The last ten days have seen some of the finest moments one could imagine in the world of precision scale aerobatics. I thoroughly enjoyed being at Muncie and judging the NATS, but I really wanted to be flying and the Tucson Shootout gave me that thrill. This year was a little down on International participation but that was the only sign of lagging. The prize pool was 100 k plus, with a first prize of 12,000 dollars for Invitational. 68 pilots from all over the USA and beyond came to the Dave Johnson Desert Aircraft creation and they were full of enthusiasm and purpose. Gernot Bruckman and Chris Brislin came from far away to see if they could dethrone Mark Leseberg and Jason Noll from the dominant position they have held for these last few years. It was to be a spectacular battle for those four world class pilots and the results are unforgettable. Mark , Jason, Gernot and Chris in that order and it was such a beautiful contrast in terms of style, sound, aircraft and skill. Suffice to say the story is too long to bring it to this piece as my focus is on the South West and what happened with regard to our pilots. I am so delighted to share some of those stories. By the way, Mark Leseberg does not fly IMAC in our region very often, but he comes from Las Vegas and now lives in St George Utah. He is a home boy that we unabashedly claim as ours and he has won the last five years at Tucson.

Working down from there it is my pleasure to tell the story of Ryan Archer. I met him and his dad Randy four or five years ago when they came to San Diego on vacation and began to hang out with Pedro Brantuas and I at Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego near Seaworld. His skills stunned us even then and the many hours spent on a simulator were a precursor to what was to come. He started with little airplanes and then he was picked up by the renowned world class pilot Chip Hyde and began flying the Basic class. After a year or so he moved up to Sportsman and Bernie Boland began coaching him also. He was dominant in Sportsman, then Intermediate, then Advanced and now at TAS 2009 he finished with a 6000 point win in Unlimited dominating some of the finest pilots in the world: Seth Arnold, Will Berninger, Eric Powell (SW pilot), Dan Rathbun and Ryan Gonsoulin. He flew in only one contest this year, did not go to the NATS, but came to TAS to prove he is an Invitational class pilot, he proved it.

Cody McLean, from the South West, has a similar story. He began getting instruction from Kenny Lauter, an outstanding pilot/builder in the SW. Later, Jeff and Matt Szueber, Unlimited Invitational pilots and then Bernie Boland took up the instruction and Cody’s progress was assured. He has flown Sportsman, Intermediate with great success, winning the TAS in 2008 in Intermediate. This year he was vying with Brendan Jones and Todd Bridges for top honor at the TAS and he won convincingly. He continues to grow with each success and now reins as the TAS Advanced champion. Another success story in the SW.

Todd Bridges in 2007 took second at the TAS in Sportsman. In 2008, a year later, he took third in Intermediate. This year in 2009 he finished second to Cody in the Advanced class. Not far away from the top spot all three years. This year, however, in his second year as a free style pilot at TAS he did something no one else can claim; he broke a wing off during his free and flew it in on knife edge and landed his 260 without any other breakage. The Saturday crowd was literally blown away with excitement and admiration for his skill in doing this and he put on a new wing and flew his routine on Sunday and did very well winning 6^th place in the overall Freestyle event.

The story in Intermediate is a story about Matt Stringer, also a SW pilot that like the previous three is well into his teens. The four of them added together are 25 years younger than my total age of 64. Youth will be served and all of these young gentlemen are just that…..quality individuals that show respect and desire to always do the right thing in our sport. Matt, I have known now for 3 or 4 years and he comes from the Camarillo area of California and his coaching initially came from a friend of all of us Frank Oliver. Matt has an insatiable appetite to learn and get better and his success showed at the NATS this year, barely missing first place there. Now at 2009 TAS he comes to prove his mettle against the best that the TAS will bring. He takes first place over Mark Hansen and Kyle Goodwine. Kyle only finished 30 points normalized for third place so you can see it was a real barn burner. Kyle and Matt have been at it all year at the NATS and elsewhere on the South West circuit. These two young flyers are top drawer all the way, just like Cody and Todd in every way, and I look forward to all of them coming up to beat me in the Unlimited just like Ryan Archer.

Our last success story is Andrew Taylor from St. George, Utah. He has obviously profited from living near Mark Leseberg and when the TAS was approaching a plan to share the same airplane was hatched and Marks equipment went into Andrews airplane and the result was preparing the aircraft meant flying together and wouldn’t you know it Andrew reaches for excellence and nails down Sportsman first place at the TAS 2009 with some outstanding skills……again another teen sensation that will have to be watched in the future of IMAC in the South West.

In summarizing, we have a bunch of young fellows that are proving to be world class pilots in precision aerobatics. Mark Leseberg Invitational TAS champion, Ryan Archer Unlimited TAS Champion, Cody McLean Advanced TAS Champion, Matt Stringer Intermediate TAS Champion, Andrew Taylor Sportsman TAS Champion and right there pushing them to excellence we have Eric Powell….champion of the SW in Unlimited, Todd Bridges…Champion of the SW in Advanced maybe, Kyle Goodwine…Champion of the SW in Intermediate, maybe. The whole South West Region extends our congratulations and job well done to these fine pilots and I want to also say THANK YOU to all the family and coaches and friends that are behind these fine young individuals.

See all of you at the EVA SW Regional contest to finalize the SW championships.