SCAT Electronic News 5 January 1998

SCAT Electronic News 5 January 1998

Desert Challenge Report
-----------------------


The top performance of the event was the ROG Wakefield from Bob
Tymchek. Bob launched and the prop did not start. The model fell to the
ground and Bob was resigning himself to the model thrashing itself to
pieces. Just as the model as about to touch the ground, the prop started and
the model flew for a perfect max. Bob, that was one of your best flights of
the day, maybe you should do it more often.

The Desert Challenge is a team contest with two man teams, picked with
absolute impartiality by Bill Bogart. In spite of the near perfect *
conditions no team maxed out.

* I had to say that or I would have got into trouble from big time Taft
aficionados, White and Allnutt. We did scurry to get the last flights in
front of the approaching weather front, but it was fun event.


The Winners in F1A were Jim Parker and Pierre Brun. Integrity award
goes to Dallas Parker, who resisted pressure from others the give his Dad
a max when he D/Ted just too early and scored a 179.

The F1B Winners were Bob White and Bill Cushenberry, proving again
that age and cunning beats youth and vigor. It was great to see Bob White
flying F1B, his models go just as well as they ever did. Bob, there in
no truth in the rumor that you will be disqualified for using too much
balsa wood and not enough composites. I wanted to fly my electronic
model throughout the contest, but messed up in round 3 and hooked the
stab on my jacket. Alexander Andriukov is adapting quickly to the
"American" way. His son Vladi was teamed with Larry Norvall. [Larry,
for those of you who do not know is a plain clothes police officer,
working mainly on drug cases. Larry is a big guy. He chases on a 650cc
off road bike]. Just before the start of the first round Valdi was asleep in
the car [standard procedure for Vladi] and Larry was wondering what to
do. Alex said - go ahead get him up, use force if necessary. The first time
we had a police bust on the field!

Barbecue and Bonfire was great. Peter Allnutt went to a number of
businesses in Taft and offered to remove any wooden trash from their
yards. Probably better than requisitioning a few utility poles like he
was reputed to have done last time.


Rumor Mill

The Sessums team was seen with a lot of new models and having a
training session with the factory representative, or should I say factory
president. It looks like the Sessumses are aiming to make the 1999 USA F1B
Team - Team Sessums. That's not all that far out as the Jensens almost
did it in 1997. .. But Herb, John and Tim there are a whole bunch of
guys who won't make it easy for you ! And let me tell you about the
gators, snakes, canals etc in Palm Bay ...:-)



Hotels for Max Men
------------------

Reports from Lost Hills say that hotel rooms are going fast for the Max
Men, so if you haven't made your reservation best get on to it right
away.


Whoops on America's Cup
-----------------------

A recalculation of the as yet unpublished scores [Brian's bonus
points were not correctly awarded] apparantly gives the F1H trophy
to Brian Van Nest by one point over Martyn Cowley. If this is
so it's a well earned achivement.

This is a teaser to hype up the actual announcement.

Don't forget to reserve for the America's Cup Banquet. Its
the Max Men Saturday night. See the form with the Max Men package.

New Zealand Nationals
---------------------


FAI events at the 50th New Zealand Nationals

F1A 1. Anthony Koerbin
2. Paul Lagan
3. Bill McGarvey
4. Phil Crump
5. Stew Cox
6. Peter Williams


F1B 1 Anthony Koerbin
2 John Malkin
3 John Henson
4 David Ackery
5 Allen Thomas ( Brisbane)
6 Peter Williams

F1C

Not reported because of bad weather that day.

It looks like there are still some of the same names there, I guess they'll be
there for the World Cup Contests a little later in the year.

Correspondence
--------------

From John Clapp at FAI Model Supply ..

Dear Roger,
Enjoy all your reports on latest contest results, and other "happenings".

You're correct about me not taking you up on your offer to have to
"publish" latest Tan II info. I think it would be a good idea and a
great service to the F1B flyers, but right now I am buried in getting
this new rubber storage room completed. This room is adjacent to our
basement, and with the northeast weather, excavating in the winter
months has been a less than desirable task. I will not go into all the
problems I have run into with masons, etc. but the old "Murphy's law"
seems to apply in any building project. I will be glad to work with you
and Jerry Fitch on giving out this information. Right now I have
supplied more data to more fliers than has ever been given before. I
point out the following: We are working very closely with the factory
to drive Tan II to more consistent higher standards; all splices are
now marked; all boxes are dated; we have at least three new test
fliers and four fliers who test rubber to lab standards; and lastly the
factory has new meaningful test proceedures so they can clearly identify
factory process and chemical changes and the effect on the end product.
Of course you realize that while we strive to be very forthright with
all customers, worldwide negative publicized data drastically effects
our inventory levels. Never the less, we are interested in making more
data available to more people and will try to work it into our very
busy schedule in the near future.
(P.S. I also hope to find time to build an airplane or two).
John




Roger Morrell