Hey midwest flyers, I want to hear if there is interest among you for an SPA event here in the midwest. Maybe if we can get enough guys interested we can put our heads together and we can come up with the flyers to field one and a club to host the event. Since these events fall under fun fly rules with the AMA I don't see why we couldn't try something new and create a pipe and retract class in addition to the regular SPA classes if the interest was there. For all of us that are members or are interested in SPA but live in the Oh, PA, WV, IN areas this is your chance to sound off and get the wheels turning and the props spinning. So lets here what you have to say. Thanks,
Eric Nessler

A-HA!! So that's where the "eness" comes from.

This is how SPA chapters start---grass roots interest in flying this type of plane and pre-turnaround competition. So many former pattern pilots have either moved on to other areas within R/C, or other types of aerobatic competition, and have all but forgotten the experience, or think it's in the past. There is no reason why SPA or SPA-type competition can't be hosted anywhere in the country now, putting the emphasis back on simple, inexpensive, and within the reach of the average aerobatically-inclined pilot. There are a vast number of fliers out there boring holes in the sky doing random loops, rolls and snaps--without purpose. The thought of working on perfecting precision aerobatics hasn't dawned on them--yet. Maybe they don't THINK they would be interested, but they haven't experienced it either. I truly feel we just need to work on hightened awareness of SPA, (and VR/CS for that matter), and how much fun it can be to compete in a "friendly" way, and people will respond. Hopefully you are getting some positive "vibes" from your local clubs, that's where your nucleus will come from, then regional support will follow.

I am considering asking our club to designate one of its fly-ins to sponsoring an SPA event. Every person at my local club I've talked to expressed some level of interest---two even said they'd think about coming with me to Knoxville. I even had a "hotshot" 3D-style guy who normally flies all sorts of wild, random maneuvers admit to me in a candid moment that he was "bored"---he's done it all, and doesn't know which way to direct his flying to provide a challenge. He watched me fly my little Taurus, and withing a few minutes he was practicing stall turns---it was great for me to be instructing HIM on how the maneuvers should be done. It is a totally different type of flying, (graceful and precise), than anything he has tried. I'm not sayin he is giving up the practice of "boring holes in the sky" altogether, put it's a start. He was one of the two considering going.

Good luck Eric!!

I think this would be great! I am surprised though that more people have not posted on this thread. I live in IL ..... and there is nothing like that around here. The chance to fly with other people with similar taste/era/interest of planes would be a lot of fun. I am also up for a retract/pipe class since all but one of my old school pattern planes have these items. Maybe a "Open Class" that allows planes from the 70's to the middle/late 80's. (non SPA legal planes do to pipes, retracts, date of plane being designed,etc...). Just a thought.....

MK

I agree I'm suprised as well. If you look back thru this forum and see all the talk about pipes and retracts and guys from the midwest, and SPA would be great if it were up here, etc. I thought it would do better and start some conversations as well. I hope when the SPA has the "open class" at the October contest there are a lot of people showing up who were crying about pipes and retracts. If there is a low turnout I'd guess they'll never offer that class again. I know I'm driving 8.5hrs to show my support of the class.

So....SPA is doing a "open class" in October????? Where and when? I am on the list to have knee surgy (again[&o]) end of Sept. Depending on the date..... I might be able to go.

Oct 8th and 9th, Cullman, Alabama. Steve Byrum is the CD, he's going to be making an announcement about it it the coming weeks. He's CDing an IMAC meet this weekend so I'm sure he has his hands full.

Well...... That puts me out. I was hoping that it was towards the end of Oct. That way I could have a "standing" chance.

Now that there is a set date and location ... I would expect to see some more guys with this style of planes posting here. Now... I know that there are some "southern boys" on here that have these planes too..... so hopefully they will start speaking up.

Impactiq,

Hoping you would be at Cullman--wanted to meet you.

Thanks Pattern Student. The time will come...sooner or later.

I guess we have some fast flyers on this forum but....some S-L-O-W R-E-A-D-E-R-S. I might just have to send you or Pattern Student my Eclipse to tear up the sky with. That way there is one more "Open Class" plane there.

Eness

Just found your thread on SPA and thought I would put in my thoughts. We just finished the Master's competition for SPA this past weekend and it was here in Auburn, AL ( they think they play football but that is a different discussion) I grew up in Dayton and Columbus and I think an event like that would be a good idea just to see what the people in the area are thinking about pattern and about doing it the SPA way

We had our first event a year ago and had the big contest this year. We are impressed with the SPA organization and with the way the competition is structured. I flew a lot in AMA events in the 60's and it was hard core with some bad moments in each contest. We have fould that it is a good time and the people are nice as can be. The judging is not a problem since the compatators themselves judge it.

I would advise that you try it 2 years in a row to tell if there is interest in the area. You can run the contest on a minimal budget and you will not be risking a lot of money if the turnout is small the first year. The big thing is to schedule it carefully so that there is not some big event on the same weekend. Our little football team played at home this Sat and that made the hotels and arrangements much harder.

Your idea of getting the area flyers together and picking a site is the way to go. You have so many great flying sites, it would be good to get everyone working together. The Novice level allows any airplane and that is the thing to really talk about. The pattern is easy and anyone that even thinks they like pattern would do well on the begining level. Let me know if we in
Auburn can help in any way.

[email protected]

Brian

I wanted to get in on this thread.

Some SPA action up here in the Ohio area might be fun

I flew a couple of SPA events in Atlanta, and CDed one or two SPA contests at the Atlanta RC club. I think the years I didnt fly I ended up judging for Mickey and the guys up at Paulding County. The events were always fun.

I might be inspired to build another compensator and have some fun.

I prefer the traditional SPA format. No pipes - gear down. Although Id be willing to try any similar event with gear up and pipes (seems to me this would be more fun if the older OS FSR 60, Rossi 60, HP type engines and pipes from 1976 vintage were required )

Anyway... subscription in place here.

Who knows, with enough interest, we might be able to organize an event locally here.

Bob

It would be great to expand SPA flying into other parts of the country---but I hope any events staged will be just that---SPA events. Like you, I prefer flying SPA the way it was designed to be flown, (ie without retracts and pipes, and preferably with SPA-legal aircraft). Novice allows any AMA-legal plane to encourage participation at the entry level. This is good, and should be expected--it's too much to expect someone outside SPA to go out and build special legal planes just to see if they'll like the competition. However, the SPA events lose their SPAness if the format is altered too much, (IMHO)--it waters-down SPA as it was first envisioned. The flying styles of the pipes/retracted post '76 planes were totally different--- way faster, and the maneuvers were way-bigger, (although SPA legal planes with 4-strokes are capable of much larger maneuvers). SPA planes with 4-strokes fly more like present pattern aircraft, (slower, more constant speed with excellent vertical capability).

My own hope is that the "Open Class" event to be staged in Alabama on Oct 8th will be a means to expose later vintage pattern fliers flying more high-performance piped birds to the "SPA experience", with the hope they will "convert" at some future time to the traditional SPA format. This may not be popular with the present mindset of some pattern pilots who just can't envision having fun competing with anything else, but I would ask them to give it a chance. SPA will always be flown primarily with SPA-legal planes.