Hatz Biplane Association

Shipped off the tent & stuff yesterday. Plan on flying up on Friday morning to receive it!

Mark,
Glad to hear that you will get some time with your mother, but sorry you will miss the event.

Ryan

Hatzers, another Brodhead Fly-In is in the books, my first.
As much as I love the biplanes, people come first. And first of the people are those that were kind enough (not to mention trusting!) to give me the controls of their beautiful planes. many thanks go to Chris Greenlee and Bill Rusk. What a rush it was to finally fly in the plane I have been trustingly working on... Other fine examples of Hatzs include Chuck Bronlows Rocinante, The first to arrive. I evidently did not take enough pictures, for example of the Hatz Jewell Hardee's flew in with, equiped with out-rigger style landing gear - very praying-mantis looking.
I had a great time and looking forward to seeing you and more Hatzs next year. Now back to welding practice...

Orchardair - thank you for that post, it is great for those who could not make it.

To all

Sorry for the delay posting an after action report. Pretty much happens every year, as everyone flows right into Oshkosh and gets busy and distracted. I did not take many photos this year but I think we can adapt and overcome anyway.

We had a good gathering this year. Lots of familiar faces and a few new ones. Good weather, a little warm perhaps, but at least we did not get rained out. Saturday was cloudy which was actually kinda nice. It kept the temps down.

I got there about 8 on Friday morning and with Jim, Chuck, Ron, and Others we got the tent up with a minimum of head scratching. Note I said a min. It is rather a game now to see if we can remember how all the poles go together. I must add that that box of poles seems to get heavier each year. We need some young strong Hatz builders to join the group. Chuck was there Friday in his Hatz which is a beauty.





( note photo taken at Oshkosh a couple of years ago. I told you I was going to get creative here as I did not take many photos this year)

Distraction, must go, more in a moment.

Bill

Thanks for the update Bill. I sure missed seeing you and the rest of the crew. Maybe next year.

Does anyone have any Brodhead 2012 photos to share? I'd like to get a photo gallery going on the web site for Hatz gatherings. Also, photos from past years would be nice too... maybe at least 2010 & 2011?

Doug - I'll help if I can but I usually post all my Brodhead photos in the after action reports, so if you look in the "Gatherings of the gaggle" forum under Brodhead 2011, 2010 etc you will find photos. If you need them sent directly just let me know.

Back to Brodhead 2012.

We had our usual Hatz board meeting, and also the general meeting. Here are a few photos of that........











One of the big topics that came up this year was having a Hatz presence at Oshkosh. For many of us we first saw, and fell in love with, the Hatz at Oshkosh. We have not made an effort to have a big presence,( i.e., a tent, forum, product sales, common camping spot, etc) for a number of years. The general consensus at the meeting is that we need to do that. We need to make a splash at Airventure. We need to grow the group and get this great little biplane more publicity. That will take a concerted effort by lots of folks but we really need to do that. So.......we will be trying to do that in 2013. We will probably need a few volunteers and help from everyone but I think it will be well worth it.

Chris flew his Hatz up from Oklahoma this year. I did not hardly even say hi to Chris this year. Things just kinda got busy. Sorry Chris. I did not mean to brush you off.
Here are a couple of pictures of Chris in his Hatz.......







Jewel Hardy came up from Oklahoma as well in Julia Clays Hatz. This one is a little unique in that it has outrigger landing gear. I think there have been three Hatz done this way over the years. I'll see if I can find a picture somewhere.

Mark made it to the gathering but he did not fly his Bantam this time. Seems someone offered him a TON of money for his last one so he reluctantly sold it and he is building another. Here is a picture of that one.



Mark did bring his new fuselage for us all to oggle and drool over. It is welded up by a company out of Minnesota (the same that did my Supercub kit) called Javron. Man the welding and workmanship are fantastic. Mark at Hangar10 is offering a Hatz Bantam kit now with pretty much all the welding done. It is REALLY nice and will make the Bantam much easier to build if you decide to go that route. Perhaps Mark will chime in here and offer a little more info. Unfortunately I did not take any photos so maybe someone else will help me out a little.

More to follow in a minute

Bill

Bill Rusk wrote:
One of the big topics that came up this year was having a Hatz presence at Oshkosh. For many of us we first saw, and fell in love with, the Hatz at Oshkosh. We have not made an effort to have a big presence,( i.e., a tent, forum, product sales, common camping spot, etc) for a number of years. The general consensus at the meeting is that we need to do that. We need to make a splash at Airventure. We need to grow the group and get this great little biplane more publicity. That will take a concerted effort by lots of folks but we really need to do that. So.......we will be trying to do that in 2013. We will probably need a few volunteers and help from everyone but I think it will be well worth it.

Great to hear that the board wants to address this. I agree completely. Also, it would be nice to find a way to expand the forum activity from mostly builders and a few owners to a more comprehensive population. There are a lot of Hatzs flying out there, but most of those owners don't participate on the forums.

Hi Amit, Jim here, I have a dozen more hats coming and if you or anyone else wants one just let me know, it was just one of the wonderful things that went on at Brodhead, there chapter giving us a dozen to give out to the ones that flew in. I believe they will be $20.00 including shipping. I will post a picture in the up coming newsletter. Jim

Hats? Hatz? What kind of hats are we talking about here?

Hi Jim,
Count me in!
thanks,
Amit.

To all

To piggyback on what Jim P said........

The EAA chapter at Brodhead decided to give out a free hat to all those who "flew" in to the fly-in. They had Piet hats for the Pietenpol guys and they had Hatz hats for the Hatz guys. It was very nice of them. They looked like this.............





Bill