A great time was had by all at CAPI. It was really nice to have such great weather for the weekend with some amazingly cool evenings. 4 rounds of Knowns, 1 round of Unknowns, and Freestyle were flown while wrapping up relatively early each day to enjoy the evening.
Friday-
About 10 guys showed showed up Friday afternoon to get in a little flying and were treated to a cool, calm evening. Unfortunately, Artie had a battery/charger problem that ended in a crash of his beautiful 40% Carden Edge. That happened soon after Artie had pretty much made the decision to move up to Intermediate for the weekend. Hope you can get back in the air soon Artie!
Saturday-
The day started out almost a little chilly – I had to turn on the heat on the ride over. The day peaked at about 80-85F and headed back down for another nice evening. The Pilots meeting started at about 9:30 AM due to an accident on the Beltway that shutdown all 4 lanes and slowed the guys coming up from the South. Everyone seemed fine (almost happy) with that seeing that the sun is directly in front of you in the morning at the field. Following a short pilots meeting, wheels up started at about 10:30 AM. 3 rounds of Knowns were flown with the first day ending about 5 PM
Sunday-
Following a quick get together at about 9 AM, wheels up for a round of Unknowns started at about 10 AM. Following that, a 4th round of Knowns were flown by about 2 PM.
There were 4 entries into Freestyle – Pete Castine, Troy Wallace, Neil Westdorp, and Brian Foveaux (me). The club provided a very nice and loud sound system and there was some great flying. The crowd of spectators really loved it.
CAPI IMAC
Overall, there were 19 pilots flying in the CAPI IMAC contest. In no particular order they were: Brian G. Foveaux, Dave Michael, Neil Westdorp, Pete Castine, Troy Wallace, Luke Pallansch, Frank Puccio, Steve Stanton, Michael Northrup, Tony Bonano, Jake Ruddy, Stan Berger, Jim Cokonis, Kirk Adams, William Haskell, Lloyd Hinrichs, Orlirio Varela, Jr, Larry Kauffman and Bill Bouchard. These pilots flew a grand total of 334 judged sequences.
BASIC
Frank Puccio won the Basic class. There were 6 pilots in Basic. The winning order was: (1) Frank Puccio, (2) William Haskell, (3) Steve Stanton, (4) Luke Pallansch, (5) Michael Northrup and (6) Bill Bouchard. They flew 9 known sequences (5 rounds). The scores ranged from a low of 3,412.1 to a high of 6,982.9 (a range of 3,570.8 points).
What a great job by all here. The best part was getting to see two small 55” electric planes beat a 40% Carden for a couple rounds. It goes to show that it really is the flying/judging criteria and not the plane. Fred Haskell flew extremely well in his first IMAC competition with his 55” 3D Hobby Shop Extra running a 5S/4900mah pack to achieve 2nd place.
SPORTSMAN
Jim Cokonis won the Sportsman class. There were 5 pilots in Sportsman. The winning order was: (1) Jim Cokonis, (2) Lloyd Hinrichs, (3) Larry Kauffman, (4) Kirk Adams and (5) Orlirio Varela, Jr. They flew 8 known sequences (4 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of 5,876.3 to a high of 7,484.5 (a range of 1,608.1 points).
Congrats Jim “drainpipe” Cokonis on your first Sportsman win! I’m sure it won’t be the last. You probably didn’t know it, but you were flying against a couple Pattern Pros (Lloyd, Larry, and Jr from the FARM Club) who put away their pattern planes for the weekend to come up and play with us. Thanks for the support guys.
INTERMEDIATE
Jake Ruddy won the Intermediate class. There were 3 pilots in Intermediate. The winning order was: (1) Jake Ruddy, (2) Tony Bonanno and (3) Stan Berger. They flew 8 known sequences (4 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of 7,188.9 to a high of 7,432 (a range of 243 points).
Just like you asked for Stan – Jakester Brought It On! Great to have you back in action Jake – you almost got to fly your own plane the whole contest.
These 3 were fighting it out the whole weekend with each winning multiple rounds. The tightest competition throughout the whole weekend was for 2nd place in the Intermediate class, with only 18.2 points difference between Tony Bonanno and Stan Berger.
ADVANCED
Troy Wallace won the Advanced class. There were 2 pilots in Advanced. The winning order was: (1) Troy Wallace and (2) Pete Castine. They flew 8 known sequences (4 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of 7,006.3 to a high of 7,500 (a range of 493.7 points).
Troy, great to see ya not “Donkey Up” your Unknowns for a change Buddy. Troy was on his game this weekend – that’s all I can say, and with Pete keeping the pressure on him.(I hope your not thinking about moving up!)
UNLIMITED
Neil Westdorp won the Unlimited class. There were 3 pilots in Unlimited. The winning order was: (1) Neil Westdorp, (2) Dave Michael and (3) Brian G. Foveaux. They flew 8 known sequences (4 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of 7,250.6 to a high of 7,450.4 (a range of 199.8 points).
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the UNLIMITED CLASS!!!!!!!!
All 3 Pilots in the Class had their Birthdays this weekend. Neil’s on Friday, Dave’s on Saturday, and Mine on Sunday.
With each of us winning at least 2 rounds, the game was tight. Talking about pushing each other – it doesn’t get any better than this. But in the end it was Master Neil that came out with the narrow victory again….. but we’re getting closer. Due to a plane issue, Neil flew my Dalton for two rounds and it took him about two maneuvers to get the hang of it! (Although he was not a big fan of the tight sticks and antenna on my radio)
FREESTYLE
Neil Westdorp won the Freestyle class. There were 4 pilots in Freestyle. The winning order was: (1) Neil Westdorp, (2) Troy Wallace, (3) Pete Castine and (4) Brian G. Foveaux. They flew 1 freestyle round. The scores ranged from a low of 784.4 to a high of 1,000 (a range of 215.6 points).
I know we all had fun on this one. Great sound sytem and plenty of laughs. Pete Castine and Troy Wallace kicked out some great Freesyles that the crowd really loved. Troy let me fly his plane for the first time in Freestyle and Neil generously offered to let me fly to his old Freestyle music and call for me. I don’t know what everone watching thought but it was absolutely hilarious on the flightline with Neil trying to “coach” me through all the tempo and music changes. Thanks Guys, I had fun. Then, Neil “Jitterbug” Westdorp threw down with his new routine which had some very interesting music selections – He was teaching us all how to kick it “Old School” and it was fantastic.
Thank you to the Prince Georges Radio Control Club for hosting this event once again and allowing us to fly at their great field for the weekend. A special thanks to Steve Whitecoff and Dave Michael for organizing the event and Nicole Foveaux for her great job keeping score. Also, thank you to SmartFly for your continued support of IMAC.
Next up on the contest trail is the Black Dirt IMAC Challenge on September 19 & 20 hosted by the Black Dirt Squadron in Goshen, NY. Tony Bonanno will be CD’ing this great event. I have never been there before, but rumor has it that it may be the best flying field in the NE. I can’t wait to see it. Please pre-register and hope to see you there!
The NE Regional Championship is quickly approaching (10/9-10/11) in Salem, CT and it will be a great way to end a great season of IMAC and see all your flying buddies one last time before winter. Let’s make this a blow out event and see if we can’t get the whole NE there!
Brian Foveaux
ARD NE Region IMAC