flight of the blue Ringmaster Biplane built and flown by STARS member Steve Dwyer. Coincidentally, another STARS member, Robert Droner happened to be flying his drone on the adjacent R/C field and recorded Steve’s flight of his biplane. The flight is not to be missed! Scroll through the photos of the day’s action and the brief video of some flying to then get to Steve’s epic flight. Thank you Robert Droner for the link to your video. Thank you Michael Graham for your photo contributions. And thank you Steve Dwyer for providing an epic flight…and sorry for your loss.
(Click on photos to zoom in on them)
The STARS prepped the field for the event
Morning dew on the field while waiting for the planes to arrive
The scene of the action
Some of the Ringmasters on the flight line
Steve Dwyers Ringmaster Gyrocopter
Steve Dwyers Ringmaster Biplane (pre-destruction!)
Steve Dwyers Ringmaster Triplane (new for 2024)
My faithful Ringmaster (223 flights on this bird)
My Ringmaster on final landing approach
The Finger Lakes/Rochester crew
Starting engine for a hand launch
The hand launch – it was more successful than it looks!
How many hands does it take to start a COX .09 engine??
Jerry Vasilik demonstrating his solo stooge launch technique
Our Flight Director, Jerry Vasilik – ‘The Mad Ukrainian’ – calling for the ‘Next Victim!’
You don’t fly without these bare essentials
A brief video of some Ringmasters flying during the event:
Steve Dwyer flying his blue Ringmaster Biplane (An EPIC Video!!):
We are all looking forward to doing it again next year – and Steve Dwyer has already started on his 2025 ‘Mystery Ringmaster’.
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