There has been a fair amount of discussion locally here at our pattern contests this year about the declining number of pilots. Various theories have been put forth; bad economy, strange weather, general burnout … and I believe that they all do play a role in our declining attendance. The 1 day contest CD’d by Luke Peng (Assistant CD Kevin Sung) for the Tomcats club at the Santa Clara County Model Aircraft Skypark gave a great example of how to turn this around. First; Luke and the other pattern flyers at the Tomcats club have been practicing there every Saturday morning for most of the year. They are always friendly and willing to assist and talk to the sport pilots at the club. As a consequence, there were 3 sport pilots who attended the contest (two of whom were flying in their first contest ever!) I spoke with all of them after the contest and they all had a great time and are planning to attend more contests locally. Second; several of the local IMAC flyers had expressed some interest so they had been receiving lots of “encouragement” from all of the local pattern guys so we got 3 IMAC flyers. The end result of all of this local recruiting effort was that there were 23 pilots at this 1-day contest! This is only one short of the largest contest we have had in the district this year. The other positive was that we had 5 pilots in Sportsman and 6 in Intermediate! It is very nice to see large participation in these classes as they truly represent the future of pattern.

 

On to the contest!

We had a low overcast in the morning so we couldn’t get started till ~ 10:30 when it lifted. After that we had crystal clear blue skies with 10 to 12 mph breezes. Luke and Kevin kept things moving so all classes who wanted to were able to get in 4 rounds by 5:00PM. There was nice flying in all of the classes but I wanted to mention Jacob Boracca in Intermediate. I don’t think he has lost a round yet this year. Also noteworthy were Jon Bruml in Advanced and Chris Fitzsimmons in Masters, they both flew very well and easily won their classes. Matt Kimbro really showed a smooth and precise flying style in winning FAI. Matt went back to the Nats this year and made the finals in FAI, not an easy task at all! Congratulations Matt!

 

Scores

 

Sportsman

1^st Shawn Berkheimer          2934

2^nd Dave Shirley Jr                2799

3^rd John Ribble                      2264

4^th Carlos Tripodi                  2043

5^th Michael Fan                     2000

 

Intermediate

1^st Jacob Boracca                 3000

2^nd Ron Davies                      2841

3^rd Maurice Culverwell          2738

4^th Joe Alves                          2597

5^th Chris Belden                    2477

6^th Daniel Culverwell 2191

 

Advanced

1^st Jon Bruml                          2000

2^nd Terry Walker                    1790

 

Masters

1^st Chris Fitzsimmons           3000

2^nd Jon Carter                        2755

3^rd Luke Peng                        2736

4^th Bill Sneed                         2724

5^th Don McCullough              1846

 

FAI

1^st Matt Kimbro                      3000

2^nd Don Atwood                    2907

3^rd Jim Kimbro                       2824

4^th Tom Messer                     2668

5^th Adrian Wong                    2493

 

 

Thanks,

 

Jonathan L. Carter

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The weekend of June 5th and 6th, the Phil Kraft Memorial attracted 18 pilots from across District 7. They embarked on the flying grounds of Whittier Narrows, located just 15 miles east of Los Angeles.  This tournament pays tribute to one of the legends in RC modeling, Mr. Phil Kraft.  The 10th competition in the 2010 flying season.  We had great weather with temperatures in the high 90's.  We were able to put in 6 rounds and pass out trophies by 2:30 pm on Sunday. With no Sportsman flyers present and only 2 Intermediate pilots, Alex Shim and Mike Callas, who had a great battle throughout the weekend with Mike taking Round 1 and Alex the next 5 rounds and the win.  In the Advanced class, 5 pilots tangled all weekend long with no clear winner until the very end. With 4 pilots each winning a round, "big" Mike Greear came out on top passing Tak Takayama with a mere 11 points.  Bob Gillespie took 3rd and myself ended up in 4th place, seven points behind Bob. With 8 pilots present in the Masters class, it was once again the Tony Frackowiak "show."  Being quite dominant, Tony won all 6 rounds.  Jerry Budd put in some great flying but unfortunately the rudder cable broke during round 4 and almost cost Jerry his plane when landing hitting the safety fence breaking off his wing ending his day. Greg Frohriech also put in some good flying to finish in 2nd place with "Sir" William Bill Wallace, working his way up to 3rd place.  Bruce Brown followed with Steve Kaneshiro, Jerry, Chuck Hartman, and Leon Robison. In FAI it was once again the father and son team of Jim and Matt Kimbro.  Going at it with tooth and nails with Matt flying his new Visa electric, for the very first time at a contest.  Matt was able to take 2 of 4 rounds in P-11 and 2 of 2 rounds in F-11 winning by just 20 points over dad with Bill Sheets holding the 3rd spot.  A Shout-Out, to Lynn Burks for doing such a great job CD'ing the contest.  Also a thank you to Jean and Mike for the scoring and to the Whittier Narrows modeling club for the use of their field.

 

So until the next contest, "You call that a Snap"

 

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Just a quick and short report, the 1st Annual Arvin pattern Contest was a blast.
With great weather and blue skies. With 21 pilot's from Califronia, Utah,Azizona and Canada.
We were able to get in 6 rounds of great flying in all class, with FAI flying 4 rounds of P-11,
2 rounds F-11 and 1 round of Unknowns. I would to thank, the Bear Valley RC club,Leon,
Jim and the club members. for the use of there field and the great lunch.Also thank's
to Tony Frackowiak, CDing an keeping those flight lines moving, and Jean and Mike for Scoring.

More Later, with photo's

SCORE

SPORTSMAN

1st Jean Greear 4000.00

INTERMEDIATE

1st Jacob Boracca 4000.000
2nd Jim Harlander 3740.830
3rd Murray Johnson 3290.00 ( Oh Canada)
4th James Driver 2671.856

ADVANCED

1st Andrew Taylor 4000.000
2nd Mike Greear 3871.126
3rd Jarvis Johnson 3833.339

MASTERS

1st Tony Frackowiak 4000.000
2nd Jerry Budd 3903.070
3rd Leon Robison 3871.203
4th Bruce Brown 3622.047
5th Bill Wallace 3562.225
6th Jim Oddino 3562.811
7th Steve Kaneshiro 3185.334

FAI
P-11
1st Chip Hyde 3000.000
2nd Mark Leseberg 2965.00
3rd Matt Kimbro 2711.144
4th Jim Kimbro 2629.670
5th Steve Hannah 2626.857
6th Bill Sheets 2401.895

FAI
F-11 2 rounds of F-11
Chip Hyde 1000.000 988.343
Mark Leseberg 1000.000 1000.000
Matt Kimbro 930.676 880.343
Jim Kimbro 881.820 838.468
Steve Hannah 851.000 860.117
Bill Sheet 0 0

FAI
Unknowns 1 round of Unknowns
Chip Hyde 1000.000
Mark Leseberg 980.435
Matt Kimbro 861.957
Jim Kimbro 853.261
Steve Hannah 845.652
Bill Sheet 0 More

 With 21 pilot's, from California,Arizona and Canada.We were able, to get in 6 round's of

great flying. With Riverside being the first contest,of the 2010 season, were we could do so.With perfect weather,clear blue skies, 3 to 5 mph winds and Temp's in the high 80's.Unfortuantely we did have 2 mishap's.Jon Carter lost his Oxia Berlly, with wing failure during a 1 1/2 snap on friday.Jon's plane was a total loss, Steve Kaneshrio also

lost his e-powered Element 170 on on Saturday moring.With only one pilot each,in

Sportmans and Intermediate. Jean Greear and Murray Johnson were able to get in, 6 round

of good flying.With Advanced being the largest class with 8 pilot's, out numbering, Master

by one. Dale Olstinskke, Jarvis Johnson,Steve Dante and Mike Greear fought tooth and nail, for the top honor's. With Dale taking,wins in rounds 1,4,5 and 6, an Jarvis taking rounds 2 and 3, with Steve and Mike pushing hard.In Master it was Tony Frackowiak

winning 5 of 6 round's, with 2 of those rounds ,flying a Neu powered GP Sequence 50,

who needs a $3000.00 pattern plane to win. Bill Wallace and Bruce Brown went back and

fourth, for 2nd and 3rd palce, with Bill coming out on top. In FAI,Steve Hannah displayed

he's new Chip Hyde/CA Model's Visa ARF, that still needed to be finshed. So his Passport

was put to work, taking 4 rounds of P-11 and 2 rounds of F-11 on Sunday, followed closely

by Greg Frohriech and Bill Sheets.I would also like to thank, the Riverside RC Club for

there support and use of the field, Larry, Jeff, Dale and Lynn, Bob for CDing a great contest,

Mike and Jean for the scoring equipment and the trailer

So, until next time keep those wing's Level

See You in Arvin

 

Scoring

SPORTMANS

1st Jean Greear  4000.00

INTERMEDIATE

1st Murray Johnson 4000.00 ( Canada)

ADVANCED

1st Dale Olstinske 4000.00

2nd Jarvis Johnson 3950.602

3rd Steven Dante  3905.795

4th Mike Greear    3872.780

5th Mike Austin     3737.430

6th Tak Takayama 3679.430

7th Bob Gillespie   3675.694

8th Jim Bronowski 3404.923

MASTERS

1st Tony Frackowiak   4000.00

2nd Bill Wallace          3667.684

3rd Bruce Brown         3617.702

4th John Contreras      3506.618

5th Tim Attaway          2624.347

6th Chuck Hartman     2500.067

7th Lynn Burks           2362.694   ( Saturday Only)

FAI P-11

1st Steve Hannah       4000.00

2nd Greg Frohriech     3848.823

3rd Bill Sheets            3706.396

FAI F-11

1st Steve Hannah

2nd Bill Sheets

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