CopperState Fly in and two new Col.'s in the DFS.

[DesertFox4]

CopperState 2012 has come, and gone. Beautiful temperatures, 80's, blue skies to the 10th power with a smidgen of Saturday morning breezes, ah make that wind, made for a most pleasant get together. John and Debra flew 102YB down from the cool North to spend a few days talking with Kitfox enthusiasts and just plane crazy people and soak up some Arizona sun.

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I got my weeks worth of work done by early Friday morning, packed a few things in my overnight bag and launched from Deer Valley Airport about 10:30 am. A fair breeze from out of the North got me to the CopperState arrival point for runway 5 much faster than I normally make that trip. My new Garmin GDL-39 reciever was picking up some traffic but not the volume I had expected. The winds may have spooked a few to stay home so for whatever reason I had a cake walk arrival to CopperState. A few faster sounding aircraft were reporting a mile or so behind me but tower gave me "number #1 for runway 5".
Parked and tied down. Let the fun begin.

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Great to see the McBean's again since my last fly in at Oshkosh 2012.
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Beautiful factory-built aircraft continue to fly away from Kitfox Aircraft and one landed here in the Valley not long ago in the form of Terry Brandt's new yellow S-LSA tri-gear put on display for all to admire and dream over. Thanks Terry. I so want one just like it.
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Later Friday morning Mr. and Mrs. DesertFox6 flew thier model 4 Speedster in from Glendale,AZ. Miss Dee even brought down one of her Ukulele's in the Speedster.
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Saturday morning DanB arrived in his Model 4 tri-gear from Falcon field. Dan was on a bussman's holiday as he brougth his video camera and tripod to pick up some raw video of the Copper State fly in for Aero-News Network.
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A long standing tradition of the Desert Fox Squadron is when a builder finishes and flies his/her new Kitfox to a DFS event or local fly in he/she is "sworn in" as a Colonel in the Desert Fox Squadron and receives their Col. wings. Many on TeamKitfox.com have had this proceedure preformed on them over the years and probably can still remember the event. Well we were fortunate to have two new Kitfox's attend Copper State 2012 and thusly were inducted in the DFS brotherhood. The first was Immedio from Southern California who flew in his Model 5 taildragger with an o-235 engine. It was painted in a very American Red,White & Blue paint scheme. Congrats. to Immedio and all who helped make this trip possible.
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Our 2nd Desert Fox Squadron inductee was our very own Dan B. from Mesa, AZ. We've been looking forward to this day for some time and knew this day would finally come due to Dan's dedication and determination. It was great to see Dan become an official member of the Desert Fox Squadron.
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Congrats. to our two newest DFS Colonels. Well done.


Copper State 2012 is over. We had a great time catching up with good friends and talking Kitfox's.


Until next year, fly safe and enjoy every flight.

[DanB]

Nice write-up Steve and thanks for sharing the photos. Being it was a one day event for me, the time went too quick. Was great to see all of the usual suspects and catch up a bit. It was a great experience being the first fly-in I actually flew into...thankful I didn't have a couple jets on my 6!
Big thanks to Desert Fox 6 and all who took part in my being "jumped" into the DF Squadron. I was even awarded my Colonel's Wings which has found a landing spot on my bomber jacket.
Dear diary...was a good day.

[GWright6970]

Excellent effort with the great photos and write up!! Thank you!!