BreakingPoint

My Feedback: (2)

John – That last race had me in a real dilemma. Race, or chance being in the dog-house for a week with the wife. The wife had planned a date-night, which we get about once a year. She had purchased movie tickets for 6:00 and had the babysitter ready at 5:00. But I made is just in time! Just barely! Got to race and saved from having to sleep outside for a week! That was close, but so was the racing.

Can’t wait for the next race to do it again, only I won’t make ANY dinner plans that night.

I have a lot of pics and 4 videos of the racing, however I can’t seem to get them to load to this website, due to the size. If I ever get that figured out, then I’ll post some for everyone to see.

jamcad

John,
I have to bow to your speed over me. I had a blast and hope to fly against you guys all season next year. I'll get more speed out of my motor some how............. And just so you know, I was the judge on the south end pylon where you cut in the big race. I only blew the horn once, but you cut three times....I just didn't have the heart to keep blowing it.................. Happy Birthday.

Aaron,
It's a good thing you didn't blow the date night. Even I was smart enough not to plan anything more that night.

Jamie

JohnMcGowan

My Feedback: (15)

Jamie, thanks for the birthday wishes.
If you are the line judge anytime again, I guess I'll need to raise my bribe from $2.00 to lets say $10.00 next time , or cook you a bigger bowl of chili ?
Dang, aint nothing cheap anymore! LOL
Jamie, it was the moon that was in my eyes !! The moon, the moon man!![sm=shades_smile.gif]

Aaron, Im glad it all worked out. Its getting too cold to sleep in the doghouse outside now.
What I had to do with my videos Aaron is put them on youtube ( its free) and then post the link here on RCU. There is some way to show the video as you look at the thread here on RCU but I aint smart enough to figure out how to do that yet.

Lets see the rest of those pictures when you get a chance guys.

Also do you know if anyone will post the race standings with the pilots points as has been done in the past?

Thanks all, its been a great Club 40 season here in Bama and I can already see next year looking even better!!

Tbatt

My Feedback: (4)

WOW!!!!!!

What a fantastic day of racing! The only way it could have possibly been better is IF I hadn't blown my engine in the second round. Man, it was screaming when the glow plug blew and the piston and sleeve chewed it up.

I'll post the final results later today hopefully.

Guys, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING THIS A SUCCESS! This was beyond my wildest dreams to grow Club 40 to this size in ONE YEAR!

I can hardly wait till 2011.

Tim

playntraffic

Guys

This was my first event. What a great time! Huntsville is fantastic.
The shoot-out by moonlight was something to see.



I am really looking forward to next year.

Thanks everyone for making the new guy feel welcome.

Mike Wieczorek

waynebang

Way to go John, you and Opie did great.

Wayne

combatplanesrc.com

Tbatt

My Feedback: (4)

Just for clarification, we had 29 total entries, 27 in Advanced Class and 2 in Novice.

I know of two pilots that could not be there that would have come (work) and one other that could not get a plane built in time after a crash.

JohnMcGowan

My Feedback: (15)

Wayne, thanks very much!

Mike, was this event a blast or WHAT!!? Just wait till next year, it promises to be even MORE fun, if thats even possible?

Tim, I feel that EVERYONE here owes you one heck of a lot of thanks since you are the one who kick-started Club 40 in Alabama. Without your efforts, we would be just doing the same ol' same 'ol thing that we do. THANK YOU TIM!! [sm=thumbs_up.gif][sm=thumbs_up.gif][sm=thumbs_up.gif][sm=thumbs_up.gif]
And sorry about your engine bro. Maybe it had a weak spot in it somewhere,..NO, wait!.... I now know why your engine fried.... remember the NADR unit I told you guys about? ( North Alabama Death Ray) . I guess maybe your plane got in the way of its wavelength as I was firing it at someone else at the time? Oh I am very sorry about that Tim. It was unintentional on your plane since you are a good guy. Now Jamie on the other hand.....

Barry, I will dis-assemble and clean up the NADR unit and box it up and return it to you UPS. I appreciate you letting me use it. It works WONDERFUL! ( except maybe Tim doesnt think so) . When you recieve it back , you can change the name back to GADR since you live in Ga. I do want to get a copy of the scematics for that thing though, its THE BOMB BABY!
John

jamcad

I see how you play John, next you cut I'll blow the horn everytime. I may have to bring an extra can of gas....... No wait, after your chili............

Tbatt

My Feedback: (4)

Moooos chili was fantastic. The BEST flavor I have ever had. PERFECT!

We gotta do the pot luck again next year for the final race. The food was awesome!

I'm still pumped about the racing even though I had a rough day. I'll be ready next year with two new planes!

The CD, Alan, had a plane issue and I loaned him my backup and then later needed my backup after the engine fried on my #1 plane. Everything worked out well with us sharing my backup until the matrix had us racing each other. A quick mod to the matrix and off we went.

All of the work I have put into Club 40 paid off BIG TIME Saturday. It was all worth it and then some.

Many thanks to RCRC for hosting the race. No one could have done a better job and the hospitality was in true Southern fashion, fantastic.

A lot of thanks goes to Kim who again did a fantastic job herding us cats. Thanks Kim!!!

JohnMcGowan

My Feedback: (15)

Tim, should that ever happen again where there is a conflict when 2 of you are using one plane, you are more than welcome to fly one of my planes and use my Tx. You should of said something to me, but I know you were busy. You can fly Futaba cant you? LOL
Did you and I ever get to race together in a heat Saturday? I cant recall. There were lots of folks there.

Who was the guy that ran over Opie's new green plane as it was sitting static in the grass on the far side of the runway? Im just curious? Thats the damage pic Opie posted up above that broke a wing rib. This guy was landing and already touched down and was rolling out but obviously DID NOT know how to use a left stick for rudder for steering as he was chomping on his ceegar. Oh well,.... [sm=spinnyeyes.gif]

Tbatt

My Feedback: (4)

I won't mention his name but his initials are Al Kretz. He is a good pilot but has hearing problems (really) and did not hear the call out of where Opie's plane had stopped. Chaulk that one up as an accident.

JohnMcGowan

My Feedback: (15)

Nope, it wasnt Al. I know of Al and know him when I see him, but that wasnt him.
Please deposit .25C if you wish to try again
No biggie.

Tbatt

My Feedback: (4)

Ok, here are the "official" results, problems and all. This is gonna hurt.

As you guys know we had two late entries which messed up our matrix and scoring and I also resolved a conflict with racing my backup plane against its self (see earlier post). Greg Doe and I hastely went through the scores and I failed to count a lap cut penalty that was in round 2 heat 7 which gave someone an extra point. The good news is that we would have still had to have a fly off but it would have involved other people. This was a result of trying to do the scoring by hand after a total mess of the scoring matrix.

Drum roll please.............. John McGowan won the race with a total of 19 points!

Next we had a three way tie for second place and then a two way tie for 4th place.

The person that got hurt the most by this mixup was Rick H (sorry but I can't make out your name on the registration form). He was in the hunt for second place but we failed to total up his score. That was my fault for not checking. I appologize Rick H. I owe you.

See attachment for the final scores.


Next year I hope to have the scoring resolved. The way it is now is not fun to do. Anyone else want the job???????

jamcad

Considering who was in each of my FOUR man heats each round, I think tying for 13th isn't bad.......... It's hard to place high in your heats when Rick Grimm, Larry Bart, Greg Doe are racing you each time..............Usually all at the same time............ Yes, I'd like a little cheese with my whine...............

It was a great day. Let's do it again.

No, it wasn't Al Kretz who hit the green plane, Al hit the orange plane that was splattered all over the runway.

Jamie

JohnMcGowan

My Feedback: (15)

WHAT THE.....? Are you serious Tim??????

davidgeorge212

That is a surprising turn of events. I guess conragulations to you John for getting the new first place. [sm=thumbup.gif]. Can I ask you, Tim Batt, what kind of software do you use to calculate out all the matricies and tally up who the winners are for events like this? I have just been curious about this and didnt know if you use a special program or excell or what?

David

BreakingPoint

My Feedback: (2)

Congratulations John! You da man! That was some fine racing and a nice surprise for your Birthday. Now you have to figure out how to get 1st place winnings back from Larry

By the way, in the official results, I should be in 3rd, not 2nd. Larry beat me in the final shooting, thus he should be above me.
Larry, if you want, I'll give you my 2nd place trophy next time I see you.
Aaron

JohnMcGowan

My Feedback: (15)

I am still in shock over all this since this is my first win and extremely excited and feel most gracious but thanks very much Opie and Aaron and Tim !!!
WOW-,....Sha-ZAM!!! I still dont think all this has sunk in yet. [sm=what_smile.gif]
I tell you what, there was some top notch flying going on Saturday and I feel very priviledged to have been associated with all the race pilots who were there Saturday.
Ive got the 3rd place plaque here at home, just let me know who and where to send it and I'll be more than happy to put her in the mail . Now if we can just locate Larry ,,,... LOL no biggie though

Do I need to get me an electronic signature going for next year? Maybe something like; Dont mess with the MOOOO ! , hahahaha

Thanks again everyone and I hope this doesnt cause any hurt feelings or anything between any of us.
We have (in my mind anyway) a very good group of flyers between all of us and from what Ive seen this year , everyone loves to have fun racing. Lets make 2011 even better !
LONG LIVE CLUB 40 AND LONG LIVE THE MOOOO !

dphillips3

First of all thanks to everyone that made this happen. We all had a great time! If you finished first or last and didn't have a good time, maybe you should look into another hobby.
Congratulations to Rick Helmke for going un-noticed into a second place. (I think it was my help that put him in front)

Oh yeah, now I know if you are gonna crash don't do it in the middle of the runway because somebody will run over your spare parts............

DP3

fcomer84

I think we ALL had a great time! Wonderful weather, beautiful field and a well run contest. It was a great way to start the winter season.
Computers always give problems when you need them the most. Mine vaporized a 3 page club newsletter not long ago. The main thing is that Tim got it straight!
We owe all that put these races together a BIG tip of the hat.

Tbatt

My Feedback: (4)

I'm so very sorry to have caused these scoring problems. I have looked at the scoring programs that are free to download on the NMPRA site but none of them work the way we run our races. It seems that everyone likes the way our races are kept simple and fun even though we have "issues".

To do our scoring, I set up Excel spreadsheets that calculates the matrix and scoring total, one for each possible number of entrants numbering from 6 entries to 30. That is 24 spreadsheets. During this season we have tried many ways of scoring our races to see what works best for us. I decided to keep the spreadsheet simple and have it only total the scores that we assign during data entry. It works well unless you make changes and then the data gets misaligned. That is what happened when I added two more entries and swapped places with Tony Coberly (out due to a crash) and Alan Berard (the CD) who had a conflict with using one plane between us.

At the end of round 5, Greg and I reworked the scoring in a hurry because we were losing light fast. Rick Helmke (where did he come from?, WOW what a surprise attack!) was not redone on scoring because we did not know who he was and figured him to be an "also ran pilot". Boy were we WRONG! Kim got caught on this one too because we asked her if anyone else was in the running that we needed to redo their score. At this point we were only interested in the guys at the front of the pack so we could look for ties. We did our best and it was not good enough. Shoot the score keeper! Off with his head!

If someone else wants the job of figuring out how to do the scoring, please step up. I'll provide whatever help I can but time is hard to come by right now to do much PC work.

Your humble Club 40 promoter
Tim

BarryReade

My Feedback: (1)

Tim, I wasn't at this race but you have done a great job this year and it will be even better next year.  I know you feel bad but, you didn't do it on purpose.  So get over it.

And I will personally punish Johnny Mc at the next race.  Hahaha!!! If I can catch him.

jamcad

Tim,
Just so you know I think we all understand the daunting task of keeping up with all of the scoring and changes that go on throughout the race. I for one am human and I know I make mistakes so I don't expect other humans to be perfect. When things happen I try to keep in my mind that I'm here to have fun. The adenaline rush from the races are enough to wash away my pressures from work and life in general. If that's all I get from a day of racing, I'm a winner. Bonuses include taking my airplane home in one piece (this is of course just an option), not getting hit from other airplanes when they are determined not to go home again in one piece and getting to see a good group of people that I don't normally see in my daily travels. And for the second time in a row since I've entered the advanced class, I tied you.............

Jamie

JohnMcGowan

My Feedback: (15)

Well spoken Barry and Jamie. Yes, we are all human and things happen, its just the way it is, so we carry on and we can dwell on problems or put them away and get on with the next day. NO ONE faults Tim and he should not feel one bit bad about anything he has done , otherwise I'll have to hunt him down and take him out back and work him over good ! [sm=punching.gif]
We salute you Tim Batt!!! You have always been top notch in my book !

As far as you Barry, we always have next year for you to catch me. I have sent your NADR back to you already, good to go again next year!!! Just charge it back up when you get it.

John