We drove from miles around, through wind, rain and snow to arrive at Paramount Ranch. The winters around these parts are brutal :-)
Yet another beautiful day at Paramount. A bit of fog early on, lifting at about 10:00 am. Bubbly conditions for the rest of the day. 70�, most everyone had sun block on. These days are why folks like California. We flew four rounds of "traditional" format, including a ladder task, 5 two's, 3 three's and a 1,2,3,4. What caught me off guard was the strong turnout. We had 16 pilots as well as a few non contest guys who brought their planes. We flew two heats of 8 so everyone was busy either timing or flying. Or scoring :-) That was too much work without a laptop. From the way I flew, way too much work. I have a lot of respect for guys that CD a contest. It takes more time and energy than you think. >From the planes that flew you'd think it was a Photon convention, although there were a few home builts, some Encores, a new Euro molded design, and some Raptors. What I think is even more revealing is the common element the top planes all had: The airfoil! All flew AG-16 foils. Dr. Drela's foil is a superb combo of low drag during launch and float during thermalling. With the planes and launch heights being about even, it all came down to piloting skills, as it should. The thermals were tight and if you cored well you would get 50' over someone who was trying to find the center. They topped out at about 300', however, so you had to quickly hop over to find your next ride. Later in the day the sky opened up and even the three 3's weren't much of a challenge. I had to leave after the 4th round so I couldn't give out the final scores. I was surprised when I did the final tally. Bill Watson flew well, as usual and appeared to have the contest wrapped up. However, with two perfect rounds and two nearly perfect rounds, Mike Bame was the overall winner, by just 6 points. Mike is someone to watch. He flew on the National team in the 80's and has now started to focus on hand launch. I've watched his throws over the past two seasons steadily get higher and higher, and his thermalling skills are unquestioned. Congrats to Mike on a fine performance! Nowell brought some food for a BBQ, and Lex brought along the drinks. Everyone enjoyed themselves at another great Paramount outing. Results: Mike Bame 3972 Bill Watson 3966 Jerry Krainock 3824 Larry Pettyjohn 3715 Mike Reagan 3683 Greg Norsworthy 3675 Bob Halverson 3624 Greg Cueva 3503 Lex Meirop 3378 Terry 3335 Herb 3257 John Erickson 3190 Nowell Seigel 3118 Chris 2749 Rick O 1888 Frank 855 JE -- Erickson Architects John R. Erickson, AIA RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
