The 2011 Fresno Pattern Contest will be this Saturday, May 21. Due to the scheduling this year, a one day contest was planned with 4 rounds. Sportsman will be a $20 entry fee, and all others will be $25. As explained in the flyer, FAI as of right now is planned at four rounds of P. HOWEVER, depending on who shows up and what they want, it has been discussed that most of the planned attendees would like to fly the F sequence. We will leave it up to the contestants but anywhere from none, to one, to ALL rounds can fly the F sequence. Hopes are that it would make a good primer for those going to Muncie this year.

There will be power at the field. However, the field generator is not operable as of right now, but is planned to be running by Friday. We do have a smaller (4000W) backup generator just in case the big one isn't fixed.

Hope to see some of you Saturday!

Tom M

Flyer is attached.

See you on Saturday!

Tom

Looking forward to it

See you friday afternoon

Sorry guys,
I'll be flying tuned piped, retract equipped Classic Pattern ships in Camarillo on Saturday.
have fun,
Chris...

Plans are set, I will be there.

I will be there.

Tak.

We will have to miss this one. Jacob graduates from 8th grade Saturday.

Tell Jacob that I said Con Grad's, and that I will see him later this year





Jarvis

At least now we can lose to a High School kid!
Hope to see you and JB in Oakdale.

Mike

Tom,

My apologies but I can't make it. I don't have a anything flyable right now. If I don't take the boat out of Saturday, I will be there to judge!

Chris

Oh man, that's no excuse! I don't even fly pattern anymore and I'm going to be there!!! But then, I have to be...

Tom M

Great weather. 11 pilots, CD Tom did a great job. Here is the standing:

Sportsman (1)
3000.000 Carlos Tripodi

Intermediate (0)

Advanced (4)
3000.000 Dale Olstinske
2854.728 Jon Bruml
2768.960 Tak Takayama
2657.031 Shawn Berkheimer

Master (4)
3000.000 Luke Peng
2949.760 Frank Capone
2811.651 Dick Belden
2780.057 Roy Speights

FAI (2)
3000.000 Matthew Kimbro
2831.639 Jim Kimbro

I had a great time! This was the perfect contest for me to get started on. Going into it I had 8 flights on the airplane and had only flown the sequence once. Virginia did great her first time calling as well. I'm looking forward to Oakdale with some more airplane tuning and practice. Thanks to Tom and everyone who helped/encouraged me to get the airplane flying!

I want to thank everybody who came down to the 51st annual Fresno contest. Because of so few competitors we had to use guys as judges multiple times and it always makes a CD's job easier when people jump in and help out readily. Also want to thank Luke for providing the computer and helping to set up the scoring platform (as well as being our IT guy for the day!). Jon Bruml for loaning us his printer, and Frank Capone for bringing down some of the contest paraphernalia that we needed but were lacking. Thanks to Ron D. who provided support even though he left Friday afternoon to repair some damage... Also couldn't have done it without my wife who handled the scoring duties and was the gopher in the morning when we realized we were short a few items.

I want to apologize to those who attended, the event did not go as smoothly as I normally like my contests to go... We started late and had issues with generators and other equipment. Much of this could have been avoided by better preparation on my part. That is except for the generator issues, the main one worked fine on Friday, and just decided to give up the ghost when we need it most... if I get a chance it's going to meet the working end of a baseball bat later today! [>:] j/k

As I said earlier, this was the 51st annual Fresno pattern contest... that's quite a streak. And it looks like it has come to an end. Over the last five years or so we have seen the attendance decline year after year with only one exception, 2009. Of the last three contests that I have CD'd in Fresno we have gotten as many 15 contestants, and as few as 11. I don't think this is something we are going to do in the future, or at least something that I'm not going to do. With so little support and participation, it's unfair to ask the club to provide use of the field for so few modelers. It's not about money, if we had 50 contestants and only took in $50 for the club, they would be happy just to provide the venue for people to have a good time. But with only 11, and no local member participation... it's just not fair, even if they haven't said anything yet.

Since the loss of Arvin for the District Championships, Fresno was named the venue for this year's contest in October. I think the club would be happy to provide the venue in the coming years for the District Championships, but I think we have had our last Spring contest.

Tom M

too bad... Fresno has one of the best sites in the central valley!!

What happened to Arvin??

Apparently the Arvin club is not interested in letting the pattern guys hold contests there. Last year there were two contests, this year none. Not sure of the reason or the genesis of it, just know that the District Championships could not be held there this year as has been the tradition the last couple of years.

Tom M

I think they want more to rent the field than we can afford. No worries. Has been a great place to fly for the past few years and we all owe them a HUGE thank you for that. Good club and people!

Tom, Sorry I couldn't make it, and also for the insanely crappy turnout. That's really shocking to me! Such a great place to fly, and only a 1 day contest! wow. just wow.

So you quit pattern? Sorry to hear that bro! Hope you're still flying though! Take care and hope to see ya round still!

Chris

Chris,

I can't really explain the turnout either. Aside from Tak, we didn't haven't anybody from SoCal, likely due to the Hemet contest being the weekend before. Norcal had a lot of absences that hurt as well, I can think of 5 regulars off the top of my head, and a couple more I'm sure that I'm not thinking of... The logic with the one day contest was the idea that more people would be willing to make a day trip than a weekend long commitment... Guess that was not the case. I know a lot of people had important events that they had to attend to, and let's face it... the hobby events go down to the bottom of most "lists of things to do". And that is fine and appropriate, but year after year we see people skipping the Fresno contest. Okay, next year we'll just make it easier. THERE WON'T BE ONE!

Nope, not flying Pattern much anymore. Think I have taken the plane out three times since September, and I can't say I miss it. I don't think I will ever just flat out quit, but I'm just not interested enough to practice and practice. And honestly, what is the point if A) Nobody shows up for contests and B) I'm not going to the Nats ? We still might make Oakdale (wife likes it as a campsite as well as the dog), and if so I'll let you know my other reasons...

T

Tom, Jacob and I will be staying at Oakdale again this year. Hope you and your wife can make it. Sorry about missing Fresno, but Jacob had to graduate.
Hope to see you at Oakdale

Steve.

Hello Tom
I understand where you are coming from, I'm sorry that I could not make it up there, I had to work overtime an did not get home until 9:00 pm, I was going
to come up with Tak, If would have been a 2 day, I would have been there.and what Chris saided about Arvin is correct, we could not afford the rental fee.
For pattern it's 20 to maybe 30 pilots, The IMAC contest for Arvin, it's 50 to 60 pilots at about $45.00 per head. The Chino IMAC contest had 68 pilots for 2 days
this year Chino IMAC contest will be a 3 days event Friday thur Sunday. This will be my last year of pattern, an I will be moving on IMAC, I just picked up a 35%
Extra 300 NIB for 100cc motor, for $500.00, a Wind 110 cost $539.00 an is 1/3 the size you do the "Math". I hope to see you in Oakdale

I'm not sure I agree here. Yes Fresno had a poor turnout but I feel it had more to do with schedule then anything else. It was one week after a socal contest and the same weekend as a classic pattern get together in socal as well. We all feel what the economy is currently doing. With gas being over 4.00 per gallon. Like previously stated, R/C is a lower priority then say a family vacation so with travel expenses being up it comes as no surprise guys are scaling back on events. Tom, I personally think it a mistake to make such a decision based on this years turnout. I know that you said that attendence has been dropping off the past few years but I think it with just about every aerobatics event. I know that IMAC has seen a sharp reduction in numbers.

As far as Arvin is concerned, it may be a lost cause at this point but is it still Mark Latimore running the show? No offence but I think Jarvis's numbers are off. I have attended numerous IMAC events at Arvin and have never seen more then 40 pilots. 32 is a more realistic number. As of right now there are 30 registered pilots for their upcoming IMAC event. Anything over 35 and it is near impossible to get in 2 rounds on Sat and on Sun the unknowns burn up alot of time. My experience tells me that when you have any event that has a few hard working people organizing and exibiting a high degree of enthusiasm will have a good turn out. Of course there are exceptions as with what we had in Fresno with what I previously stated.




With all this said, if Fresno holds another pattern or IMAC event I will support it. I personally know how much hard work and unfortunatly unappreciated work it takes to put on any event. One can only do this sort of thing for so long before getting burnt out. Hope to see you in Oakdale.

I am a member of the Bear Mountain Flyers which is the club that has hosted the District Champs for the last several years. The club felt that the amount of money they got for the use of the field was not enough. I think they got $300 for the 2010 Champs. The event has been falling off in attendance since BMF first hosted the event. I think the 1st year at BMF it was nearly 40. Last year I think it was around 25. The club asked for more. The decision was made to move to Fresno. No problem, Fresno is a great field and has held it before. As far as my spring contest, again the club membership voted it down as it, in their opinion, didn't bring in enough money for the club. Who can really blame them.

Pattern contests have gotten used to, IMO, low entry fees compared to nearly every other R/C event I've attended. At my contest last year we charged $40 instead of the usual $35 and heard complaints. Maybe that's why it can be hard to get clubs to agree to hold pattern events. And if the attendance tanks, just another reason.

We are going to include Classic Pattern to our fall contest at Lancaster. Maybe if we can get a few of those guys along with current pattern the events will be more worthwhile.

BTW, Mark Latimore is deep into helicopters and is not involved with the club now.

Tony, I think combining the two events is a great idea. Sadly what I have seen the past couple of years is clubs have less and less interest in holding competitive events. My home club is sponsoring less it seems each year. Last year at the final pattern contest we had about 25 pilots I think. It was asked what would be needed to have a two day contest this year and the answer was " Double the attendance". A 50 pilot contest is really pushing it with a very well organized staff. Myself I took the answer as " We are not interested". In my clubs case, Ihave seen events that draw 25 to 30 pilots being called a " Huge success ". What I have seen time and time again is that what the clubs current board members interests are is what they sponsor. The Sacramento Area Modelers club is mainly racing guys and because of this they put on a great event. My club used to do alot of racing as well and when the club president stopped racing, the events dwindled away. The Hollister club was the same with IMAC, when one club member stopped CDing the contest, it went away. Hollister still has a pattern event I feel mainly due to the efforts of Jon Carter.



Like it's said in the movie," Build it and they will come" I think holds true. If an event is well planned, advertised and scheduled I most likely will be well attended. Then again you and I have been doing this long enough to know things come and go in waves. Aerobatics my be on the downside for a while. I see helicopters are on the rise again the same as what happened when John and Walt couldn't ship enough Legends and X-cells to fill orders.

The District Champs have always been well planned, advertised and scheduled. The attendance kept dropping. It's probably a statement about aeromodelling in general. The average age is going up and there is less fire for competition. The largest events are fun flies. Joe Nall, IRCHA, etc.

We're going to see how much interest there will be in Classic Pattern in an actual competitive environment. But it sure was a lot of fun at Camarillo just getting together and flying.

.
Maybe if everyone got a First Place plaque we would attract today's youth?
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