We made it down to Cherokee lake this year for the Jerry's Cherokee Hover-in and boy are we glad that we could make it. The weather ended up being perfect and it was great to see everyone again. About 15 hovers showed up and countless spectators, a bunch of builders, people who were hopping to start construction soon, people from the campground, and also a bunch of people who seen the hovers on the lake and followed us back to the beach. I know I had a bunch of people on the lake taking pictures and video of our 18sp when I was out flying it. I also gave lots and lots of rides, on Friday I gave over 40 miles worth of rides in the 18sp and a bunch more on Saturday and Sunday. We also did a little cruising on Saturday and Sunday, my sister and I did about a 20 mile cruise on Sunday. After it was all over with we put another 120 miles on the 18sp. Also when I would give a ride I would go about 30 MPH until a bend in the lake, then after the bend I would hit the throttle and hold it at about 3/4 of the way open for about 30-45 seconds and get the 18sp up to around 50 MPH. Just about everyone who rode with me was surprised/amazed because I'd jump over hump and hit 30 MPH in about the blink of an eye, and they though that was pretty fast, but when I hit the throttle around the corner it would sit you back in the set and we'd be speeding down the lake in no time. We were very pleased with the performance of our 18sp and we didn't have any major problems. We really only had a couple problems, one time when I was taking off from the beach I hit the throttle kinda hard and pulled back on the control stick hard and a rudder poped out of the top pivot, I noticed it when I went to turn and the stick only moved about an inch, so I looked back and seen it. When I got back to the beach I took a look at it and the piece of PVC was cut just a hair shorter than the rest (about 1/16"-3/32") and When I pulled back on the stick hard and hit the throttle hard it must of flexed just enough to let the rudder pop out. So took the bolt out and put it back together and was more carefull after that and we didn't have any more problems with the rudders. Also we just put navigational lights on the 18sp about a week before, Friday night we though we would test them out and the flashing yellow light didn't work, so I figured the bulb burnt out from the vibration. Then on Saturday, I was out hovering and I herd somthing vibrating and ratteling, but I couldn't see anything wrong. When I came back in and got out I noticed that the yellow light was broke off and hanging by the wires, the bottom of the light ended up breaking off so I just cut the wires off and threw the light in the cockpit, that solved that problem LOL :) Steve also gave my dad and I a ride in Bob (thanks Steve) it was a great ride as always. All in all we had a great time and we can't wait to go back next year.

Click Here to see the pictures from Cherokee 2003