Unfortunately circumstances transpired to prevent me from doing any flying for over three weeks prior to the event.  I did not have a chance to fly my chosen schedule of maneuvers until round one of competition!  That is NOT the way to win I can assure you.  Actually, I was not sure I was going to make it at all so I was just glad to be there.  Thus winning, or even placing, was not something I was too preoccupied with!  Weather for the event turned out to be nearly perfect all weekend long and turn out was very good with 31 pilots registered in five classes.  Those included Advanced, Expert, ProAm Pro, ProAm Sport, and Team.  I flew my scratch built Hellcat, AKA "old reliable", in the Expert class.  The 'cat has been flying now for over seven years and is certainly beginning to show her age.  However, I was able to shine her up enough before the event to manage a 96.5 static score which was about all I could ask of the old girl.  High static in Expert was 98.0 and went to Chris Spangenberg with his awesome Vaillancourt Hawker Typhoon.  To be within 1.5 points of that airplane in static is pretty hard to fathom.  Maybe my sad puppy dog eyes had more of an effect on the judges than I thought!  Unfortunately my flying scores on Saturday reflected my lack of flight time compounded by the fact that I had to sit out round three due to a malfunctioning landing gear.  My first two rounds resulted in flight scores of 84.5 and 82, neither of which is particularly good.  I was hoping for a better round three which would have allowed me to drop the particularly frustrating low score of 82.  (Frustrating because I thought I flew better in round two than in round one.  The judges disagreed!)  I figured the leaders were probably putting in 90+ flight scores, which is the usual, and thus I had little hope of placing when things wrapped up on Saturday.  The final round was flown Sunday morning and I managed to get my crap together enough to pull out a 92.  Certainly much better, and surprisingly, good enough to bump me up to a third place finish.  Apparently the flight judges had been pretty hard on everybody on Saturday so I was not as far out of contention as I suspected.  Had I not had to forfeit in round three I was within striking distance of the leaders.  Oh well, that's the name of the game and it is what makes the whole thing a great deal of fun.  Practice and preparedness can make all the difference but every once in a while so can good old pure luck, either bad or good!

On to the pictures!

Sopwith Pup Team scale entry of builder Darryl Bergrstrom and pilot Chris Spangenberg.  Unflown during the meet due to battery or radio problems.  Static score was 97.0 so it certainly could have been in contention.

  

PT-19 Cornell Expert class entry of Brad Osborne.  Superb model had a 97.0 static combined with an average flight score of 89.8 for a second place finish.  Brad is an excellent competitor and an all around good guy.  He has also managed to beat me in every contest I have flown in!  Next time, next time.

Team scale entry L-19 Bird Dog by builder Ron Norris and pilot Rick Powers.  Static was 94.5 but only one flight round completed for reasons unknown to me.

Ron Pterka's awesome Stinson SR-5 entered in Team with pilot Curtis Kitteringham.  Second place with a static score of 96.5 and an average flight score of 89.3 by these two regular competitors.  Ron is another guy who would give you the shirt off his back and I am glad to number him among my friends.

Rearwin Speedster by Dave Lloyd was sixth in ProAm Pro.

Don't have any details on this nice Morrisey Bravo. 

Big Fokker Dr.I Tripe by Carl Lindou was first in ProAm Sport.  Pilot was hovering the aircraft during a post competition flight!

Third Scale Piper J-3.  Not sure if this was Tim Johnson's or Robert Binkley's entry, both of whom were flying in ProAm Sport.

Dave Linne was flying this Aeronca C-3 in Advanced.  Static score of 87.0 combined with a flight average of 84.25 was good for third place.  Neat airplane.

Corey "Scale" Dail's 32 year old Top Flite P-51B was his entry in Advanced and placed second.  Corey loves small models and I don't think I have ever seen him fly anything bigger than a .60 size warbird.  Static score of 86.5 and an average flight score of 86.3 for the weekend.

Winner in Expert was Tim Cardin with his beautiful Cessna T-50 "Bamboo Bomber" done up in "Skyking" colors.  Model has two Saito 1.20 3-cylinder radials for power which, unlike the full size, are very quiet.  Static score was 96.5 and Tim showed us all how it was done by averaging 91.5 for his flights.

Jim Spice provided some noon time entertainment by demonstrating his electric Huey Cobra in civilian colors as well as his new turbine powered Sikorsky CH-53.  Both are impressively detailed and well flown.  If I heard correctly Jim is a Vietnam vet and piloted the CH-53 in that conflict.  Jim also builds and flies the fixed wing stuff.

 

"Old Reliable"

Do you ever come to Castle?

Thanks a bunch Jeff, really hope to be there!  Have not been to Castle yet but it is on my bucket list.