We had a real nice contest at St Clairsville this weekend...good friends, good weather, good flying and the usual good food. We missed a couple of regulars but made some new friends this time, too. Twenty five pilots turned out and that's just about the right number considering we can't start flying until 11:00 due to sun issues.

We had a good Sportsman group this year, ranging from ready to move up to just getting started. The pilots were (and the pictures are, I hope, in this order) Patrick Ploenzke, Lynn Morgan, Tom Melshiemer, JT Snyder, Larry Shaver and Doug Bohanan.

The top three were Patrick, Lynn and Tom, with Patrick's margin of victory being only 13.1 points!

After the first round, judge and Advanced flyer Ron Hansen called the group together and gave a five minute mini pattern primer. Flying improved greatly in the next round.
We hope to see all these guys back next year.

The Intermediate group consisted of Scott McNickle, Mike Gaishin, Steve Stricker, Peter VanHeusden, Bill Kutchell, Joe Mari and Dave Cook. Any of the first four could have won this weekend and the final margin was just 22.65 points out of 4000. McNickle, Gaishin and Stricker were the top three here.
Bill Kutchell lost his Element just after takeoff on the first flight of the day. He soldiered on with a medium sized Osiris on loan from contest director Rick Cilles and did a good job with an airplane he'd never flown before.
Mike Gaishin lost his airplane to an over extended battery after Intermediate competetion was finished for Saturday. He came back and finished the contest thanks to the loan of Peter Van Heusden's plane. He adapted quickly...one practice flight in the morning, then winning round six!

Advanced had a small turnout this year. Anthony Abdullah, Mark Doucey and Ron Hansen made up the field and they finished in that order. Mark won the only round that Anthony didn't.
I don't know whether he's just hitting his stride or it's the new Vanquish he's flying, but Mark has made a big jump since last year. Ron is working hard on the big jump from Intermediate to Advanced and he was seen getting some intense coaching from Anthony during the weekend.

Masters was our other large group with Verne Koester, Brenner Sharp, Mark Radcliff, Bob Mairs, Mike Cohen, Dave Johnstone and Bob Kane.
Verne won, flying well despite being baked under the judges shelter early on. Brenner flew a different airplane Sunday to finish second after borrowing a canopy from third place finisher Mark Radcliff. Mark is continuing his comeback on the pattern trail after a long layoff from the glory days of his youth.

FAI looked like a one man show performed by Mark Atwood until contest director Rick Cilles decided to have a stab at it.
FAI is expected to recover.

Rick did a great job as CD and handled all the little issues before they became big ones.
Mark did a lot of much appreciated coaching throughout the weekend. It's great having flyers of his caliber around.

A few more to show the flavor of the weekend.
The group shot from Sunday afternoon. A few guys had already left before we got everyone together.
Mark Radcliff, Mark Atwood and Brenner Sharp working to fit Radcliff's canopy to Brenner's airplane.
Co-CD Dave Ruminski about to explain to Sportsman Tom Melsheimer that "Half Reverse Cuban Eight" doesn't mean you actually fly with the airplane backwards.

And last but not least....Anthony Abdullah shows how high pressure and cut throat the Pattern world is.


Thanks to everyone for coming and making a great weekend. Thanks to everyone who judged without complaint, especially the Masters guys who got hit pretty hard because our contest was almost one-third Sportsmen.

Thanks to my fellow club members who worked so hard to pull this one off.

Hope to see you all again next year.

Great report Scott. It looks like you guys had a very nice contest. Sorry to hear about the airplanes lost, it seems that Bill has had some bad luck as of late.

Teo

Congratulations to Mark D. he is improving with every contest....plus I found out he has a secret weapon on the way! Time to fight fire with fire. Hopefully I will see you all at the D4 championships in Muncie.

Evan

Ron! Thanks for the pattern primer that was great. You can do that after every one of my flights...

Good one Evan. Ahh secret weapons are so much fun!!!! Mike

Who is the guy flying the Monolog in Intermediate ? I would like to talk to him and get his impressions on the plane and set up .I have a new one almost ready to fly.

Thanks Kirk

Steve Striker

Thanks

Don't know much about his setup but Steve is doing much better with it than whatever he was flying last year. He did say he thought it was a little short on power with the current motor/battery/prop.

Evan - Not a secret weapon - Just a new tool!

Mark