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We had terrific weather both days for the meet this year and a good turnout. I am often asked why I have the contest so early in the season when the weather is unpredictable, to say the least, in the upper Midwest. The reason is I have most of the site property in a government conservation program and I am not allowed to have vehicles on the field during bird nesting season of May 15th thru August 1st. I have scheduled the contest after Aug. 1 in past years but the turnout was not as good because of a lot of other area contests going on in the same time period. I actually have enough space in the center of the property that is not in the government program to fly with wind in any direction and do so year round. The problem with a contest like Misty Meadows is parking space for all the vehicles.
The site is the unique thing about the meet and most who come here for the first time say they have never flown on a site like this before. It is my home and on 55 acres of gently rolling land. The launch area is terraced with an adjacent large pond. Not quite so apparent is the field is on a peninsula of a state park lake. Within flying range there are wooded areas, meadows, farm fields, large bodies of water and slopes. These things challenge the pilot on strategy as to where the lift will be on any given day and having to deal with surface turbulence if it is windy.
I have run the contest for a number of years and am trying to slowly build it into a major event. I noticed there seems to be more of the lady spouses/friends coming and asked why that was. The answer I get is “this is the only contest we go to that has a real bathroom on the site”. You might not think that to be a big deal but ask your wife for an opinion. I now have a couple of sponsors and some other amenities. I do informal surveys to see what contestants want in a meet and what it takes to motivated them to travel a ways. I think I have that pretty well in the groove now. One thing I hear especially from the out of Towner’s is they like to get in a lot of rounds so I now have the reputation of being a slave driver. This year I ran the contest late on Saturday and called it on the early side on Sunday with the idea that people from out of the immediate area were going to stay over Saturday night anyway but would have to drive home on Sunday. In hindsight I could have run one more round on Sunday and still achieved that objective so sorry about than one guys.
If you haven’t been to a Misty Meadows contest and you live in the Midwest, or anywhere else, consider coming next year. I will be here. Terry Edmonds |
