Contest roundup for June looks like this. Oakdale started off with a reasonable turnout for the Norcal Central California contingent and Joe Mac Gregor reports that this is an excellent venue and might need a bit more support in 2010. See results for this contest under the results tab. Congrats to Zak West Unlimited, Todd Bridges in Advanced Dennis Galloway in Intermediate, Cameron Irwin in Sportsman and Richard Carlton in basic.

Albuquerque had a real nice mixture of homeboys, Zonies and a few from Colorado join in the fun. Jim Brinks, ARD for that neck of the SW woods attended and reported to me that we might grow this contest in the future with some more help from a few key individuals. Sure would like to see that and it might draw a few from the South Central. Remember, all contests, no matter where they are flown count in your own region point count. You need five contests to be in it and it is best of five for regional final standings.

Len Alessi won Unlimited, Nick Radle took Advanced, Spencer Nordquist rolled on in Intermediate, Dominic Grasso took first in Sportsman and basic went to the dominant Mike Smith. Mike has 5000 points at this point. See full report at results tab under the SW region.

In San Diego, 36 pilots appeared at the Miramar IMAC, and it included a bunch of out- of- towners escaping from the deserts of the SW. A few came from the center of CA and it was a good variety of pilots. A few were missing due to the start of the National Scale Aerobatics contest in Muncie Indiana; more on that in a bit. Basic class winner was Craig Guest, Sportsman top pilot was again Dominic Grasso, Spencer Nordquist was once again first in Intermediate with Pedro Brantuas was back on top in Advanced. Tim Attaway finally got lucky and won another contest in Unlimited…..it has been a long dry spell.

Monday after Miramar IMAC concluded I left for Muncie to help out in the judging. The contest started on Monday so I missed the first day and it was reported to be a doozie with strong winds the whole day. At this point in my NATS narrative report I should say that a large contingent of SW pilots made the 2100 mile trip to Muncie. This incredible logistic plan being hatched by Phil Goodwine of Goodwine Aerosports included a Truck/trailers etc hauled a dozen or more people, a dozen aircraft and 8 pilots from the SW and they flew in the event….some for the very first time. Phil….that was amazing.

No one in Sportsman made the trip but three pilots; Kyle Goodwine, Matthew Stringer and Jason Benson went and they did well. Matthew Stringer captured 2^nd place, Jason nailed down 4^th place and Kyle came away with 5^th place. I judged these guys for one round and they flew very, very well!

Cody McClean was the sole representative in Advanced and was top three during the whole contest and finally wound up 5^th in the fly off on Thursday. It was tough seeing him not make the top three as he was just so close the whole time. Maybe next time for Cody.

In the Unlimited class we had four pilots from the SW out of a total 25 pilots!

Representatives from Canada, Brazil and all around the US came to compare pilot skill. 2008 winner Jason Noll repeated with dominant precision flying. Jeffrey Szueber was excellent and contended the whole contest and finished 4^th overall…..great job Jeff! Matthew Szueber was next from the SW with a 16^th place finish and he was very consistent the entire contest. Matt missed the 13 pilot finals and it is a shame because I know he would have done well. Steve Nelson had a respectable showing with 21^st place…remember the pilots in this contest are the top 40 in the world today. ARD from AZ, Bernie Boland flew pretty well but had other jobs and distractions and was hoping to do better.

I am happy that I was called upon to judge and I wound up giving scores on 1210 figures over the three days that I judged. My duties included judging a known round of Intermediate, a round of unlimited knowns and three unlimited unknowns (two on the final day). It was cold and some wind but it was inspiring to watch and get to judge some of the best flying I have seen in my life.

I especially enjoyed the Banquet on Wednesday evening as I was able to proudly sit at the table of the SW pilots who gave their best. The Award ceremony was excellent and many deserving people got the recognition they deserve and I am sure that a full report will occur on the site.

Last but not least we had a one round Freestyle contest to conclude the contest and about a dozen guys went up with music to entertain the audience/pilots while the final tabulations were getting done. The SW pilot Matthew Szueber was tops for us with a magnificent performance that coulda shoulda been first place in my opinion. He was down low and his stuff was right on the edge with creativity and daring…….I loved it. Jeff Szueber was also right there too with a great routine and he took the third place position overall…….NOT BAD TEAM SW!

All I can say is that it was one heck of a time and we got some good results and the SW Team was sportsmanlike, helpful, and professional and we made a positive statement at the 2009 National Scale Aerobatics Contest…… AND ……they traveled 2100 miles to do it. Well Done!

Finally and this is important to take note of: Mike Stoner received the highest IMAC award given, the President’s Award. Don Hamilton detailed the many contributions that have come from Mike over the last 10 years. To wit: He was the creator of the excellent scoring program in excel that we used for the last decade and believe me when I say that this was essential for the growth of our sport/hobby/competitions. His contributions in the area of sequence writing over these last 10 years have become legendary. In addition to that he was one of the lead creators of the power point slide presentation that is now being used to prepare our national judges and all those that want to learn to be better judges at regional judging sessions around the country. Other people made key contributions but Mike was there developing a much needed tool for all of IMAC. Thanks Mike…you are awesome!!

Tim