Contest report for the 2006 Flying Tiger’s Scale Aerobatic Encounter.

The Flying Tigers fourth Scale Aerobatic event run under IMAC rules is now under our belt and I would like to think of it as a success with a competitor turnout of 29. One competitor shy of last year. We had pilots from as far away as Montreal, the Sault as well as several of our Northern Ont. compatriots show up. A great turnout guys and thanks again for coming.

The weather was very good Saturday, sunny albeit a bit hot and the wind started increasing as the day progressed. Sunday was again nice but the wind was there from the start and increased in velocity as that day progressed but everyone muscled through. Except for the wind, we were overall blessed with good weather for the event.

Each year we learn more and more about running a contest and try too make it better next time around.  We ran into a few snags but overall it went pretty smoothly. The Basic line did not run as quickly as it should have on Saturday and after a discussion with some of the Basic competitors we put our Flight line Nazis Gary Maker to work Sunday. “No slowdowns from you!!” could be heard throughout Sunday as he kept the guys hopping in both Basic and Sportsman classes.. Thanks for all your help with the event Gary.

A SUPER thanks to my friend Jim Daly as Co CD for keeping his cool during the event running the scoring program and registration (he did not fly as a result) while I was losing more hair trying to arrange the classes for the two flight lines using judges that were slowly being burned out. My apologies to some of the guys if I overburdened you with judging duties but it was necessary in an attempt to have different judges for each round. Our sincere thanks to all the judges and scribes. Without competitor judging, there would be no contest! It’s as simple as that.

We had four rounds of Basic and three rounds plus unknowns for the balance of classes and a freestyle competition with Mike Clemmens winning that. We finished flying by about 1:30 and by 2:15 we had the plaques and pilot prizes handed out.

Please see the results on Bob Hudson’s website for Scale Aerobatics.

Bob has his hands full with all his duties associated with being a MAAC Zone Director, MAAC Scale Aerobatics Chairman and IMAC assistant regional director for the NC region. Believe me, the list goes on. At sunrise, we all need to bow in his direction for all his hard work and dedication to the sport.

The Saturday night get together at Crabby Joes was good fun with good eats but we did miss Kevin Reinhart who somehow lost his way. I just don’t understand Kevin. He flies so well but can’t seem to follow simple directions! Sorry Kevin, I just had to rub it in! Mike Milos was recognized by some staff at Crabby Joes and things started to deteriorate from there on as the service noticeable slowed down. I don’t know what past transgressions took place but we all better keep an eye on him in the future.

It is difficult to applaud all those who helped out from our club but we thank Darlene Walton and Don Brisson for manning the food tent for two days. They do this for all our events throughout the year. Thanks to Chris Pare (a future Scale Aerobatic competitor) for helping out running scores to Jim Daly and helping Gary Maker move the competitors along while still having too attend a wedding on Sunday. Thanks to Joe Bajkor for looking after theTX impound on Saturday.

Many thanks to the pilot draw prize donors. The donations are well appreciated by the competitors.

 These are:

Bisson Custom Mufflers (BCM) for their micro mini key chain mufflers (very neat work James) and for their gift certificates. 
Jim Daly for his donation of a hat. 
Kevin Reinhart, an Amsoil representative for the area for the bottles of 100:1 Amsoil.
Mike Clemmens, owner of MSC Props for his three excellent propellers.  
Pete Model for their gift certificate of a carbon fiber spinner.
The Flying Tigers Club for the donation of six of our “2006 Flying Tiger’s Scale Aerobatic Encounter” T shirts.

I hope that I didn’t forget anyone!  Jim and I hope too see you all next year guys.

By the way. Just a reminder about IMAC. It is a great organization that does a lot of work on our behalf. The yearly sequences, judging criteria, rules and unknowns available to the CD’s upon request are to be appreciated. It’s only $20 US each year. A small price to pay for so much support to us all.

Brian Facey CD
Jim Daly CD (None of this Co CD nonsense anymore!)

Finals scores