Texas STOL Roundup 2018

[Mark Goldberg]

I wanted to make sure everyone knows about the Texas STOL Roundup next weekend. This is the 2nd year it is Hondo TX west of San Antonio. It is a fun event. The contest is on Saturday with some fly out stuff on Sunday. If you are not too far away - stop in. Mark

[kestrel]

...wishing I was closer...

[JimParker256]

Hoping the weather forecast improves...

[Mark Goldberg]

As the same as the past two years, weather kept the event from being well attended. They expected 400 planes and 50 showed up. Thunderstorms all around.

There is an audio MP3 file of the very nice comments of a demo rider which will go up on our website in a day or two. I can not seem to upload anything other than .jpg files to the forum.

Also, a 1962 SuperCub refurbished by Robbie Stanton's shop (Air Tech) won the short field competition in that category. Beating all the new Carbon Cubs. Since Robbie was a Bearhawk guy and offers good pricing for his fabric process to BH builders - it is worth mentioning. Mark

[JimParker256]

D'Ann and I attended, and the weather was actually nice, from a spectator perspective. The grass runway is right in front of the "big tent" area, and the one brief rain shower we had during the competition served to cool things off a bit. We had a great time, and I'm really glad we went.

I haven't seen the results posted yet, but from a visual perspective, there were some excellent performances. I was again blown away by the performances of the Beaver and the Helio Courier, both of which are HUGE by comparison to the others in the class, yet were very competitive. Fun to watch skilled pilots do their thing...

My absolute favorite, though, was the '46 Champ that "competed" with a grandkid in the back seat. Though he wasn't remotely competitive with the specialized STOL LSAs with 180 HP, etc that were in his class, he turned in some pretty remarkable performances, especially given the horsepower disadvantage, no flaps, and probably weighing in right at the LSA max gross... And I'm pretty sure he had WAY more fun than most of the competitors. Something his grandkids will remember it forever... Very cool!

Thanks, Mark, for helping sponsor the event. Here's hoping that next year brings clear skies, hundreds of airplanes, and thousands of attendees! The event is worthy of it, for sure!

[Mark Goldberg]

Here are the comments of the one pilot who flew a demo flight at the 2018 Texas STOL Roundup in Hondo. I posted this here so that pilots interested in a Bearhawk can hear the words of this accomplished pilot who has nothing to do with the Bearhawk world - yet. Obviously - he was impressed. Mark testimonial Hondo 1 (1).mp3

[Tfoster100]

Great audio. I’ve been wanting to go down to Hondo last two years and haven’t made it. Plan to go next year and hopefully will be well under way in my own Bearhawk build by then.