I have always wanted to enter a spot landing contest AKA precision landing contest, but for whatever reason I could never make it to one. Money and time need to line up just right and they did for me last Saturday. The Lander, WY airport hosted an airplane and automobile show.
My daughter and I were able to go early in the morning and attended the pilot's briefing for the spot landing and flour drop. I didn't participate in the flour drop for a lot of reasons 1) not my plane and don't want to drop stuff out of it 2) have no idea how to time it and have a shot at hitting the 55 gallon drum below. For the flour drop they would give you a bag half filled with sand and flour. The goal on that is to fly over the mark at 250' AGL and somehow hit the target. I imagine a little math calculation and I could have a chance, maybe next year.
I was there for the spot landing, so when it was my turn to land I made my approach (was not a smooth one). I could see that I would be a bit short of the line drawn on the runway so gave it some gas and chopped it soon after to land on the line! I heard the judges shout on the frequency "SHE HIT THE LINE!", however I kept thinking about the rules that said who ever came closest to the line
after the line won. I didn't want to accept a win but the judges felt like no one came even close so I won a case of aviation oil (not the huge trophy pictured next to my co-pilot).
I graciously accepted it and honestly just happy to have been in the competition, I met some nice folks and had a fantastic day with my daughter.
