2001 Los Banos
California

T Shirt Design by Bruce DeVisser
  
This Years event was moved to April 28th & 29th to improve cooler weather and hopefully more wind. Well we got both, and then some. Wind conditions were perfect on Thursday with winds out of the north west at 20 knots. This made fantastic slope lift from the dam to the three trees at the far west slope. The weather stayed consistent on Friday with winds building to 25 to 30 knots late in the afternoon. Friday had 50 pilots sign in for the weekends festivities. Winds died down in the morning so we filled in with aero towing through most of the day till the winds filled in late afternoon. Sunday, winds were again light, so tow planes were on duty.

This year Ralf Scheifele and Thomas Schmidt From EMS Germany came with new DG 1000, DG800 and Ventus 2c ships. Ralf demonstrated the Electric up and go Ventus 2c and Thomas demonstrated the new DG 800 with two sets of wing tips, short for aerobatics and the long tips for thermal flying. We were also shown how the water ballast system in the DG 800 works. Alberto from Hobby Club came with a bunch of new scale ships. Bruce DeVisser was master chief of cafe "La Visser" Again Lynsell Miller and the gang from SBSS put on another great weekend. This year the landing area was cut to a much bigger space, all the way to the road so you had no reason to not make your landings. And once again, Bruce DeVisser came through with another fantastic T shirt design, we all thank you!
Mark Foster 1:3 Pilatus.
Camp Foster.
Mike Shelhart 1:4 Discus 2B.
     
Tony Elliot
1:3.5 scratch built
ASH 25.
Tony Elliot scratch built
10 Meter SB-10.
Ralf and Thomas
make adjustments to
the new 1:3 DG 800.
     
Check out the "SCALE"
landing gear!
Water ballast
servo and valve.
Adding water to
the wing tanks
of the DG 800.
     
Ralf & Thomas,
ya finally made it
to Los Banos!
Ralf with all his
new ships.
Here is the DG 1000.
     

Willy Gundler
1:4 scale SG-38.
Willy won best vintage
with the SG 38!
It looks great in the air.
     
Flight line for aero tow.
Camp EMS.
Lynsell and his
new and bigger
loud speaker.
     
The aero tow
was great on
Saturday morning.
Milling and stuff.
Note Tony's
10 meter SB 10
in fore ground.
He won best Modern
and well deserved.
Here is a B&W
shot of Marks
ASW 15 looks real!
     
Same with his
Platus, a B & W shot
sure looks good
almost looks like
an old photo you Dad
took.
Mean Gene the Flying
machine ! another perfect
solo launch into 25
knots of wind with his 1:3
Schuler 26.
This was on Friday
you can see the
wind lines on the
water.
Dennis Brandt
on approach with
his 1:3 Krause
Salto.
In the Q for a tow
Rick's ASH 26.
More milling and stuff.
Alberto with a
batch of new
scale ships.
Don Meeks with
his trusty Porter
towing Thomas
and the new DG 800.
DG 800 on tow.
Thomas Schmidt
enjoying the warm
winds of Banos.

I'll bet Tio and the
guys in Germany
wish they were here!
Landing the 800.
Another great day
of flying at the
big "B".

Ralf's models
get better and better
the details in the
800 are very nice
all you need is an
Axel pilot.

Gene gets ready
to launch my
Schuler 26.
Were off!
This was the best flying
I have had here in the
last 5 years, the lift
was everywhere !
Here you can see
how far back they
cut the landing area
Alpine Mike says!
Ya, is very goot!
Gene launching
Mark's 1:2.5
ASW 15.
This ship has great
classic lines.
Big model ,big sky!
 
Mark has told me
that Arnold Hofmann
has had a hand in
building this model.

Great shot Mark, looks real!

  
The Last Flight!
Mark Foster's 1:2.5 ASW 15, 7:45 pm and 85 degrees winds
north west at 20 knots! It can't get much better that this.