We had fantastic weather all weekend. The weather forecasters had been calling for some of the hottest days of the year so I was prepared with lots of cold water for all of the pilots and I reminded everyone to sunscreen “up” at the pilots meeting. Luckily, the forecasters were slightly mistaken! Saturday was in the mid 80’s with ~10mph of wind right down the runway and Sunday, after the morning fog burned off was perfect blue skies and 80 degrees with NO wind! We had very nice flying in all of the classes with Advanced, Masters and FAI coming down to the last round! In Sportsman, Jacob Boracca flew very smoothly and won all 6 rounds. In Intermediate, Mike Greear flew very well and won the contest with a score of 4000. Advanced had a fight with Jrvis Johnson taking the first two rounds but then Kevin Sung came roaring back to take the last four! In Masters Jerry Budd and Chris Fitzsimmons resumed their usual battle. Jerry flew his Leviosa while Chris flew his usual Abbra but with the addition of a new T-canalizer! Maybe that Canalizer really does something as Chris edged out Jerry by 14 points! FAI was the largest class again with 8 pilots. Don Atwood and Jim Kimbro “duked” it out to the last round and Don came out on top by 12 points! Tom Messer came out again after a layoff and flew very well to take 3^rd place.

 As usual this contest presents the Bob Whitacre Memorial trophy to one pilot that meets the winning criteria. This year we went back to the original criteria and presented the award to the pilot who won the most closely contested class. Last year Robert Beaubien in Sportsman won this trophy and this year it was won by Don Atwood in the FAI. Lorry Whitacre was there to present Don with the trophy.

 

We were able to raise money for the host club (San Jose Wavemasters) by having a raffle. The raffle was generously supported by Jaccio Products, Budd Engineering, Airtronics and Adrian Wong. We also raffled off a brand new EZ Up which was won by Don Atwood. I think Don had a “good” weekend! Many thanks to all of our sponsors!

 

The following are the top three results in each class:

FAI

-          Don Atwood, 4000

-          Jim Kimbro, 3987

-          Tom Messer, 3906

Masters

-          Chris Fitzsimmons, 3999

-          Jerry Budd, 3985

-          Jim Oddino, 3591

 

Advanced

-          Kevin Sung, 4000

-          Jarvis Johnson, 3935

-          Bob Hixson, 3324

 

Intermediate

-          Mike Greear, 4000

-          Ron Davies, 3827

-          Jon Bruml, 3754

 

Sportsman

-          Jacob Boracca, 4000

-          Michael Fan, 3800

-          Ron Saccardo, 3355

 

The 13^th Annual Pattern By The Bay contest was rained out from its original date on May 2^nd and 3^rd and was rescheduled for August 1^st and 2^nd. We were blessed with cool and reasonably windy weather on Saturday and overcast and reasonably calm on Sunday.  17 pilots showed up and we got 4 rounds of flying in on Saturday and the remaining 2 rounds in on Sunday. We were packed up and ready to go by 12:30pm on Sunday.

17 pilots gathered at BARCS for the 13^th Annual Pattern By The Bay

A couple of “old” faces joined us again after an absence of 10+ years away from pattern – Dale Olstinske and Jon Bruml. Both pilots are flying in Intermediate now and their flying is improving at each contest! Welcome back guys – it is great to see you both again.

Dale and Joan Olstinske

Joan carrying Dale’s e-Element

We had 3 pilots in Sportsman and had a great battle for the top two spots between Michael Fan and Jacob Boracca. Jacob ended up winning but he knew he was in a battle al weekend. Intermediate was another battle between Jon and Dale and I could see Jon’s flying improving round after round and I’m sure he’ll catch Dale soon. Advanced, unfortunately only had 2 pilots but they enjoyed themselves and I’m sure they’ll get company soon to give them a run for their money. Masters had 5 pilots and Chris Fitzsimmons won each round he flew in… unfortunately on Sunday before contest flying began, Chris took off and flew a flight but his RX battery failed him and his plane went “in”… not too much damage but he didn’t fly on Sunday. F3A had 4 pilots and Don Atwood led from start to finish.

Chris Fitzsimmons’ new eMotion

My thanks to all that attended and hopefully we’ll be able to have this contest again next year. Also, I’d like to give my appreciation to Adrian Wong for being my assistant and rousting up all the judges for the weekend – I could not do this without his help! Thank you to all the judges that sat in the chair and judged for the weekend and to Luke Peng – thank you for helping out with scoring!!! It is always great to have help like that at a contest. 

All the winners and placers from BARCS

Sportsman

1.      Jacob Boracca                   4000.000

2.      Michael Fan                      3904.952

Intermediate

1.      Dale Olstinske                   4000.000

2.      Jon Bruml                         3804.758

3.      Chris Belden                     2997.990

Advanced

1.      Kevin Sung                       4000.000

2.      Robert Hixson                   3359.760

Masters

1.      Krishlan Fitzsimmons       4000.000

2.      Jon Carter                          3969.288

3.      Luke Peng                         3730.478

4.      Roy Speights                     3697.222

5.      Bill Sneed                         3661.773

FAI

1.      Don Atwood                     4000.000

2.      Adrian Wong                    3881.206

3.      Frank Capone                    3421.159

4.      Robert Obregon                3345.876

For the second year in a row we had record heat for the contest in Hemet.  20 pilots showed up to prove their worth, and I have to send out big Kudos to Bob Gillespie for braving the heat and keeping the contest moving along so that we got all 6 rounds in by 12:00 noon on Sunday.  It is very difficult to run a contest with a pilot count in the 15 - 20 range.  Too big for a single line, but not enough to make it easy to find judges and callers for everyone.  But he made it with everyone pitching in without grumbling and the contest went off without a hitch.  This was the second event to feature the new Expert class and we had a very hotly contested 6 rounds with between the 3 entries.  With only 6 points separating 1st and 2nd, and 80 more for 3rd, it was nip and tuck all weekend.  Lots of fun.  Hemet also gave us the return to competitive flying of our illustrious AMA AVP - Bill Malvey.  Bill hasn't flown competitively for 5 years, but came out with a Jerry Budd Abbra and gave Mike Greear a run for his money in Intermediate.  You can tell that Bill will be moving up fast in the ranks as the competitive thumbs return.  Masters was the biggest class as usual, with Tony Frackowiak continuing his dominance of the class.  Jerry Budd battled him all weekend but just couldn't get past him, although he did win one round.  In FAI we were honored to have a visit from Mark Leesberg, this guy can put up some great flights and dominated the class.  I had the pleasure of judging him twice during the weekend, and his flight on Sunday morning with no wind, was one of the best I have ever judged.  Mike and Jean Greear did a great job with the scoring and Jean spent most of the weekend in the air conditioned trailer in front of the computer (although with 100 deg. + temperatures, that probably wasn't a bad place to be).  Thanks again to the Hemet Model Masters for the use of their field all weekend, and with no mishaps, a great time was had by all.

Sportsman
Jung K. Kim     4000
Vic Anderson   3674

Intermediate
Mike Greear     4000
Bill Malvey       3822
Alex Shim       3697
Chris Johnson 2933

Advanced
Bob Gillespie   4000

Expert
John Contreras   4000
Bill Wallace       3994
Jarvis Johnson   3921

Masters
Tony Frackowiak   4000
Jerry Budd            3969
Rusty Fried          3822
Bruce Brown        3517
Chuck Hartmann  2438
Lynn Burks          507

FAI
Mark Leesberg     4000
Steve Hannah      3677
Bill Sheets          3247

- Bill Wallace