Tavares Classic Boat Show -- Rick is Delighted!

Tavares, FL hosts a large, classic boat show each year and Rick was excited to attend. This show features amazing boats from the golden era of boating -- focusing on the late 20's to the 50's. Boats like this magnificent 1927 Chris-Craft shows us how boating used to be. 

Rick is in his glory looking at the amazing boats and motors. He loved this late 1950's Evinrude Lark 35hp outboard. He had an early 60's version of this same motor -- of course when Rick had it, the motor was just "old" and not yet a classic.

Walt, a friend of Rick's from the RV park, has owned several classic boats like this Chris Craft. Walt knew all about these wooden masterpieces and seemed to really enjoy the show as well. 

One of the cool features of this show is that most of these boats are actually used and as a result, we can see them in action. The owners of these boats are real enthusiasts as they restore and operate boats that might be 80 or more years old. Pretty cool!

Rick and Walt got a real kick out of the several race boats that were present, including this Baby Gar boat, built by Mr. Garfield Wood. This 33' boat was built for speed and looked it as it tooled by us.

Speaking of speed, how about this Gar Wood boat -- "Miss America IX" which in 1930, was the first boat in the world to exceed 100 miles an hour. Today, the restored boat operated twin Chevy 454 engines and is every bit as potent as it was in 1930. 

Back in 1930, Mr. Wood installed twin Packard supercharged engines, with each one developing over 1,200 hp! Yikes -- imagine a boat this size with 2,400 hp and made of wood. This restoration is amazing and really brings the past to life today. 

A Picnic for the E-Fliers at Old Mill Stream

 

We have had a great season here at the Old Mill Stream RV Resort and have really enjoyed the electric RC Flyers club here at the park. Now that the season is winding down, we decided that the club should have a get together to celebrate a great season.  Here are many of the flyers with a SloStick model that we fly in the park.

Here Jim, Rick and Walt are planning their next plane and enjoying the evening. 

  We were delighted that our wives wanted to come and enjoy the picnic. Of course, we also were delighted that they brought things for dinner!

 Rick was one of the official flight instructors for the club and decided that we should celebrate the accomplishments of the fliers with some "award" certificates. Here, Jim received the award for the best unplugging of the training cord by stepping on it during flight (opps!).

Not to be outdone, Butch received his well earned award for achieving the remarkable feat of flying into various objects such as trees. Fortunately, all our planes are small and lightweight so no damage was done -- except, perhaps to our pride. We had no shortage of certificate worthy events, so everyone seemed to have a great time 

Naturally, there was lots of supervision around the grill. It did seem that there was more supervision than action, but what the heck -- we are retired!

 Dick knows how to relax and wait for dinner to be served. He has done a great job in learning to fly radio control aircraft and is looking forward to next season.

  Dinner is served. We had a great meal and great conversation. Perhaps the best thing about the RV lifestyle are the great folks that we meet. This is a friendly park and we are looking forward to coming again next year.

Rick expands RC flying -- into the multipurpose building!

Rick and Orinda have had a great winter -- but have been pretty slack in posting to the blog. Hopefully, Rick will do a better job from here on out. 

We have participated in several activities here at the Old Mill Stream RV park, but perhaps the most unusual has been INDOOR RC flying! The park has a large, multi-purpose building that is used for several things, including flying inside as Rick demonstrates above.

Naturally, we have to fly smaller, lighter planes, such as this Night Vapor, which fly great. We have a number of folks now flying indoors with these aircraft and have a blast. This plane weighs just a couple ounces, yet features full throttle, rudder and elevator control.

Here, Butch, a newer flyer, is flying his Vapor very successfully inside. This is great since even on windy or rainy days, we can fly.

The Vapor is available ready to fly and costs only about $100 with battery, charger and all the needed servos. This is a perfect plane for the RVer as it can fit in almost any rig as we travel.

The slow flight abilities are amazing as Gary shows as he serves as the "carrier" for a Vapor making a very slow approach. The plane is so light that we can easily catch it if needed. It also means that these planes can run into walls, floors, etc. with no damage which means it can fly anywhere. 

How about a quick touch and go from a small board? Hard to believe a bunch of retired guys can have a great time flying around in a small building --but we do!