Mike Gretz Memorial Fun Fly 2022

[Bob Rogers]

The first Mike Gretz Memorial Fun Fly was held last weekend at Antique Airfield, the home of the Antique Airplane Association, outside Blakesburg, Iowa.  There were two C/L circles cut short and painted as well as a nice R/C runway groomed the same way.  The weather was a bit chilly but sunny with a lot of blue sky.  Some wind off and on but not enough to be an issue.  I didn't get an actual count but there were about 15 of us on the field.  It was two days of great people, great fun, great conversation, and wonderful weather. 

As I'm sure you all know, Mike was a long time employee of Sig Manufacturing as well as a member of the board for the Airpower Museum at Antique Airfield.  This event was to honor his contributions to AAA and modeling.  It was the first event and a lot was learned so, the current plan for next year to be better publicized and better attended.  As Brent Taylor, President of AAA said, "We are learning".

The AAA also had over 50 old kits for sale from a collection that had been donated to the museum and sold quite a number of them.  All sorts of kits were represented as well as some Cleveland Models kits from before the war.  A lot brought back memories and some I'd never heard of. 

The kids from the aviation program in Ottumwa, Iowa cooked burgers and such for lunch and terrific pork chops for supper as a fund raiser to help out their training. 

I'll do my best to let you know the plans for next year as soon as I find out anything.  Should be a grand time. 

[Dan McEntee]

   Thanks for the report Bob. i wish I had been a little more prepared and could have gone. My suggestion is, move the date. The SIG C/L contest was always the third weekend in June, the one after Fathers Day. I would be there like a shot of it's in June. Maybe Bob Nelson might have some more input if the current SIG ownership has any objection. They moved the C/L fun fly to September this year and it had a lot of conflicts. Maybe join forces with the Museum in some way since Gretz was a fixture with bot organizations?  And I like the idea of a fun fly, not a contest, keep it low pressure and fun, unless it's an all Twister contest!!
   Thanks again,
   Dan McEntee