Baton Rouge Contest

[Mike Griffin]

If everything keeps going like it is and I have no major setbacks, Looks like I will get to go to the Baton Rouge Contest.  I will not be competing but it will be great to see everyone again.  A fellow club member of mine is going to drive and all I have to do is ride. 

Mike

[Jim Oliver]

Sounds great, Mike.

Doug, Gil and Brent were at Clanton for the weekend, good to see them.  Hope they get the grounds fixed in time for the event.

Regards,
Jim

[Mike Griffin]

Thanks Jim.  Wish I could have been at Clanton but the knee was not quite ready.  Is there a problem with the grounds Jim.  I have not heard anything about it.

Mike

[Joseph Patterson]

    Well Mike,
                  Jim Let the "cat out of the bag" a little before I was, because I have been hoping that any day now the land scaping company was going to get it done. However, the repairs have not been made yet, but I'm sure everything will be done before the contest. The flying site was damaged during last hurricane when our site was used as a heliport for Air Guard Black Hawk choppers. Some "brite eyed bean counter" thought it would be wise to have a (4W) drive military tank truck be stationed at the site to refuel the choppers. In fair weather maybe a good idea, but not in heavy 10" downpours. The result was 10-18" ruts in several places in and around the two circles. The Black Hawk pilots even admitted having the tanker was totally unnecessary. In the past hurricanes- Katrina, Rita, and Gustav, no field refueling was ever attempted. Fueling was done elsewhere(permanent facilities) such as the airport or guard fac. (<4mi) from our site. A small crew could straighten the mess out in a day/ day and a half. Big Bro looking out for you= one big stinking mess sometimes(maybe more than sometimes).
                  Please do not cancel your plans guys. I will keep you informed through this forum and by telephone. I will let you know well in advance if we have to call off the contest, so you can cancel reservations if needed. It may be possible to get another site within the park system, not sure, yet, but we have one site in mind already and are going to look at some others in the South Baton Rouge area. Keep in mind that the week-end of Oct 20,21 -LSU plays Texas A&M IN College Station, TX, so there will be plenty rooms available in Baton Rouge.
                   Doug   

[Mike Griffin]

Hi Doug

Thank you for filling us in.  I know you all have to be frustrated but just wanted you to know we will be there if the contest goes on.  We will keep our fingers crossed everything gets worked out before contest time.

Mike

[Derek Barry]

I would love to come down sometime for the good food and flying. Unfortunately it is the weekend before the Huntersville contest and that would be a little much for me.

Derek

[Joseph Patterson]

    Thanks Derek and Mike. I know one day you will be able to make it Derek, and Mike looking forward to seeing you again.
                  I just got off the phone with Tommy Mansur, our hard working Assistant CD. He has been like a beagle after a rabbit on the Baton Rouge park management people. He has finally got some action. The park people were sent a notice from the Fed's, that even though they indeed damaged our park flying site, they are not liable for the repairs since they were dealing with a declared national emergency- thus no money to pay for the repairs. This was in-spite of the fact that they had told BREC management to get (3) bids, which BREC complied with and settled on a company. Following this they simply reneged. Tommy and I are not through with the Fed's yet, we probably won't accomplish much, but  Tommy will get in touch with the individuals making these wrong headed decisions and give the ***&^%$#@_)()+_+_(&^$#@#AS..........^%$#@%^&*()&*()(&^*(^&*()&$@$^&&^$$    AN EAR FULL!!!!
        ***** NOW THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT BREC NOW REALIZING THE AIR GUARD AND FEMA ARE NOT GOING TO PAY THE $16,000 FOR A LOCAL LAND SCAPEING COMPANY TO REPAIR, ARE NOW GOING TO DO THE JOB THEMSELVES. THEY WILL START TOMMOROW MORNING AND BE FINISHED IN 2-3 DAYS. HALLELUJAH!!! LORD FORGIVE ME FOR ALL THE "CUSSING" I DID IN THIS MESSAGE AND I ASK YOU GUYS TO FORGIVE ME TOO!!
                  SO YAWL COME NOW!- DE GAME IS ON- GENTLEMEN START YO ENGINES AND YOU POUR OLE ELECTRIC GUYS TURN DEM ELECTRONZZ LOOZE!!! We gonna have a good time after all-LORD WILLING!!!
                  GOD BLESS YOU GUYS,
                                                   Doug              

[dale gleason]

It's all good....thanks Doug and all the BR guys-n-gals.
See you all there,
dale g & Linda B

[Mike Griffin]

OK Doug....Sounds great .... I will see you then.. By the way....FEMA screwed over us on our field in City Park in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  They did the same thing to us they did to you... told us they would repair the field back to its original condition... THEY LIED.  Club members ended up restoring the field.  I cannot tell you how many loads of river sand we have dumped in there.  It has been 7 years since Katrina and we are still rebuilding our flying field with no help from the Government OR THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS.  AMA did give us a grant of $500.00 but that is all the financial help we got.  I know how you guys feel....

Mike

[Joseph Patterson]

       Thanks Dale and Mike- We are looking forward to seeing all of you in the big BR.
   DOUG

[Jim Oliver]

Doug,
That's great news! 

We plan to leave here this Friday, headed your way---a week early, but we will be visiting family in Covington.

Jim

[Joseph Patterson]

      Have a safe trip Jim, it's always great to be with our kids and grand kids. Our children and grand children are 500 miles to the east and 500 miles to the west of us.
          Doug