WOW!!! That’s about it in a nut shell. We had 30 participants in our contest. For us, that was a record breaker. Our first contest three years ago had 8 contestants. Our second contest had 13 and this year, on July 9^th and 10^th  we had 30.

By the time registration was finished, I was staring blankly at the number of contestants listed wondering what I am going to do with them all.

I was intending on running two flight lines but the logistics involved suddenly became overwhelming. As the drool started flowing down my chin, Mike Clemmens stepped forward and offered to give me a hand. He arranged for the Judging and made suggestions for the flight line sequence.

It was a case of try and plan the next move but be ready to change it on a moments notice as perhaps we will see a better way to keep things moving as we progressed. Poor Mike! Here he thought that he was just coming to a relaxing two days at a contest and ended up working so hard for us. Thanks ever so much Mike!! You know how much it was appreciated.

Bob Hudson, Ivan Kristensen and Denis Plante and his wife Dominic dropped in to compete on the way back from the US Nats. I knew that Bob was coming but it was a surprise to hear at the last minute that Ivan and Denis would be coming too. Thanks gentlemen!

Our computer guru Jim Daly looked after the scoring and he had his problems with a monitor that crapped out and the shrinking cell phenomena in the Basic section of the scoring program that resulted in him staying up until two in the morning to re-enter the Basic scores for Sunday. A big “Thank you” for all your hard work Jim.  

Frank Klenk brought along a friend who helped us out with scoring on Saturday but his name escapes me. Sorry Mr. X but thanks very much for your help also. Cody Moss, son of Jim Moss helped out with entering the scores all day Sunday We paid him off with a hot dog and drink. I don’t want to hear about child labour laws please. Thanks a bunch Cody!

Saturday started off with some mist but it burned off quickly. It became a very hot day with 20 kph wind 90 degrees to the runway. The Basic pilots shouldered on and flew through it. Sunday ended up the same with the wind speed increasing as the day progressed. We were all finished by 3 PM handing out plaques to the winners with some really nice prizes in a pilots draw.

The food as usual was great, reasonably priced and looked after by our club member Darlene Walton. She does all our events and she is not just another pretty face as she is a very good pilot also. Thanks again Darlene!

The line kept moving smoothly with the prodding of Gary Maker hereby dubbed the “Flight Line Nazi”!  Man, did he ever make sure those pilots were in the ready area when they were supposed to be. Thanks a ton Gary! You took a load off of us.

Mr. IMAC, Bob Hudson and Tony Kreg judged more than they should have had to along with Mike Clemmens, Chris Martin, Ken Wiersma, Kevin Reinhart, Jim Moss, Peter Hildebrand, and Mark Zemel. I hope that I didn’t forget anyone. Thank you so very much gentleman!

Thanks to Don Brisson for looking after frequency control. Don is another club member who is going to give Scale Aerobatics a shot very soon.

I have learned a lot this time around and hopefully it will go even smoother next year. I better start planning now as I have only 12 more months. “Oh, by the way Mike, what plans do you have next year as I was wondering”…………………………………..

A really BIG "THANK YOU AND MUCH APPRECIATION" to all the donors of prizes in alphabetical order::

Bisson Custom Mufflers, DA Engines , MSC Props, Pete Model

Contest Director,  Brian Facey