SEAPLANES BY THE BRIDGE

This is about the third year that we've spectated at the remote (radio) controlled seaplane classic, and it's always been fun to watch these miniature airplanes flying & landing on the lake. When this event kicked off on Friday, the wind was blowing, with afternoon gusts up to 30 mph. We waited until yesterday, when the wind had died down, and the conditions were almost perfect.

There was a good crowd of folks, who like us, brought our fold up chairs. We watched everything from aerobatic flying, to a few planes that crashed into the water. I would guess that the later proved to be rather expensive for a few of these pilots. Some of these planes were so big that it took two people to carry them down to the water.

This plane was helicoptered down to where the tail actually touched the water.

Some of the best seats in the house were in the boats that anchored just outside the flying area. The flying pattern was clockwise, but with up to 7 planes in the air at any given time, I was sure that at some point, we would see a mid air collision. Many of the pilots seemed to ignore the pattern, and were doing loops and other maneuvers that put their planes at risk. But, by the time we left, the only crashes we saw were single plane incidents.

Some of these planes looked just like the real thing.

These ducks were looking for a handout, and had almost no fear of the people.

BEFORE

AFTER

The before and after show a replica Piper Cub that did a spectacular spiraling nose dive right into the water. Hard to say what went wrong, but it's probably safe to say that it wasn't the way this seaplane was meant to land on the water.

We enjoyed watching these small airplanes flying around, and it's one of many events that take place here in Lake Havasu City during the winter months.