See you guy's tomorrow. First time for this since 1973, in Ohio, etc. If I can get thru the first round, I will be fine.

Vince
Hobe Sound, FL

You'll be fine [8D]

Sorry I can't be there, but I have to be there next weekend for the AMA event...2 trips down there in a row just isn't doable for me right now.

Take lots of pics!

-Mike

You'll be OK Vince. Don't worry, just fly the plane like any other day.

Orlando

You guy's are confidence builders !

V

Well, I'm in Hobe Sound at Vince's house. This way I don't have to drive clear to Orlando from Miami in one shot. We went flying this afternoon and got Vince some good practice. Man did he need the Practice. LOL Actually, I flew his plane and had to do some major trimming. I think I've got him straitened out now. Now he's got a new plane so if he doesn't do so well tomorrow it's not all his fault.

We should show up at the field tomorrow about 8:30. I really look forward to flying this weekend. Should be a blast.

Bob Cox
SPA 374

Hey - In any type of contest or race, people only remember one thing: Those that come in first, and those that come in last.

In the middle will be fine.

When I decide to compete, you'd better be first or you WILL be forgotten![8D]

The Calypso flies (yes I know it's pink)... now I can put the cowling back on it after I take the left thrust out of it... oops. Dave Wenzel was there today with his UFO, but he was packing it before I got my camera out. He told me he arrived at 2am and had been up all night anxious to fly in the morning. He also saved me as my glo-driver was dead (what's that anyway) and I left my starter battery connector plug at home [&:]. Gary came back out after a trip to Graves with Don Lowe. Mike Constantine was out practicing Advanced AMA pattern, but said he would be out this weekend sharing Humberto's Kaos with him. Steve Homenda showed up from work and asked if he could fly his 4 Star 40 in the contest, so he'll be out competing as well. Blake Hilson also said he would come out to compete with his little electric. Just off the phone with Ryan and he was just putting the finishing touches on the Phoenix that he'll be sharing with Joe (at least 1 round ). So with Orlando and Al, that's 10 just from our club alone coming out to fly in it. So 14 total so far that I know of as of now.

See everyone about 8am. More pics tomorrow.

Well at least Dave still has his hair....LOL

-M

Here's some pics from the contest. 12 pilots braved the sun and warm weather today. With a slight in the face crosswind, all the pilots flew really well. One stall on landing from a flame out and caused a nose gear removal and another on a downwind turn caused a bigger boo-boo. Neither of these could take the fun away that we are all having. Since there is a low turnout, we are only flying 1 line and everyone is relaxed and enjoying the day. Each class has 4 pilots. Orlando Fretts and the RCACF crew are putting on another great contest. Pilots were even treated to a nice lunch on the house.

Some of the planes...

Here's some pics of Dave Wenzel's UFO. Not much modern stuff on this classic. The little plane at the rear of his canopy is a warning to all planes that think of getting in it's way...

Today's results and pilots/plane list. Joe flew his Phoenix 8 and Blake flew Don Lowe's Phoenix 10.

Great to see all having a good time.

Wish i could have been there, but work call??

Whos contest is next on the list?
Tony

Great Contest ! Thanks Orlando, and club members at the Apopka field. In the fourth round, I put my Intruder in the dirt.
On final, turned out of downwind leg, got off the throttle, thinking I had enough air speed, and it would settle in. Put it up on it's side for a right turn onto the runway, it fell out of the air. Stall, my fault, should have known better.

How does it feel flying in first contest since 1973 ? Great ! After first round jitters and dead stick half way thru pattern, it all started coming back, each round got better for me.
Thanks Bob Cox of Miami, he showed me how to mix in rudder with throttle advance, took out some yaw, gave me excellent verticals, straight up, for 180 degree turns, etc. I will put this Intruder in a jig, re-build.

Vince
Hobe Sound, FL

AW heck Vince! Sorry to see that! I'm glad you had a good time. I'm hoping we can get BPA events started in the Central US.

Clay

It was my pleasure to put on the contest. I feel bad about your plane going in.
After getting the scoring program to work properly evrything went smooth. Scores were being cranked out very quickly.

Who made the contest what it wsas?? The guys who participated made the event as it turned out. I thought it was a great contest.
But in retrospect, I think for next year I'll put in a rule that no pilot can fly the same airplane more than two flights.

This is what makes these contest so much fun. You should have seen Gary C putting his lane thru its paces while the judges were chiding him- all in fun. I have rarely seen seen a contest which was so low key. All had a great time.

And yes, there will be another next year, about the same time. So begin your planning.

Orlando

Hat's off to Orlando and the team that did all the work, so we could enjoy this. What was even more fun was watcing Jason Shulman and his buddies fly. I saw Jason, he had on a baseball hat, no beard. I had to ask someone if that was him.
Watching him and his friends fly, like on a wire. Nice learning experience. Slow rolls less then ten feet off the ground !

Orlando, I will check the two clubs I belong to about a SPA/BPA contest here. I live 161 miles south of your field.

See you soon,
Vince

This was the most fun at a contest that I've had in a long time (well, maybe since August in Huntsville). Expert class decided last night that we weren't going to fly Sunday because we had so much fun Saturday we wanted the Novice and Sportsman classes to enjoy the day of competition. Another warm, hot, sunny day, with about no wind all day. Looked like everyone was enjoying the day again, even when the judges were calling the maneuvers for the pilots as they flew

After the 5th rounds were flown, and Gary got in his "practice Expert round" and Ryan, Gary, Steve and myself decided to try a new style of judging for Experts 4th round. Since Blake and Joe hadn't arrived yet, I asked Gary to pick a number- 2 or 4. He picked 4 which was Blake position after 3 rounds, so Gary flew for Blake and Steve flew for Joe. The contest was already decided at that point so this was really for Gary and Steve to give Expert a try and all of us to try a new method of judging. Basically all the pilots in the class, Expert in this case, judged each other. So while one was flying, the other 3 were judging him. I will go into more detail about this scoring method on a separate thread as we are using it next weekend at Tangerine in F3A. After just getting off the phone with Ryan, it seems to have worked well, with results that are consistant with how we perceived the flights to be. That and all of our scores were "consistent" amongst all that judged.

Thanks again to Orlando and the crew for putting together such a great contest. Steve, Don, Joe for being "club judges" since they weren't flying and all the pilots for making it such a fun contest.

I also want to thank all the judges. Don, Steve, Jason, Ryan and all those whose names I can't remember. And, of course Orlando. Everyone did a great job and it was a very enjoyable weekend.

I have to go back many years to remember a weekend of flying that was that much fun. I don't remember every attending a contest where the judges and pilots where so layed back and laughing in the middle of a flight. It was a better time than I could ever have hoped for. Thanks again guys.

In my case it was a great learning experiance. I called for Ed Kirtley which help me learn the Sportsman maneuvers. The guys are not going to let me live it down if I go to another contest and compete in Novice. I start practicing the Sportsman sequance this week. Now if the King Altair where available and built I would have a plane for Sprotsman.

I'm only sorry it had to end. I look forward to seeing everyone at the next contest.

Bob Cox
SPA 374

What a great time I had flying the Daddy Rabbit. This contest helped me realize how much I miss flying SPA Pattern. I am looking forward to the next event in Florida.

Thanks Bob for calling the maneuvers. Thanks to Ryan for flying the Rabbit and giving me pointers on how to fly a better pattern. Finally, Jason I appreciate you testing my 3-D Electric Yak. It was neat to see my electric hover inches off the pavement. Why can't I do the same thing???

Ed

More pictures

Second attempt on the pictures

Rebuild.

Looks like it was a lot of fun. I look forward to joining you fellas next year as I'm moving to Florida (panhandle). I'll have a Deception with fixed gear and a Troublemaker with retracts. Simply awesome guys. I fly a lot of IMAC, but this type of flying is what I admired as a kid while dreaming of flying R/C in the early 80's. Can't wait to try it out!