diamondaviators.net

We're convening an informal fly-in the weekend of August 21/22 at Ft.Collins/Loveland airport. Diamond owners, pilots, or just those interested are invited. We should have an array of different variants, from the earliest DA40's (2001-ish) to modern twins.

This is not sponsored by Diamond. No admission charge or tickets, etc. No vendors are expected and no airshow. Just a bunch of us trading tales and showing off our toys. I expect to arrange catered BBQ for Saturday afternoon. and will front the expense. Any donations toward this I'll accept at the time, but there is no obligation. We will want a reasonably close head count when the time is closer. This of course includes significant others, offspring, etc.

The FBO will be helping out to some extent. I've spoken with their manager and there aren't any other events going on there this summer, so we should have the pretty large ramp to ourselves.

For those that decide to fly in from the West (such as myself) be sure to be ready to deal with the high terrain. I've flown into KFNL several times with my DA40 and it's a great field. There are hotels in the area as well as rental cars. I plan to have a car myself and can shuttle folks to and fro as necessary. I expect to fly in on the 19th or 20th.

Respond to this thread if you're interested and sometime in July we'll start a roster of prospective attendees so we can get that head count.

I meant to include this link:
https://www.flynoco.com/about/contact-us/

I will likely attend

My home airfield is a twelve minute flight from NoCo, so I’ll plan to be there. An interesting side note: KFNL is a pilot site for the FAA’s remote control tower initiative; the controllers will eventually work in another location while watching the goings on displayed on a bunch of video monitors. In the meantime there is a mobile tower in use on site while validation of the remote tower system continues. KFNL’s tower is operational daily from 0800-1800.

https://www.flynoco.com/about/remote-tower/

photoSteveZ wrote: ↑Wed May 26, 2021 4:16 am My home airfield is a twelve minute flight from NoCo, so I’ll plan to be there. An interesting side note: KFNL is a pilot site for the FAA’s remote control tower initiative; the controllers will eventually work in another location while watching the goings on displayed on a bunch of video monitors. In the meantime there is a mobile tower in use on site while validation of the remote tower system continues. KFNL’s tower is operational daily from 0800-1800.

https://www.flynoco.com/about/remote-tower/

Not to distract from the fly-in info, but our home airport of Leesburg, VA (KJYO) was (and is) the first US airport to use a remote tower. Despite KJYO being the 2nd busiest GA airport in Virginia (and busier than 90% of all TOWERED airports in the US), the FAA, state of VA, and the local town didn't have the funds to install a badly-needed real control tower.

So instead, we have a "turret" of 15 high-def cameras mounted on top of the airport's main terminal, with periodic loud blasts of air directed at the lenses to keep them clean. Controllers are located across the street in an office with 15 high-def TV monitors (in vertical portrait mode) located in a semi-circle around the controllers. The technology was installed experimentally at KJYO by Saab Sensis https://www.saab.com/products/digital-tower more than 5 years ago, based on their remote terminal system developed for a couple of airports in northern Sweden. Leesburg, VA was one of the most challenging (worst) places to trial the technology because it's located right underneath the KIAD Washington Dulles 1500 foot MSL Bravo shelf, and is located inside of the Washington DC Special Flight Rules area with its flight restrictions.

At this point the KJYO remote tower is fully in use (no more CTAF frequency), and shown as a towered airport on FAA VFR charts. However the airport is awaiting the final step of having Class Delta airspace approved by the FAA. I expect more locations like KFNL will soon be using this technology to save money.

I will leave those days reserved for the fly-in.

My wife and I are currently planning on attending - flying from eastern Pennsylvania. Having never flown in this part of the country, what kind of winds should we expect in late August?

Tom-B wrote: ↑Sun Jun 06, 2021 9:19 pm My wife and I are currently planning on attending - flying from eastern Pennsylvania. Having never flown in this part of the country, what kind of winds should we expect in late August?

For this locale, normally nothing you wouldn't encounter anywhere else in the midwest. Afternoon thunderstorms are subject to hatch in the afternoon over the divide all summer and head eastward. These can be circumvented or waited out. In the winter/spring months a different story.

Thanks Rich. Looking forward to learning your eastward route of flight

If the border is open, we are definitely interested. It could work well with a trip to see our daughter out east. Thanks for organizing!