The lovely Melissa came along for the second year to be the official "ball disperser". You can see that the balls are different colors, with different symbols on them. Prizes are awarded to balls as to colors and symbols.It takes extraordinary skill to properly drop the balls out of that box! Thanks Melissa, great job!
Kids line up on both sides of the field and wait for the signal to "GO!" after we fly by and drop the ping-pong balls.
Ya gotta come in at the correct altitude and heading, taking the wind into consideration, in order to get an even distribution of balls so the kids aren't mugging one another to collect them.(Click to enlarge and you can actually see the balls.)
It was a little warm, but otherwise a great day for the event.Last year the field was muddy, and kids ended up with wet feet while skampering around to pick up the booty.
This year the field was perfect!
Pretty shot, huh?Man, I love helicopters!
Still, I wonder what I'll do for a living when I grow up?
Mission completed, I landed and dropped Melissa off, then picked up Gene, the photographer for our local newspaper to take some pictures of the Fairgrounds.Here we are landing, so I can shut down and rub elbows with the adoring crowd of folks 12 years old and younger and answer their questions...
What a great job!
3 comments:
Thank you. When I was a student pilot I read this accident report and this is the first time I have received an explanation for the utility of aerial ping pong ball dispersion.
Curiously, while searching for the above article, I found another reason for the task.
Trix, there is a video out there of the guy in the Cub crashing, and I was surprised he was killed... the impact doesn't look like that big a deal.
I'll look for it and post it if I can find it.
OMG! My 5-year old grandson would love to do that. I can just picture him running after those ping-pong balls; he's very competitive. I can't wait until he comes over and I can show him the pictures you have posted. He is into anything that flies (mostly helicopters & fighter jets) or goes fast on the ground (drag racing, motorcycles, nascar, etc). He doesn't have a computer at home, so he's got a whole array of pictures and bookmarked web sites on my computer -some from your blog. Thanks for the pics.
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