By Leo Mehl
The birthday celebration and new model display done by Frank Macy was a very nice event that was held in the museum. There was also flying after lunch and the program. It was fun time by all and one of Jim's brothers was there plus his three daughters and other relatives. There were displays of Fireball planes frome 1939 to present times. Also Gil Laughlin was there with his Fireball collection and indoor flying planes.
There was also a large cake that was consumed by all of those that were there. Jim's daughters recollected their home life with there dad. Frank presented a picture of the first control line club in America which was called the Fireballs. It will be framed and put into the Fireballs archives.
By Mel Lyne
A beautiful day, fantastic hospitality by the Johansen clan with a bang-up BBQ burger luch with all the trimmings, and a whole bunch of people having fun flying model airplanes. What more could you want? O.K. so the Earth did stop turning momemtaririly as Dan "The Dirt" Rutherford actually flew a Diesel Combat plane. REALLY!!
Beginners Jacob and Sorrell got into looping D/Bats as did Caroline's son Ron. Austin Johansen also put in some flights. Down from Canada were the usual cross-border suspects Henry and Isabel Hadjik, Paul Dranfiel and Mel Lyne. Local north-westers were Jim Green, Robert Smith, John Morrow, Buzz Wilson, Jeffrey Rein, Ole Jr, Kenny, James, Rex and a few other Yo-Yo heads. There was a bunch of them in there testing combat ships, F2Ds, Fasts, 80mphs, 1/2As and lotsa D/Bats. Before too long Robert Smith put out a D/Bat challenge. 3 rounds and nine matches later Robert was the only flier without a loss. Some good combat, some sneaky stuff, a bunch of dorks and not a single mid-air. Everyone was happy. Even Ole Sr was happy in spite of his "Best Crash" of the day with a big stunter.
Caroline and Ron Wright-McPherson put in some serious air time with some new D/Bat equipment while Ole Sr and Kenny Johansen flew some stunt planes as did Rex, along with The Dirt trying to wear out the usual Flite Streak. Many thanks again to Ole and Jan Johansen for opening their lovely pastoral farm for us to fly planes. And a big thank you to all the generations of Johansens(especially the cooks and grass mowers) for doing all the work to make it such an enjoyable day.
For those who have never been to the beautiful Skagit Valley to sample the Johansen farm hospitality, you're really missing something.
This page was upated May 1, 2006