Here are the contest reports and notes from the 2013 season. Click on the "scores" link to see all the rounds details as well as all rraw scores.
The D8 photo album with several years of pictures is avalible here.
Red Apple Fliers Pattern Contest, Wenatchee, WA, pictures, scores
Treasure Valley Pattern Contest Boise, ID, scores
Boise Area Radio Kontrol Society (BARKS) fourth Treasure Valley Pattern Contest is in the books. This year’s "Good Weather Guarantee" held true. Unlike last year's horrid conditions, We had warm temperatures and blue skies this year; with contest bonus winds of +20mph Saturday. Sunday was a little warmer and much calmer.
This was a long distance International type of contest. Of 14 contestants; we had two from Canada, one from Arizona, Three from Utah, two from Washington, one from Oregon and five local flyers. It’s really been enjoyable to watch this contest grow through the years.
Having three local club members entered in Sportsman was a real treat. Even better was hearing all three discussing which pattern airplane they want to buy. Kerry Carlson was also making contest travel plans for next year.
Nathan Wingert and I flew Intermediate against Scott Stebbins from Spokane Washington. It’s always fun when we mix it up; the three of us have been doing battle since our early Sportsman days. Wayne and Tim where are you? Hint. Hint!
With no other Advance pilots entered; Guy Hanson stepped up and flew Masters with his beautiful Proteus. Guy did a great job in masters after flying the sequence for the first time in practice on Friday. Masters pilot Chris Maier (Utah) entered his first pattern contest and dominated the field of five, winning all six rounds. Chris’ IMAC background really showed, especially in snaps. John Bentley (Arizona) second, Murray Johnson (Canada) third with Guy Hanson and Jim Hiller.
In FAI, Unfortunately, after flying four rounds of “P” on Saturday Canadian Michi Akimoto’s ESC decided it didn’t want to work on Sunday. Darin Peirce (Utah) led the pack flying “F” for two rounds on Sunday. D8’s Rex Lesher flew his new custom winged Integral for six rounds of “P”.
BARKS will be donating $200 in contest proceeds to TEAM USA.
Mike Riggs
Redmond High Desert Pattern Classic, pictures, scores
Another Redmond contest is history. This was the 7th year for this contest. Friday, the weather was a tad windy but the sun was out and the forecast was looking good for the weekend with a chance of a bit of rain later in the afternoon for Sunday. Fourteen pilots registered, including our good friend Murray Johnson from Canada....who by the way, had competed in the other two 2013 D8 contests. As usual for the gang, we all converged on our favorite pizza parlor Friday evening. Saturday morning brought favorable weather with a slight breeze that varied all day. We flew four rounds and then went for our annual Italian dinner...ya, it's that good! Sunday morning brought a big change in the weather. It looked like it could rain at any moment. Gordon Anderson got the first portion of his flight in before the skies opened up and rain began to drizzle down just enough to curtail flights. We all sat around for a couple hours then decided to pull the plug and end the contest. Awards were handed out and we all said our goodbyes.
The Redmond club is a great host. They provided BBQ hamburgers and hotdogs for lunch. It is a real pleasure flying at this site and we look forward to many more contests at this facility.
Rex Lesher
Molalla Pattern Challenge, pictures, scores
Molalla is usually one of our biggest contests, but numbers were down a bit for various reasons. Two Molalla regulars, Pavel and Alexander Safarik, decided not to attend due to the upcoming Nats. On the bright side, we had two dedicated soles drive all the way from Canada. Flying in FAI was Canadian Worlds team member Mitchi Akimoto and Stan Anderson flying in Advanced.
Saturday greeted us with great skies and modest winds. Four rounds were finished by 4:30 followed by a nice dinner and good company at our usual country club haunt set up by Ray Gauthier. All classes were represented other than Sportsman. Sunday’s two rounds were done right at lunch time.
Topping Intermediate was Art Kelly, with Bob Walker taking Advanced hardware home. Bob is really flying well with his new Wind Pro. Masters fell to the ever strong Alan Wellentin, with FAI topped by Mitchi Akimoto. Yours truly pulled out Seniors with Alan Wellentin taking top honors of Grand Champion of the contest.
Pat
Albany 1st Annual AMA Precision Aerobatic Pattern, pictures, scores
The Albany Thundervolts First Annual Pattern Contest is now in the history book. This was the first AMA sanctioned contest that the club has hosted. The Camco field in Millersberg, Oregon had recently been renovated and the club officers (and a newbie CD) were sweating and stressing about the fitness of the field to host a pattern contest. The worry was over when the pattern guys gave the facility an OK.
Twelve fliers arrived to fly, three of which were brand new Sportsman candidates. We appreciated Freddy Hagens and Gordon and Mari Anderson who came down from Washington to participate. Gordon and Mari of course bring the "Contest in a box" that contains everything to tabulate all the scores and produce winners certificates and AMA report forms. Couldn't do a contest without them. Of course I had help from the other CDs that came to fly: Rex Lesher, Gary Mclellen, Bill Carder and Pat Harris. I had plenty of go-to-guys around for support.
The new Sportsman had attended a workshop/seminar 30 days prior to the contest and went through a good training program. Gary McClellan, Rex Lesher and Rick Bergeron conducted this workshop which was enthusiastically appreciated by 4 potential Sportsman flyers. Gary, Rex and Rick flew demo flights of the Sportsman pattern for the beginners and then conducted a discussion on maneuver descriptions and contest procedures. The workshop concluded with practice flights by the beginner Sportsman. They loved it and thanked all of us profusely.
Weather was sunny and in the high 80s with a slight North wind that gave everybody some mild crosswind correction practice. There were no sudden impacts with the earth, but Rex Lesher had a premature canopy ejection which was easily tracked through it's downward decent and easily walked to through a recently harvested hay field. 4 flights were flown on Saturday and the contest concluded with 2 final flights on Sunday. We were out of there by 2 pm.
This was the first contest I have organized as an AMA CD and I am enthusiastically looking forward to next year to do it again. I have hopes that we can include CPA style pattern with AMA Precision Pattern. Many of the flyers were discussing old Ballistic style airplanes they wanted to resurrect to fly the old patterns. Me too.
Rick Bergeron
CanAm Pattern Contest, scores
Canby Dusters Pattern Contest, pictures, scores
Fun In The Sun Pattern Contest, pictures, scores
District Championship Pattern Contest, Medford OR, pictures, scores
The D8 2013 flying season has officially ended with the Medford District Championship contest held this weekend. Due to the threat of bad weather we pulled this contest off in one day, with most classes flying 6 full rounds! We had a total of 15 pilots including 4 first time sportsman, what a great way to end the season. Thanks to the Medford club and all the fliers that keep things moving, everyone was pretty busy all day long.
There was some great flying on saturday with some very close races, 1st and 2nd in advanced were separated by only 0.3 points, I think this is the closes I have ever seen! FAI 1st and 2nd were separated by 1 point!
The sportsman pilots had a great time, with the 1st place coming down to the last round. Mitchell and Joseph even tied in round 5 with both receiving 1000 points for the round, this is something you rarely see!
Rick Lindsay from the Rogue Eagles host club put this very nice report together on there web site, please check it out!