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Dennis Fox, Carolyn Whittaker, and Akky Mansikka left Buttonville in Dennis's Mooney C-GDRN at 8 AM for the St. Thomas Air Rally Saturday April 25, 2003, to arrive in St Thomas for coffee, donuts, and a 9:15 briefing.
The start of the rally was staggered with faster planes going first. The Rally consisted of counting sheds, silos, feed bins and school portables around the St. Thomas area. There were messages and signs on the ground to be read. Maps to read. Railways (also known as an iron compass) to follow and co-ordinates to find and plot, and precision landings to be made. It was an intense flight and lots of work for three pilots to find the Mystery Field in the allotted time. We were two minutes over our time target. The Mystery Field was the grass strip Highgate field, however some of the other pilots found other grass strips to land at in the area much to the surprise of their owners. We had the priviledge of seeing Highgate's open cockpit, WW1 Fairey Firefly ..one of the few flying ones left.
The return flight to St. Thomas was a little more relaxing since the time constraints were lifted. A BBQ Lunch was provided with our $10 entry fee. While we were enjoying our hamburgers, the scores were tallied. The winner was Kevin Psutka (COPA's president) and son Mark; with the Buttonville Flying Club contingent coming 3rd of more than 10 planes. There were lots of prizes to choose from. Dennis went home with a nice power drill.