What a great weekend! It’s been a long time since I have seen a string of 3 days with nicer weather. The Patuxent Aeromodelers pulled together a really nice contest with one month from the word go. There were 19 pilots competing.
The 2009 NE Region IMAC Season is in full swing now and everyone certainly has their “game on”. Overall flying for this contest in all classes was some of the best I have seen. It’s looking like the NE Regional Championship at the end of the year is going to be all out war!
Friday at the field, a handful of pilots came early to enjoy a sweet practice day with 75-80 degree weather and low wind. Some of us stayed until dark working out the bugs in our sequences to get an advantage over the competition.
Saturday, the weather peaked at about 85-90 degrees with a slight 5 MPH wind that was pushing out a bit. The protective tree line across the road behind the pits blocked the wind at ground level so pilots had to compensate for the wind by watching their plane without really feeling it on the ground. Everyone did a good job; although, most of us let our line slip out more than we wanted every now and then.
Troy Wallace, Contest Director, kicked off the day with a pilots meeting that started at about 8:45 AM. Due to traffic, a few bell tappers were pulling in as the pilots meeting started but we were glad to see them. Wheels up started at 9:15 AM. One flight line was used to allow more time for everyone to relax with a large portion of pilots in Basic.
2 rounds of Knowns were flown with plenty of time for enjoying the some burgers and hot dogs cooked up by the host club and catching up with out of town friends. 2 Known rounds were completed by about 4:30. A break was taken between the first and second rounds to fly some freestyle. Neil Westdorp and Alex Davis both put on great shows for the crowd with some very exciting freestyle.
Saturday evening, a barbecue ribs and chicken dinner was ordered up and brought in from an excellent local barbecue joint. They were fantastic. A lot of pilots took to the air for some practice or just having fun flying. A highlight of the evening was when we were treated to a demo by Albert Santiago flying his turbo jet. Man, that was unreal and a real treat; especially for those who have never seen one before. A local news paper photographer was there trying to get some shots for the local paper and put Neil to the test by putting a remote camera on the runway aimed up and asking Neil to torque roll over it. Of course Neil, with his pin point precision, torque rolled so low, directly over the camera, that he blew it away (nobody thought about that!). Then came the real test – the photographer and Stan, positioned on the far side of the runway, wanted some hovering and high alpha knife edge pics with Neil in the background and of course they wanted the top of the plane to them. I was laughing hard watching the two professional photographers running back and forth along the runway trying to get that perfect shot lining up the plane and Neil. I think the quote of the weekend was when we overheard Neil say “but that’s my weak side” – Everyone went quiet and started looking at each other as they pondered – Neil has a weak side?
Day two – Everyone showed up coffee in hand and somewhat awake. I guess everyone was up late studying those Unknowns! (right?). A short pilots meeting was held at 8:30 AM and wheels up for the Unknown round commenced shortly thereafter. The Basic pilots flew one sequence of their Known. That was followed by a round of Knowns. The weather was nice, peaking at about 90 degrees, but the trick to the day was that the wind had picked up to 10-15 MPH in the opposite direction from the previous day. On Saturday you were fighting to keep the plane in – and Sunday you were fighting to keep it out (What a treat heh?)
The contest was completed and contestants gathered around at about 2:30 PM for the awards ceremony. Plaques and tons of prizes were handed out. Nobody walked away empty handed. I would like to send out a big Thank You to Smart-Fly for their generous support of this contest as well as many others. These guys are great and please return the favor by supporting them. Everyone was thanked for their putting together a great contest and the great support from lots of members of the host club. I would also like to thank all the pilots that came from long distances to support our contest – Thank You!
PAX AERO IMAC
Overall, there were 19 pilots flying in the PAXAero-IMAC contest. In no particular order they were: Bill James, Ray Foly, Steve Stanton, Anthony Gorgone, Dave Michael, Alex Davis, Jeff Whitaker, Albert Santiago, Tom Cook, Brian G. Foveaux, Neil Westdorp, Troy Wallace, Stan Berger, Kurt Klingebiel, Kenneth Donnelly, Trent Schneider, Jim Cokonis, Charles Davis and George Hill. These pilots flew a grand total of 268 judged sequences.
This contest was flown according to modified rules.
Jeff Whitaker won the Basic class. There were 7 pilots in Basic. The winning order was: (1) Jeff Whitaker, (2) Kenneth Donnelly, (3) Charles Davis, (4) Ray Foly, (5) Steve Stanton, (6) Tom Cook and (7) George Hill. They flew 7 known sequences (4 rounds). The scores ranged from a low of 2,856.5 to a high of 4,979.2 (a range of 2,122.6 points).
Alex Davis won the Sportsman class. There were 3 pilots in Sportsman. The winning order was: (1) Alex Davis, (2) Bill James and (3) Jim Cokonis. They flew 6 known sequences (3 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of 4,565.6 to a high of 4,984.9 (a range of 419.3 points).
Anthony Gorgone won the Intermediate class. There were 2 pilots in Intermediate. The winning order was: (1) Anthony Gorgone and (2) Stan Berger. They flew 6 known sequences (3 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of 4,815.7 to a high of 4,998.6 (a range of 182.9 points).
Kurt Klingebiel won the Advanced class. There were 3 pilots in Advanced. The winning order was: (1) Kurt Klingebiel, (2) Trent Schneider and (3) Troy Wallace. They flew 6 known sequences (3 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of 4,657.7 to a high of 4,982.7 (a range of 324.9 points).
Neil Westdorp won the Unlimited class. There were 4 pilots in Unlimited. The winning order was: (1) Neil Westdorp, (2) Brian G. Foveaux, (3) Dave Michael and (4) Albert Santiago. They flew 6 known sequences (3 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of 4,172.1 to a high of 5,000 (a range of 827.9 points).
In addition to the standard classes, there was 1 special class: Seniors.
Neil Westdorp won the Freestyle class. There were 2 pilots in Freestyle. The winning order was: (1) Neil Westdorp and (2) Alex Davis. They flew 1 freestyle round. The scores ranged from a low of 756.2 to a high of 1,000 (a range of 243.8 points).
The tightest competition was for 2nd place in the Unlimited class, with only 64.8 points difference between Brian G. Foveaux and Dave Michael.
Thank you to the Patuxent Aeromodelers Club of Hollywood, MD for their gracious hospitality throughout the weekend and for allowing us to use their field for the weekend.
The next stop on the path to the 2009 NE Regional Championships is the Pegasus IMAC Challenge hosted by the Pegasus RC Flyers of Hagerstown, MD on 7/25 and 7/26. The field will be open for practice on Friday 7/24. Mike Frey, Contest Director, and the hosting club has arranged for an evening dinner at a local restaurant on Saturday night where we can all get together for some socializing. I also believe the guys from the host club are also going to light up the runway for a night fly Saturday night after dark. I am not going to miss this one – I for one, am outfitting my foamy with some glow sticks now – I have got to try this! I know the great bunch of guys up there in Hagerstown are working very hard to make this, their first IMAC Contest, a great one with some special prizes and awards. It’s going to be great – please remember to pre-register and don’t miss out.
Brian Foveaux
ARD NE Region
For the Contest Director - Troy Wallace