My Travels with Charlie By: Rory Dezzutti Posted: June 13 2006
I have been going to glider contests with my Dad since I was three years old. I have now been to fourteen contests and I am ten years old. I always like being with Charlie Spratt at contests. I saw him again this year when we were at the Seniors and he was the only other kid there. I saw him again at the contest in Perry, SC and we had so much fun that he said maybe next year I would be old enough to go on the road with him and I said why not this year. That’s how I became a Spratt Brat.
I got to ride with Roger Buchanan in his motor home all the way from our house in Florida to Mifflin. It was a really long ride. When we got to Mifflin it was raining very hard so I stayed in his motor home for another night. Then I got to stay with Brian Glick and his family. It was fun to play with his kids. I helped them get ready for the contest before Charlie and the other pilots got there. One day I helped some more and then went to a raptor center with some guy named Karl. I learned a lot about birds and stuff there. Then I met up with Charlie. I was not sure where we were staying. We went to the Glick’s cabin in the woods near the airport.
We stayed in a log cabin in the woods. We had a generator, but no TV. But there was no time for TV watching because we came back from the airport so late. We saw bunch of animals; bears, porcupines, foxes, deer, and geese.
I took some pictures.
I went to the Glick’s farm for horseback riding. We had a lot of fun and we had a KFC picnic. Then we went fishing. I didn’t catch any fish, but I helped get Austin’s fish off the line. The next day I went hiking with some of the pilots I met. We climbed across a fallen tree. We played a game called Poo Sticks. It was a lot of fun.
One night the airport had a piano bashing contest. One guy hit it and made sparks. Another day we had a softball game at the airport. The bases were loaded and I hit a home run! I also played foosball with Jonathan Gere. I have known him for a long time. He cheats at foosball.
During the contest I was Charlie’s driver. I drove him around the airport in the golf cart. A lot of the time I drove around with Austin Glick. I helped Charlie Miner at the scales weighing gliders and I worked with him at the finish gate using binoculars to see that each glider had their gear down before landing. He gave me a glider with a 50 inch wingspan.
I also went out to retrieve Liz Schwenkler. It was a long drive. We saw lots of the country side. It was a lot of fun.
I went for a towplane ride with Steve Glick and Brian Glick’s daughter. It was a lot of fun.
