Napa Wine Country Fly-in

Sorry I'll miss you guys, almost made it out there this weekend but schedules forced travel out to next weekend.

We'll see what next year brings with the new (old) job. Of course a hunch tells me we'll already have a West Coast trip coming for BACFest 2008.
 
napa wine country fly-in

OK, I'll stay for dinner. I just have too much to do, and not enough time. That and I'm a cheapskate. Look forward to being there.

Joe Ashment
 
Napa Fly-in

The Napa Fly-in is off and running. There were 10 bodies for the barbecue dinner at Dan's house tonight.

First arrival today was Rick Spann and his wife Alyson. While they were moving over to the south ramp they were followed closely by Gary Cavasos and his wife Liz. Rick flew in from Santa Barbara and Gary flew in from Los Alamos, NM. Arriving a little later was Richard Kutzner and wife Shell.

Everyone got checked in and gradually found there way over to our house for the barbecue. Ken Vineburg and wife Bernadette drove over from Vacaville.

We had more food than we needed and everyone had an opportunity to get acquainted. We told stories and talked about airplanes. We had a fire in the copper fire pit and sat around on the patio sharing stories. We missed Jeanne and Jeff and hope they can make it up tomorrow but want them to fly safe.

We had a birthday cake for Steven Friesen (one candle) and we have a picture of everyone wishing him a happy birthday. Notice that I did not say that he showed up, we just wanted to make him wish he had.

We have some more coming tomorrow. Plans were made tonight to visit some wineries, some will be hanging out at the airport for part of the day until dinner tomorrow evening. Four airplanes here already counting the Duchess. We should have 3-5 more tomorrow. Not bad.

Joe, I'm happy you are staying for dinner, actually it is a bargain, just wait and see!

Dan Jonas
 
Time

Joe,

Pretty much anytime from now. Some of us will be out at the airport for most of the day. Bob Lewis is supposed to be there about 10:30. Dinner activities start about 6. Show up when it works for you.

Dan Jonas
 
I landed about an hour ago and now that the chores are done, I wanted to tell Dan and Adrian thanks for work they did for the Napa event. I had a great time and met some nice BAC members. I don't want to steal Dan's thunder so I'll leave it at this for now-Bob
 
Napa Fly-in

I think everyone had a great time today, I know that I did. I got out to the airport about 10:30 this morning and a few of the BAC members were already there. We hung out and told stories and a few of the wives went off to visit the outlet stores.

Ken Vineburg flew over from Vacaville, his wife Bernadette drove over later (they also drove over on Friday), Bob Lewis flew over from Woodland and Joe Ashment flew over from Stockton. Mike Samac drove up from San Jose and Michael Amerlan drove down from Lake County and joined us at the airport for a short visit. Later in the afternoon we were surprised to see Mike Peace who came down again this year from Washington State with his friend Prefecto. That is in addition to the Friday arrivals of Gary Cavasos and Liz, Mike Spann and Alyson, and Richard Kutzner and Shell. Adrianne and I too.

We had a total of 10 BAC members over the two days and 8 BAC aircraft for the event. We got some great pictures of the airplanes and those will be posted within a day or two.

Some of the participants hung around the airport and some went off to explore the valley and find some wineries.

We had a great dinner at the airport and more conversation. Ken, Bob, and Joe flew out tonight after dinner. All had short flights home. Most or all of the rest will depart tomorow. A few of us are going for breakfast in the morning.

I think we can call the Napa Fly-in a success yet again. Like last year, we had some people come quite a distance to join us. I think that Gary Cavasos holds the record now for longest flight to the Napa Fly-in. We had BAC members from our Southwest, Northwest and South Central Regions here.

This is the second year for the fly-in and it was a fun and rewarding adventure. I urge all of you to consider hosting or attending a BAC event. In just the last 13 months or so I've met at least 25 BAC members from 5 regions. I've easily doubled that number if you add in BAC member spouses, children and friends of BAC members. In another month that number is going up by a bunch at BACFest 2007 and I suspect I will have met members from every BAC region including the International Region.

How cool is all of this.

Dan Jonas
 
Great write up Dan. Perhaps we could offer Gary a dual citizenship/membership ha ha. It was nice meeting all the new BAC people. I will probably see Mike Spann once in a while as I learned his grils are going to UC Davis. That is about 10 minutes away from my home. Let's get members thinking about AOPA in 08. It will be in San Jose. Let's fly as many planes there as possible and have a group dinner table at the welcome dinner. What say?
 
Napa wine country fly-in

Dan,
Alyson and I would like to thank you and your wife for all your work and hospitality. We had a great time in Napa, and it was great meeting the other members of the club. It was very nice to put a face to the names I have been reading in the forums. I look forward to our next fly-in and to the next one that our region holds.

Thank You again,
Rick and Alyson Spann
 
Great photos in the photo gallery! Sounds like another wonderful time for all. I was there in spirit this year. LeeAnne and I had to fly over commercially last year and I had BAC duties in Tennessee this year that kept me from attending but I thought about you all!

I say again....hopefully next year!

Chris
 
pics added

Hello all..

Bern and I had a great time with everyone in Napa... can't wait for the next one! Thanks Dan and Adrienne (hope I'm spelling right) for hosting... we will meet up again sooner than later... Maybe next time Bernadette won't get the char-broiled pancake :)

I added some photos to the Napa fly in folder... the original files are about 2MB, so if anyone wants better definition, I can email them to you...

Ken V.
 
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