It's here!! This is the week-end for Mike Hester's first (I think) GMA pattern contest!!

My fingers are shaking already and I haven't even left for the site yet.[sm=rolleyes.gif]

Fun for all--come on out!

See you there!

Welp, it does look awfully wet tomorrow, but rest assured we'll fly some rounds this weekend. The wind was awful today but most people handled it pretty gracefully. Only one casualty so far. Actually the wind was about like a day at Muncie, just not used to it in Ga.

We may get a late start, but registration starts at about 8am and we'll play it by ear after that.

Now I'm gonna get some rest, looks like it's going to be a long weekend for me.

And yep, it's my first.

-Mike

Great contest Mike, and we made it thru tornado warnings, hail, rain, wind from every direction on the compass, wind changing 180 degrees mid flight, frost this AM (from 85 degrees on Friday!),etc, etc. Still got 6 rounds in. Had a great time, and look forward to next year!

Jon Lowe

Congrats to Mike and Melissa for a great job!
Thanks to GMA members for all the work and allowing us to use their very nice site!! Hope to do it again next year.

Jim

It was very good to see Pattern Contests return to the GMA Club! Many thanks to ALL who helped & traveled to participate. Mike did a good job CDing his first contest. He had a great crew of family & club members to help get in ALL 6 rounds dispite some challenging weather.

Can someone please post some Pics & results?

Yeah, I think Cameron just wants to see that high final FAI score number (You're looking very smooth BTW, I'm genuinely impressed!)

Seriously, I want to again thank ALL of you brave souls for coming out and braving a really iffy forecast to fly some pattern and have some FUN. We had plenty of curve balls thrown our way, but I think for what we had to deal with we really did well to manage all 6 rounds. I REALLY want to thank the pour souls I had to wear out in the judges chair, this being a bottom heavy contest was great to see, just hard to judge. Exactly half of the pilots were in either sportsman or intermediate.

I think I've had all of 6 hours sleep...and not all at once...since Friday morning. Wicked hailstorms, tornadoes, waking up to the sounds of screaming dogs, chainsaws and gunshots at 3am Saturday morning.....so I'll post the final scores tomorrow when I'm only seeing one screen here. Dean and some others took some great pics and I hope he'll post some in the next day or 2.

Just some highlights (lowlights first):

Bryan kennedy smacked in his new ZN Supreme Firday during practice. the wind that day was easily the worst we've had anywhere in D3 in a very long time.
Bruce Thoman lost his Electric Eclipse practicing Saturday morning when he lost it in a low ceiling.
These are the 2 things that stand out as the really bad things.

The good things were 20 people showed up to an unknown field with an unproven CD during absolutely hellish forecast predictions. And as I said half of them were in the 1st 2 classes! We managed to get in 4 rounds Saturday by just after 6:30, and we started at 11am. I thought all things considered, things went very smoothly after we got going. my wife Melissa stepped up and did a flawless job of scoring. My only regret is that I didn't get to fly myself! I would have loved to see if I had anything for Cameron, Joe and Ryan in FAI (probably not, but it would have been fun trying)...but being my first time running a contest, there was just no way. I wanted to try and make things go as well as possible for everyone else. I have no doubt I wouldn't have made it through more than 1 round before I figured out I didn't have time.

I'll post scores later after I get some rest, I haven't taken anything at all out of the van yet.

A few notables: Marcio Jorge has served notice he's in it to win it in sportsman. The improvement in this guy is incredible.

Brian Billings, Jon Lowe and Gary Courtney had a really tight contest for intermediate that went down to the last round....and was won by less than 4 points. That was fun watching those standings print out [8D]

Erik Newsolme has made a very good transition from intermediate to advanced. His improvement just in 3 weeks since Ocala is remarkable. Jamie Strong overcame a lot of adversity pulling a camper through some of the worst storms to hit this area in some time, a wet transmitter, still flying on a single stick....and is still smooth and is a threat to win every time he goes up. I can see now I will require at least 12 cases of fuel between now and the nats to have a prayer...

Jim Ivey has really started to become consistent again. Emory Schroeter flew one of my planes saturday, and the other one on Sunday to second place in masters. That's a heck of a rally from the low point of losing a brand new scratch built electric 3 weeks earlier. Billy meadows is flying better than I have seen him fly in a long time, and that's great to see!

FAI, Joe Walker is still hard to handle with his trusty old Patriot missle. He and Ryan had to leave on saturday, but Joe won all 4 rounds. Cameron Smith is looking very well for a first time FAI pilot. he was very clean, smooth and well positioned.....just missing small things and experience. Ryan McLaughlin constantly shows incredible talent by flying different planes at about every contest.....and will have a great weapon soon, so I expect him to do VERY well later on this season.

Anyway thanks ALL of you, I'll post scores later on...

-Mike

Fabulous event, LOTS of fun and the incredible amount of information that was learned!

MANY THANKS TO CAMERON, MIKE, EMORY, MARCIO, MELISSA, BRYAN, BUDDY, and all the pilots for the help and advice!!!

Arthur

Had a great time Mike, thanks to you and your wife for a great contest, thanks to the GMA club and staff. We were on the fence after seeing the forcast for the area but my son has been dying to go on a trip in Mr. Billy's {as he calls him} motor home so we said the heck with it and headed on up, glad we did!! Oh, also want to thank Jon Lowe for deciding to fly a different plane on Sunday, LOL. Just kidding Jon, you and gary are going to keep me on my toes this year and I hope they are all that close as it makes for a fun contest.

Here are the scores:

Sportsman

1st Marcio Jorge 4000
2nd Dean Funk 3933
3rd Jim Oliver 3910
4th Arthur Neto 3607

Intermediate

1st Brian Billings 3982
2nd Jon Lowe 3978
3rd Gary Courtney 3906
4th Dan Varnson 3685
5th Randy Beardon 3657
6th Mike Wingo 3414

Advanced

1st Erik Newsholme 3991
2nd Jamie Strong 3984
3rd Bryan Kennedy 3857
4th Frank Chick 3798

Masters

1st Jim Ivey 4000
2nd Emory Schroeter 3884
3rd Billy Meadows 3792

FAI

1st Joe Walker 4000
2nd Cameron Smith 3950
3rd Ryan McLaughlin 3727


Most of the feedback has been very positive. Looks good for next year! But I will move the date a little to better accomidate more people.

Thanks guys, it was a blast!
-Mike

Had a great time and look forward to next year. Even with all the test mother nature could dish out we still got in 6 rounds of flying.Great job Mike and all the people involved in the contest.

Now a few pics, thanks to Dean (stolen from his page actually MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!)

-Mike

more

more

last ones

Great contest Mike A++++++++++++




gary

I had a great time, Mike. BTW, thanks for the airplane loaner! Everything seemed to run very well.

Emory.

Posted some more GMA pics, just go to www.Billingsauto.smugmug.com and click on the GMA folder.

WOW......

Between Brian and Dean, we must have some of the best pattern pictures in existance! Keep it up guys, these pics are solid gold!!!!

-Mike

I have allot more to post there as well, Check back often. I have a bunch from Ocala too, I will post when those are up.