MCRCS Ham Fly

2009 Ham Fly

Thursday, January 1st

The Ham Fly is the more recent of our "Bring home the bacon" events, the annual Turkey Fly being the original. Like it's cousin, the Ham Fly provides an opportunity for all club members to get together, fly their airplanes, and with a high probability, bring home something edible for their efforts, in this case a ham. The rules, similar to those of the Turkey Fly, are simple: Show up, get a ticket. Fly, get a ticket (up to three). Win the raffle with one of your tickets. Take home a ham and impress the wife and kids.

The origins of the Ham Fly are more certain than those of the Turkey Fly. Long-time member and, at the time president, Dave Babcock noted that the leftovers from the turkey ran out shortly before the new year. He thus instituted the Ham Fly to provide meat for the rest of the winter.

Unlike the Turkey Fly, though, the Ham Fly has traditionally been more a test of one's mettle: one's willingness to brave the elements to put an aircraft in the sky in conditions that may have grounded the legendary early airmail pilots. Where the Turkey Fly almost always benefits from gorgeous fall weather, the January 1st date of the Ham Fly virtually ensures that such weather will be long past. Thus, to fly for a ham, one has to be willing to put mittens on fingers and plastic bags around electronics and then say, "Well, at least I'm not diving into a frozen lake to prove how tough I am. Not quite, anyway."

There are compensations, of course. Invariably we start the day with donuts, coffee, and a lot of hangar flying, debating who's going to go first. And someone usually provides a pot of hot soup. The late Doug McMillan used to provide a hearty vegetable soup to the crowd. Since his passing, Dave and Patty Sagot have taken up the cause, warming our hearts and stomachs with hot soup or chili.

And in the end, if it hasn't been the best day for flying, well, how does that saying go? The worst day flying is still better than the best day working. And that's not bad.