St Clairsville Wrap Up
 

All the scores for this past weekend's contest at St Clairsville have been posted in the Contest Results section at nsrca.us. Here are some pics and a small report:

We were a little concerned about attendance this year. The week started with an earthquake and a hurricane was moving up the coast for the weekend, so we thought people might be hesitant to travel. Seeing fifteen pilots set up and practicing at 3:00 Friday afternoon kind of hinted that everything was going to be OK.
We ended up with 27 pilots...six in Sportsman, eight in Intermediate, five each in Advanced and Masters and three in FAI. That seems to be a good number for a local contest, enough to make it an event, not too many to get six rounds in and still head home at a reasonable hour on Sunday.

Joe Ruminski was flying at his first contest in Sportsman, Joe Mari made his debut in Intermediate and Ron Hansen returned to Intermediate after a year-long layoff. FAI flew P 13 for the first time, something that was demanding to pilots and judges alike. It was good to see guys challenging themselves.

We tried something new in sun protection for the judges, the SportBrella. They were easy to set up and worked real well. We opted not to use them Sunday morning because we were afraid they might not handle the brisk in-blowing wind.

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Here's the group photo;

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The flightline.

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Judges station with SportBrella.

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FAI winner Ray Morton. Ray had to explain several of the P 13 maneuvers to the judges before his first flight. It's a very demanding sequence.

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Mark Attwood, Second in FAI. Mark explained the maneuvers again after we judged Ray, lol. It's also a great learning experience when Mark is in the judge's chair behind you.

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Third in FAI, retiring D4 VP Dave Johnstone.

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Masters winner, the recently retired and newly cheerful Verne Koester.

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Steve Miller was second in Masters. The last time he visited our field Steve had a....well, let's just say a bad time.

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Third place, Masters, father of the contra drive, Brenner Sharp.

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Bob Condra drove all the way from Indianapolis to win Advanced. He's finishing a lot more contests now that he's gone electric.

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Everyone's Most Unforgettable Character, the very competitive but always helpful Anthony Abdullah was a close second in Advanced.

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Matt Finley made his Saturday count in his first vist to our field by taking home the Third Place trophy in Advanced.

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Jim Gruntkowski backed up a strong showing at the Nats by winning Intermediate.

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Newly electrified Ron Hansen returned to the Intermediate wars to take Second.

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Mike Lovitt combined flying with day care for what seemed like 150 children in his pit area. He finished a strong third in Intermediate.

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Bill Kutchell looked very pollished flying his Brio to first in Sportsman.
However, he looks kinda silly without his traditional floppy hat.

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Val Kirichenko continues to improve and took home Second in Sportsman.

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Bryan Finley shared an airplane with his son Matt and flew well enough that his Saturday rounds won him Third in Sportsman.

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I don't know what's going on here. I'm not sure I want to know.

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The Ruminski Brothers teamed up in Sportsman. Both flew and called for each other.

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Bob Haglock, calling here, flew in his second pattern contest this weekend. Bill Kutchell flew in one of his last as a Sportsman.

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Many thanks to all who came to enjoy the weekend with us. Many thanks to all the club members and wives who worked so hard to make it happen. Thanks to Pete Cosky, Cathie Cilles and Gail Ruminski for their quick, accurate work in the scoring tent. Thanks to Bill Kutchell, Bob Haglock, Bruce Vannest and Dave Ruminski for their hard work setting up, tearing down, flight line mangement and general gofer work.
Thanks to Contest Director Rick Cilles (that's him handing out all the trophies) for sacrificing a couple of places in Intermediate by running the whole show.

I'll leave you with something cute...My granddaughter Izabella, nineteen months old and already at her second pattern contest!

Thanks again for attending, please come back next year.

Scott McNickle

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To Scott, Rick and the whole St. Clairesville gang, a HUGE thank you for a great event.  This has to be one of the best run contests around.  Entry fees were the standard $30, but that included unlimited food that started Friday afternoon with snacks, cold cuts, sandwiches and beverages, full breakfast fare both Sat and Sunday, a huge lunch spread BOTH Sat and Sun, and all you could eat of desserts the entire time.  The site is beautiful, the runway smooth and the overfly area WIDE open.  Truly a great event.   Hat's off to Rick and his crew for a ton of hard work in making it all happen.  Thanks for a fun weekend!!!

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As usual, I had a great time! I am impressed with how you guys have built up the event over the past few years. The food is great and everyone is really friendly! Oh, I enjoyed the flying too. You will stay on my calendar for the forseeable future. Thanks for having us.