by Bob Violett

Seventy-five eager jet pilots had 3 days of perfect weather in Central Florida to enjoy this "last of the season" jet events. Lots of flying, with few mishaps marked another very successful event put on by Steve Jaworski and John Burdin.
This event is maturing as a manufacturer's display opportunity and BVM was there to fly many of our products and offer some "Pilot Link" opportunities for some new enthusiasts.

Photo Gallery
 
Patrick Holowesko lives in Nassau (Bahamas) with his mom (BV's niece) and dad but made a special trip to Lake Wales to visit Great Uncle BV and get some stick time on the BobCat Composite.
Patrick trained on the "Real Flight" KingCat simulator and was able to do a very respectable job flying the real thing. At just 11 years of age now, we can expect great things in the future and we will enjoy watching it happen.
   
   
Dustin Buescher, still in engineering school, came to the event from Wisconsin to help us demonstrate the BVM jets. Here, Dustin poses with the F-80 (Shooting Star) which is perfect for 11-17lb thrust engines. It really scoots after the tanks are pickled off.
Dustin also flew the Super Balsa Bandit on P-70 power, the F-4 with P-120 power and the F-86 (60") with the new JetCat P-60 for power.
   
   

John Christensen, representing Fly R/C magazine was on hand to cover the event with lots of great photos.
Tom Dodgen gave John a ride on the new BobCat Composite. Usually, that's all it takes to make a sale.
   
   

John Banner's AFS F-86 is 2 years old now and does well on a T-500 for power. The Sky Blazer scheme is brilliant.
   
   

The new yellow/blue KingCat scheme was introduced by Barry West and John Griffin. Tom Dodgen did the first flight honors and it was perfect, of course.
   
   

This happy trio just landed BV's F-100D. After a few laps and maneuvers on the "Hun", both Bryce Watson and Johnny Hernandez had favorable comments about how "smooth" it flies.
This JetCat P-120 example really gets it on.
   
   
The all new, all composite BobCats were extensively flown by BV and Paul Lott. These are 2 of the 4 schemes available for this new offering (click to view more info).