A great time was had by all that attended our Borrego Springs Fly-In. Though our attendance was lower than usual, the setting was most intimate and afforded us several hours of ramp time to all become better acquainted. Carl Swepston did an absolutely outstanding job at hosting and coordinating this event and his efforts did not go unappreciated. Our most sincere thanks go out to you Carl!

The Mexican buffet was simply delicious, topped off by Carl's special arrangement for Apple Pie ala mode from the Julian Pie Company. It was so good that I was highly tempted to try and sneak seconds. By the way, the generous providers of our dessert (Keith Smothers and Family) are willing to ship these pies to your door. If you would like to place an order, they can be contacted at: www.julianpie.com/. I'm sure once they complete my order, they'll get started on yours right away ;-) Thank you very much Keith and Family, that was a very kind gesture!

It's rather obvious that the celebrity aircraft on the ramp was piloted in by Dale Mooneyham. His rare "G" model restoration project captured the center of attention of all in attendance. It's truly an engineer's work of art, and the panel can only be summed up as brilliant. I personally consider it an honor that Dale made the VMG Borrego Springs Fly-In his very first cross-country after 3 years of devotion to this knuckle busting project. Dale's M20G perfectly exemplifies the phrase, "diamond in the rough". I'm sure we'll all look forward to seeing his efforts progress on this project.

It was also an honor to publicly welcome Donn Larson on to the board of directors. Donn and his wife Barbara have made several significant contributions to the group, and we look forward to their future assistance. As most of you know, they're the brains behind this very website which continually improves in it's functions. It's people like all the above mentioned, as well as all of the attendees, that keep our group moving forward.

I thank you all and hope to see you at Oceano in March.

Richard H. Todd