Well the Matrix and I survived the contest all in one piece. Great bunch of fliers in Waco from
all over Texas, Oklahoma, etc. and we were blessed with perfect weather for two days.
District 6 is a real hot bed of pattern with some very good fliers. I did manage not to finish last !
It didn't take me long to figure out pattern today is a lot different than it was when I was
doing it back in the 70's and 80's. No more high speed passes , but slow and graceful with very
large maneuvers. The Matrix did better than I did and with a few changes will make a very good
entry level pattern ship. The main problem I have is the old Bluehead 60 SuperTigre is the wrong
engine for this new type of pattern. It develops it's power at high RPM's and does not have the low
RPM torque to perform the very large vertical maneuvers. It was sagging badly trying to pull the
Matrix over the top and with an across the field crosswind made for some interesting rudder corrections ,
or should I say attempts at corrections. Overall I'm pretty happy with the way it flew , and the engine
problem will be an easy fix.
One thing I will mention is the Ultra-Cote covering after being in the 80 degree sun for two days now has
more wrinkles than grannys stockings. Looks like crap. Will take considerable time to reshrink , if it will.
I heard from a lot of the fliers in Waco this is a common problem with Ultra-Cote and now I understand
why Monocote is so popular.

tommy s