SCCMAS was once the premier site in California. Then people's egos started taking over. They started having perceived issues with the competitive pilots and really cut back on holding events. The club president in a newsletter authorized all members to police one another and then all hell broke loose. I had one occasion where the wind was blowing the left to right. While on landing approach with a 40% Extra I had one member yelling at me stating that I was over one of the ponds. First off, you should never raise your voice to another member for any reason, secondly he created a safety issue. I had one disagreement with Kent. I was flying a .40 size P-51 pylon airplane and had the engine go lean so I throttled back to idle and attempted to transition back to to part throttle but no dice. I called out dead Stick and headed for the runway. Kent happened to be on approach and had to abort to give me access to the runway. Afterwards he came up and questioned why I called deadstick with a running engine. I informed him that although running it would not transition, he walked away less then happy. When I moved to Sacramento I did not miss SCCMAS.


Back to engines. I too am of the older is better crowd. I own several OS 2 strokes but nothing that was made after 1995. To remain competitive with the market they had to make some changes. These changes make for an engine that just isn't the same. I haven't bought a new engine besides a YS 4 stroke in over 15 years. EBay and swap meets are where I look for engines. Last weekend I stumbled onto an OS .61 RFP. On inspection it had been rebuilt with a new piston/liner and bearings. The pump did not appear to have been tampered with. I couldn't hand the gentleman the 65.00 fast enough.