Here are the contest reports and notes from the 2012 season. You will find all the rounds scores and standings in another pages that you can find listed in the menu on the left.
Red Apple Pattern Contest, Pics, Scores
Written by Gordon Anderson:
The Red Apple Pattern contest in Wenatchee, Washington kicked off the 2012 pattern season in District 8 May 26th and 27th. This was a great start to the season with a total of 20 pilots including 5 Canadian pilots. We had pilots in all AMA classes and FAI, with FAI being our largest class with a 7 pilots.
We flew 4 rounds on Saturday and 2 more Sunday for a total of 6 rounds. The wind was a challenge for everyone and Sunday was extremely windy!
There were a couple of interesting incidents that happened. The first was when Rex Lesher lost the batteries out of his plane. The Velcro gave up its grip and the batteries went flying! It took some searching the batteries were found but damaged. The second incident happened when Dave Villwock’s four bladed prop lost one of the blades and vibrated the chin cowl off the plane. He was lucky enough to find it but will need to do a bunch of repairs.
The Red Apple field is an outstanding place to fly; it has a clubhouse complete with bathrooms and showers. There is lots of space for camping and it seemed like most of the pilots were camping at the field.
See you in the pits….
Treasure Valley Pattern Contest, Pics, Scores
With a dismal weather forecast twelve hardy souls converged on Boise, ID for the third annual “Treasure Valley Pattern Contest” June 9th and 10th 2012.
In its third year the contest attracted long distant travelers. Lone Canadians, Murray Johnson and his wife Joanne arrived late Thursday night. Coming from a similar distance was John Bentley and Annie Ellis from Gilbert, AZ. John and Annie arrived Friday just ahead of the magnificent seven hailing from Utah. Yes, you read it correctly: Seven from Utah! Rex Lesher represented Oregon in typical studly fashion and Wayne Lovett came down from Spokane.
Friday practice was in winds slightly less than "the winds of Wenatchee". While Friday was windy but very flyable; Saturday was again windy with the added benefit of rain and plummeting temperatures. With deteriorating conditions; many contestants took a pass on flying in the first round. After a semi-round Saturday morning lunch was served. Lunchtime chili was a big hit, after lunch we called it a day.
Proving my "Good Weather Guarantee" good; Sunday morning was cool warming as the day grew older with mild winds throughout. The better of three rounds were flown with FAI stopping at two in the interest of time.
A special thanks to Rex for keeping score and Gordon for phone support. I now know what paper to buy!
Redmond High Desert Pattern Classic, Pics, Scores
Written by Gordon Anderson:
The 6th annual Redmond High Desert Pattern Classic was held June 23rd and 24th, 2012. In spite of challenging weather we completed 5 rounds, 3 ½ on Saturday and 1 ½ on Sunday. Saturday was complicated due to rain and hail storms. We had to stop flying and hunker down a couple of times but luckily the storms did not last long and we managed to get three and a half rounds completed. Sunday was a lot nicer day and we had to wait for the sun to exit the box before we could get going.
We had a pretty small turnout with only 11 pilots, the weather reports scared a few fliers resulting in low attendance. We had pilots in all classes except Advanced. Most of us arrived on Friday to get a little practice and we only had a little bit of flyable weather before it started raining. So we all headed to Pappy’s for pizza. Saturday we finished the just in time before the rain and lightning storm hit. Saturday we had our traditional Sully’s dinner.
The closest raced we had was in Intermediate between Mike Riggs and Scott Stebbins, in the end Scott won with less than 7 points separating him from Mike! We will be looks for a rematch in Molalla!
Alan dominated Masters and won every round. In FAI Alexander also won every round and really set the bar, he also flew the F sequence in the 5th round. He did an outstanding job and is an excellent pilot. Just a couple of seasons ago he was flying Advanced and now he is winning all the FAI events! This is one kid to keep your eye on!
As we have come to expect the Field of Dreams club treated us like royalty and had lunch for us both Saturday and Sunday. Over all it was a great contest and I am sure all the pilots had a great time.
See you in the pits….
Molalla 9th Annual Oregon Pattern Classic, Pics, Scores
Written by Gordon Anderson:
The 9th annual Molalla contest was held July 7th ad 8th. The weather for this contest was perfect! I have to say this is the best contest weather I can remember in the last few seasons. We had a total of 17 pilots covering all the classes. In order to keep things moving we decided to run two flight lines. This worked pretty well and we easily completed 4 rounds on Saturday and 2 more on Sunday. We finished up just in time for lunch on Sunday getting everyone on the road by 1pm.
Dick Matson made the trip from Wenatchee to fly Sportsman. Dick seems to have been bitten by the pattern bug and it is great to see him travel to other D8 events. Unfortunately he was the only pilot in Sportsman but he still had a great time and received lots of good feedback from the judges.
Pat Harris won Intermediate in what I think was his first pattern contest! He did a great job and won 5 out of 6 rounds.
The Molalla gang has a gaggle of pilots battling it out in Advanced. Brad Burden won with Bill Carder only 49 points behind him! Ray Gauthier and Bob Walker were only separated by 25 points!
Bill Bowen won Masters with Alan Wellentin only 15 points behind him! You better lookout Bill, Alan is right on your tail!
Alexander Safarik won FAI, he also flew the F13 sequence on Sunday while the rest of the pilots stuck with the P13 sequence. Alexander is an amazing young pilot flying the very complex F13 sequence with almost every maneuver containing integrated rolls and loops.
Gary McClellan made the jump to electric and was flying a new Vanquish! He only had a couple dozen flights on the plane and was dialing it in through the contest. Gary took second place with his new electric pattern plane.
We had our traditional Mexican dinner on Friday night. Ray Gauthier organized a fantastic dinner at the country club on Saturday night. This dinner included a contest that was performed at the field before dinner. The winner (Gordon Anderson) was awarded a free dinner! The contest involved multiple rounds of competition with small balsa gliders. A very original and fun event!
Overall the 9th annual Molalla contest was perhaps the best yet! I am sure everyone had a great time!
See you in the pits…
Redmond High Desert Pattern Classic Part Duex!, Pics, Scores
Written by: Gordon Anderson
The very first Redmond High Desert Pattern Classic Part Duex was held July 28th and 29th. We had a total of 12 pilots with entries in all classes. The weather was very good with a bit of wind picking up as the afternoon wore on. Friday it was very windy so no one got a lot of practice. The weather was a huge improvement compared to the weather at the first Redmond contest.
Ray Gauthier had a flame out in a very bad position and did not make it back to the field. His plane when in on the top of a hill and we all lost sight of it before it hit the ground. We all expected it to be in a few pieces but it was virtually unharmed. It landed on a downed tree that cushioned its impact. The chin cowl had a little damage and a few nicks on the leading edge and that was it! Ray went on to fly it on Sunday after a bit of engine tuning. That was the only mishap all weekend! Art Kelly has had a lot of hard luck at the Redmond field but this contest was a turning point, he flew all rounds with no problems!
As always the Field Of Dreams club members took great care of us. They cooked Lunch Saturday and Sunday even providing free lunch on Sunday.
We had our traditional Friday night dinner and Pappy’s and Saturday night at Sulleys. As usually we had a great time and told lots of tall tales about flying and building!
See you in the pits…
Can-Am Pattern Challenge, Pics, Scores
Written by: Gordon Anderson
The Cam-Am Challenge pattern contest was held in Snohomish Washington August 11th and 12th. This contest was started by John Foglesong with the first two contests held in Concrete and the last three held in Snohomish. John passed away after a long battle with cancer. This Can-Am was held in his honor and Ron Swift, the CD, offered a very nice memorial at the opening pilots meeting of the contest. A few pilots also shared their thoughts. John traveled to the Creswell contest last year and spent Friday trying to get his plane ready to go. Friday night he became ill and had to return home, that was John’s last contest. Freddy Hagens put up a demo flight at the close of Saturday’s flying using the same plane John had planned to fly in Creswell. This was a nice remembrance of John’s passion for the hobby and for pattern competition.
We had a total of 12 pilots including 2 Canadian pilots that made this a true international event! We did have access to the field warnings due to a bike race that we were told would close the road to the field Saturday. It turned out that the road was open to local traffic and we had no trouble getting to the field. We did warn everyone before the contest that we were going to start late due to the closure and this may have scared a few pilots away. We flew only one flight line and completed 4 rounds on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. The weather was just about perfect! I little bit of wind but it was mostly down the runway.
Ron Swift and Dick Matson competed in Sportsman with Dick winning all 6 rounds flying his little Vanquish. Dick has been traveling to a number of D8 contests to find no one else in his class so it was great for him to have someone to fly against. Ron was flying his sport plane and had a little engine trouble as well as running about keeping the contest running smoothly. This included shooing off a guy on a tractor that decided to mow the overfly area right in front of the pilots!
Wayne Lovett was the only competitor in Intermediate; this was his first contest in this class after moving up from sportsman.
We had no advanced pilots!
Master had 4 pilots, Murray Johnson, Alan Wellentin, Hartley Hughson, and Rick Bergeron and they finish in the same order as I just listed them! Murray led Alan by less than 40 points! It was a close battle all weekend between these two. Hartley and Murray have been attending contests in D8 and we appreciate there support. It was great to see Rick back in the fray and we look forward to seeing him in more contests.
FAI was our largest class with a total of five pilots finishing in the following order; Alexander Safarik, Rex Lesher, Gordon Anderson, Freddy Hagens, and Pavel Safarik. Rex and Alexander were separated by less than 100 points and Rex led for much of the contest. Rex was sporting a new Castle Creations speed controller and we all theorized that it must have given him the edge, he even had Castle stickers on this transmitter tray! Sunday Alexander really turned on the heat and won the last two rounds by a pretty good margin. Pavel and Alexander had a new Sting Bi biplane and were “dialing” it in on Saturday, by the looks of things Alexander had it all figured out on Sunday!
Over all it was a great contest, lots of great flying and everyone had a great time flying and talking pattern. We are all looking forward to next year’s Can-Am where we can try and win back the Maters honors from the Canadians!
We did have some excitement coming home, a wreck forced us to turn around and take a new path. Then we experienced a near miss with a deer that decided to jump in front of the truck. The final challenged was a road closure. So this was a “challenge” just getting home!
See you all in the pits soon….
Canby Dusters Pattern Meet, Pics, Scores
Written by: Gordon Anderson
The first Canby Dusters Pattern Meet was held Labor Day weekend, September 1st and 2nd, near Woodburn Oregon. This contest replaced the traditional EAC contest held in Creswell. We had a great turnout with a total of 18 pilots filling all the classes. Three local Dusters club members flew Sportsman in their first pattern contest; we hope to see them at future contests!
The Dusters field is grass with open fields surrounding it, pretty easy place to fly but it does face east so we could not fly until about 11:30 or noon to avoid the sun. The weather was great, clear skies and a little breeze mostly from the north. The field is very close to Woodburn where there are lots of places to stay as well as outlet mall for shopping.
We ran two flight lines and really worked hard to get 4 rounds in Saturday and 2 more on Sunday. We flew until 6pm Saturday and finished up about 3pm on Sunday. Other than Brad Burden’s throttle getting stuck it was a pretty uneventful contest.
For most of this season Dick Madson has been traveling to our contests to find himself alone in Sportsman, that all changed this weekend! Three local pilots flew in their first pattern contest giving us 4 pilots in Sportsman. Chris Elliott really dominated winning all 6 rounds of the contest. Jim Robb and Dick Matson battled it out for 2nd place with Jim talking second by only 10 points. Rudy Yarbrough flew to fourth place and had a great time being coached by Pat Harris, I am sure we will be seeing him next season.
Pat Harris won all 6 rounds in Intermediate to take first place by a pretty good margin. Pat is new this season to D8 pattern and is doing a fantastic job. He was flying his new Nuance this weekend, seems like he has it dialed in! Mike Riggs and Scott Stebbins battled all weekend for second place, Scott lead for much of the weekend but Mike really put things together on Sunday and took second with only a 25 point lead. We will be looking for a rematch in Tri-Cities!
Brad Burden won Advanced against Bill Carder; Brad won all but the last round were his throttle stuck at about half stick. He had to fly around until he ran out of fuel. He landed safely and discovered a clevis that had snapped off the throttle! I heard rumors that Brad was moving up to Masters next season.
Bill Bowen won 4 rounds on Saturday to win Masters. Alan Wellentin is flying a new Scandalous that he was dialing in on Saturday, Sunday he won both rounds so it looks like he made all the needed adjustments! There were only 46 points between Bill and Alan so looks like another rematch in the Tri-Cities. Rick Bergeron took 3rd with Jim Hiller in 4th place.
FAI was our largest class with 5 pilots. Alexander Safarik won all 4 rounds on Saturday and flew the F sequence on Sunday. He is an amazing young pilot, it’s a lot of fun to watch him fly the F sequence and he keeps getting better! Our CD Gary McClellan took 2nd place with Rex Lesher right behind him in third place trailing by only 70 points. Pavel Safarik was in fourth and Gordon Anderson in fifth.
Thanks to all the club members, pilots and helpers that made this a fantastic first pattern contest at the Dusters field in Woodburn, I hope we will have many more!
See you in the pits...
Tri-Cities Fun In The Sun Pattern Contest, Pics, Scores
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