Franconia Encampment - Great Teamwork!

Someone commented on the blog  “Great amount of work by the few that always do the work but poor club participation”.  BS!

I think that group participation in the work part of the Franconia Encampment was fantastic!  I think it was at an all time high (but I have only been involved for last 6 years).  At the risk of leaving some contributions out (sorry) here is how I saw it:

1) Paul (and Marsha) arranged for rooms at the Kinsman (Traditionally Done By Andy ("TDBA") and Judy).

2) Greg spent 2 hours organizing the bins in Rick’s garage (TDBA) a couple of weeks before the encampment.  He also made up extra tow ropes (Henry and Ben helped).

3) Greg, Dan and Evan fixed up the fuel trailer.

4) Karl got the fuel and brought it to Franconia.

5) Evan set up a spreadsheet to organize the mobilization to Franconia and the return (TDBA) and people signed up for every piece of equipment.  This is HUGE.  Even though Rick and Pete took it upon themselves to get most of the equipment up to Franconia, knowing that someone had made the commitment ahead of time was just as important as actually moving the equipment.  There were many private gliders going and many owners were committing themselves to making multiple trips if necessary.

6) I saw Pete and Sonny assembling the 1-23 as usual but I know there were others.

7) Judy organized the BBQ as usual.  But instead of Judy supplying all the food everyone contributed.  Thanks everyone!

8) Moshe secured the space for the BBQ at the Kinsman Lodge.

9) Andy did the grilling as TDBA but I think he enjoyed it on the Kinsman’s Mega-Grill.

10) Dennis, Dan and Sawyer got the picnic tables from Cannon and returned them after the BBQ.

11) Dakai, Ken and a giant cooler supplied cold drinks at the field.  In years past it was every man for himself.  Dakai signed up for every empty space on the planning spreadsheet!

12) Lane setup the base camp at the field (AKA the tent).

13) The bulk (actually all) the towing was done by Andy as TBDA but this was his choice.  In fact I saw Andy beating Evan with the fuel sampler when Evan tried to get in the tow plane.  Doing all of PMSC's tows was not enough for Andy so he did all of FSA's tows too!

14) Greg and Paul made sure everything got packed up and moved out on Sunday.  I know they had lots of help but I don’t know who did what because I was still flying.  When I landed everything was gone and there was nothing for me to do (thank you, I REALLY appreciated that!).  Often we leave stuff behind and have to make special trips the next week – not this time.

15) Significant Other (wives and girlfriends) participation was higher than ever.  I heard that 2 SO’s , Anne (who said she wanted “nothing to do with husband's flying stuff”) and Angelica drove trailers home! And others drove cars for the ferry pilots.  OUTSTANDING!

16) 100 other things that I can’t think of….

And to top it off there was more biking, kayaking, hiking, climbing, stargazing (thanks Henry), bear watching (wild bears and at Clark’s) than ever.

And to double top it off FSA’s towplane was broken so we towed all their gliders and saved their weekend.

PMSC is operating like a well-oiled machine!  We should all be proud of our club.

Tim