SEN 938 - 22 Mar 2005

SCAT Electronic news 22 March 2005 issue 938


Table of Contents
======================
2005 AmCup Report #1 - Parker
America Cup results - with individual placings
Radio DT Concerns - Aberlenc
Jr Bulletin No. 2 - Parker et al
Team Shirt - Jensen
F1Q has been approved by CIAM! - Zeri and Schlosberg
New blood - Clemens
Fw: 2005 SCAT Annual - Coleman
Max Men F1J Flyoff - Lovins
Re: SCAT Electronic News - Got it - Nystrom

2005 AmCup Report #1
=====================
Jim Parker


Here it is, the first 2005 AmCup report. Almost 25% thru the year with 3
of the 30 AmCup contest complete.
The F1A wins are spread out among many of the top contenders. Bill Booth
is off to a great start in F1B with two wins at Lost Hills- he should be
making some travel plans. Randy Archer is looking good as well with win
at Eloy and Lost Hills. Will this be the year that the Archers fly at
the Muncie Nats? Cody Secor has some new competition in F1P but has made
a statement with 3 max out wins. Peter Brock's 3 score lead does not
hides the 2004 F1G winner, Jack Emery, two wins. Brain Van Nest, the
2004 F1H winner has two wins and second. Also note Kyle Jones two second
places. Looks like Dallas Parker will have to worker harder to win his
third Jr high time. I also understand that Kyle set a new Jr F1H record
at the SCAT annual.

The 2005 AmCup rules are posted on the NFFs web site
. The rules are
the same as 2004 except we rescinded the 4 and 3 round requirement to me
an official entry. NFFs web site's master calendar now shows all 30
AmCup contest but some of the dates are still being worked. The Winter
Classic (Isaacson's) was erroneously posted as an AmCup, it is not.

Please email any changes or corrections. I have a J. Jones in MM F1G, if
this is correct, please let me know the first name.

Thermals, JIM
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America Cup results - with individual placings
==============================================

Key to competition abbreviations and number of sportsmen:
SWR 26 Southwest Regionals- Eloy ,AZ
MM 33 MaxMen 14 Rounder- Lost Hills, CA
SCA 19 SCAT Annual- Lost Hills, CA
SCh 0 Sierra Champs- Sacramento, CA
SCT 0 Spring Cup- Seguin TX
NCA 0 NorCal FF Champs- Sacramento, CA
EFF 0 Eastern FF Champs, Ingleside, MD
IFA 0 Intercity FAI Muncie, IN
Hcu 0 Hoosier Cup, Muncie. IN
Sky 0 Skyscrapers FAI Challenge, Wawayanda NY
BAl 0 Big Al, Lost Hills, CA
McL 0 McLaughlan Fiesta 5 Flags - Pensacola, FL
TCC 0 Texas Cloud Climbers, Allen TX
MMM 0 MMM 14 Rounder-Denver, CO
HC 0 Huron Cup- CFB Borden, Ontario Canada
USO 0 US Outdoor Champs (NFFS)- Muncie, IN
NWF 0 NW FF Champs, Tanget, OR
ESF 0 Empire State FF Champs, NY
AFA 0 Chicago Aeronuts-Muncie, IN
DC 0 Dynasty Cup-Denver, CO
CC 0 Canadian Cup, Camp Borden
USF 0 U.S. Free Flight Champs, Lost Hills, CA
CFA 0 Calif. FAI Invit./ Canada Cup, L.H. CA
Scu 0 Sierra Cup- Sacramento, CA
SkA 0 Skyscrapper Annual,Wawayanda, NY
SWC 0 S.W. FAI Challenge, LasVegas, NV
ACT 0 Autumn Cup USAF Aux Field- Seguin, TX
PC 0 Patterson FAI Challenge- Lost Hills, CA
AZC 0 Airazona Championships-Eloy, AZ
KOI 0 King Orange Intl- Palm Bay, FL

F1A
1 McKeever, Mike 45 MM-4 SCA-1
2 VanNest, Brian 40 SWR-4 SCA-2
3 Zink, Don 35 SWR-2 SCA-5
4 Diez, Hector 30 MM-5 SCA-3
4 Bauer, Ken 30 SWR-1
4 Parker, Jim 30 MM-1
7 Thompson, Mike 25 SWR-5 SCA-4
7 Sifleet, Bob 25 MM-2
9 Parker, Dallas (Jr) 20 SWR-3
9 Spence, Steve 20 MM-3

Key to competition abbreviations and number of sportsmen:
SWR 12 Southwest Regionals- Eloy ,AZ
MM 31 MaxMen 14 Rounder- Lost Hills, CA
SCA 11 SCAT Annual- Lost Hills, CA
SCh 0 Sierra Champs- Sacramento, CA
SCT 0 Spring Cup- Seguin TX
NCA 0 NorCal FF Champs- Sacramento, CA
EFF 0 Eastern FF Champs, Ingleside, MD
IFA 0 Intercity FAI Muncie, IN
Hcu 0 Hoosier Cup, Muncie. IN
Sky 0 Skyscrapers FAI Challenge, Wawayanda NY
BAl 0 Big Al, Lost Hills, CA
McL 0 McLaughlan Fiesta 5 Flags - Pensacola, FL
TCC 0 Texas Cloud Climbers, Allen TX
MMM 0 MMM 14 Rounder-Denver, CO
HC 0 Huron Cup- CFB Borden, Ontario Canada
USO 0 US Outdoor Champs (NFFS)- Muncie, IN
NWF 0 NW FF Champs, Tanget, OR
ESF 0 Empire State FF Champs, NY
AFA 0 Chicago Aeronuts-Muncie, IN
DC 0 Dynasty Cup-Denver, CO
CC 0 Canadian Cup, Camp Borden
USF 0 U.S. Free Flight Champs, Lost Hills, CA
CFA 0 Calif. FAI Invit./ Canada Cup, L.H. CA
Scu 0 Sierra Cup- Sacramento, CA
SkA 0 Skyscrapper Annual,Wawayanda, NY
SWC 0 S.W. FAI Challenge, LasVegas, NV
ACT 0 Autumn Cup USAF Aux Field- Seguin, TX
PC 0 Patterson FAI Challenge- Lost Hills, CA
AZC 0 Airazona Championships-Eloy, AZ
KOI 0 King Orange Intl- Palm Bay, FL

F1B
1 Booth, Bill 57 MM-1 SCA-1
2 Jensen, Blake 48 SWR-2 MM-2
3 Batiuk, George 35 SWR-1 SCA-5
3 Rohrke, Rich 35 SWR-3 SCA-3
5 Andriukov, Alex 22 SCA-2
6 Biedron, Bob 20 MM-3
7 Bradley, Jim 15 MM-4
8 Clapp, John 13 SWR-4
9 Tymchek, Bob 12 SCA-4
10 Mulligan, Mike 10 MM-5
11 Nelson, Elmer 8 SWR-5

Key to competition abbreviations and number of sportsmen:
SWR 3 Southwest Regionals- Eloy ,AZ
MM 18 MaxMen 14 Rounder- Lost Hills, CA
SCA 6 SCAT Annual- Lost Hills, CA
SCh 0 Sierra Champs- Sacramento, CA
SCT 0 Spring Cup- Seguin TX
NCA 0 NorCal FF Champs- Sacramento, CA
EFF 0 Eastern FF Champs, Ingleside, MD
IFA 0 Intercity FAI Muncie, IN
Hcu 0 Hoosier Cup, Muncie. IN
Sky 0 Skyscrapers FAI Challenge, Wawayanda NY
BAl 0 Big Al, Lost Hills, CA
McL 0 McLaughlan Fiesta 5 Flags - Pensacola, FL
TCC 0 Texas Cloud Climbers, Allen TX
MMM 0 MMM 14 Rounder-Denver, CO
HC 0 Huron Cup- CFB Borden, Ontario Canada
USO 0 US Outdoor Champs (NFFS)- Muncie, IN
NWF 0 NW FF Champs, Tanget, OR
ESF 0 Empire State FF Champs, NY
AFA 0 Chicago Aeronuts-Muncie, IN
DC 0 Dynasty Cup-Denver, CO
CC 0 Canadian Cup, Camp Borden
USF 0 U.S. Free Flight Champs, Lost Hills, CA
CFA 0 Calif. FAI Invit./ Canada Cup, L.H. CA
Scu 0 Sierra Cup- Sacramento, CA
SkA 0 Skyscrapper Annual,Wawayanda, NY
SWC 0 S.W. FAI Challenge, LasVegas, NV
ACT 0 Autumn Cup USAF Aux Field- Seguin, TX
PC 0 Patterson FAI Challenge- Lost Hills, CA
AZC 0 Airazona Championships-Eloy, AZ
KOI 0 King Orange Intl- Palm Bay, FL

F1C
1 Archer, Randy 55 SWR-1 MM-1
6 Kerger, Terry 20 SWR-2
2 Perkins, Daryl 41 SWR-3 MM-5 SCA-3
4 Simpson, Roger 25 MM-2
6 Gunder, Austin 20 MM-3
8 Shirley, David 15 MM-4
3 Roberts, Mike 26 SCA-1
5 Gewain, Matt 21 SCA-2
9 Mennano, Guy 11 SCA-4
10 Carroll, Ed 6 SCA-5

Key to competition abbreviations and number of sportsmen:
SWR 18 Southwest Regionals- Eloy ,AZ
MM 19 MaxMen 14 Rounder- Lost Hills, CA
SCA 9 SCAT Annual- Lost Hills, CA
SCh 0 Sierra Champs- Sacramento, CA
SCT 0 Spring Cup- Seguin TX
NCA 0 NorCal FF Champs- Sacramento, CA
EFF 0 Eastern FF Champs, Ingleside, MD
IFA 0 Intercity FAI Muncie, IN
Hcu 0 Hoosier Cup, Muncie. IN
Sky 0 Skyscrapers FAI Challenge, Wawayanda NY
BAl 0 Big Al, Lost Hills, CA
McL 0 McLaughlan Fiesta 5 Flags - Pensacola, FL
TCC 0 Texas Cloud Climbers, Allen TX
MMM 0 MMM 14 Rounder-Denver, CO
HC 0 Huron Cup- CFB Borden, Ontario Canada
USO 0 US Outdoor Champs (NFFS)- Muncie, IN
NWF 0 NW FF Champs, Tanget, OR
ESF 0 Empire State FF Champs, NY
AFA 0 Chicago Aeronuts-Muncie, IN
DC 0 Dynasty Cup-Denver, CO
CC 0 Canadian Cup, Camp Borden
USF 0 U.S. Free Flight Champs, Lost Hills, CA
CFA 0 Calif. FAI Invit./ Canada Cup, L.H. CA
Scu 0 Sierra Cup- Sacramento, CA
SkA 0 Skyscrapper Annual,Wawayanda, NY
SWC 0 S.W. FAI Challenge, LasVegas, NV
ACT 0 Autumn Cup USAF Aux Field- Seguin, TX
PC 0 Patterson FAI Challenge- Lost Hills, CA
AZC 0 Airazona Championships-Eloy, AZ
KOI 0 King Orange Intl- Palm Bay, FL

F1G
1 Brocks, Peter 67 SWR-2 MM-3 SCA-2
2 Emery, Jack 57 SWR-1 SCA-1
3 Crowley, Paul 30 MM-1
4 Tymchek, Bob 25 MM-2
5 Peterson. Alan 20 SWR-3
6 Jensen, Blake 17 SCA-3
7 O'Dell, Tiffany 15 SWR-4
7 Ghio, Walt 15 MM-4
9 Van Nest, Bob 12 SCA-4
10 Markos, Chuck 10 SWR-5
10 Jones, J 10 MM-5
12 Booth, Bill 7 SCA-5

Key to competition abbreviations and number of sportsmen:
SWR 8 Southwest Regionals- Eloy ,AZ
MM 10 MaxMen 14 Rounder- Lost Hills, CA
SCA 7 SCAT Annual- Lost Hills, CA
SCh 0 Sierra Champs- Sacramento, CA
SCT 0 Spring Cup- Seguin TX
NCA 0 NorCal FF Champs- Sacramento, CA
EFF 0 Eastern FF Champs, Ingleside, MD
IFA 0 Intercity FAI Muncie, IN
Hcu 0 Hoosier Cup, Muncie. IN
Sky 0 Skyscrapers FAI Challenge, Wawayanda NY
BAl 0 Big Al, Lost Hills, CA
McL 0 McLaughlan Fiesta 5 Flags - Pensacola, FL
TCC 0 Texas Cloud Climbers, Allen TX
MMM 0 MMM 14 Rounder-Denver, CO
HC 0 Huron Cup- CFB Borden, Ontario Canada
USO 0 US Outdoor Champs (NFFS)- Muncie, IN
NWF 0 NW FF Champs, Tanget, OR
ESF 0 Empire State FF Champs, NY
AFA 0 Chicago Aeronuts-Muncie, IN
DC 0 Dynasty Cup-Denver, CO
CC 0 Canadian Cup, Camp Borden
USF 0 U.S. Free Flight Champs, Lost Hills, CA
CFA 0 Calif. FAI Invit./ Canada Cup, L.H. CA
Scu 0 Sierra Cup- Sacramento, CA
SkA 0 Skyscrapper Annual,Wawayanda, NY
SWC 0 S.W. FAI Challenge, LasVegas, NV
ACT 0 Autumn Cup USAF Aux Field- Seguin, TX
PC 0 Patterson FAI Challenge- Lost Hills, CA
AZC 0 Airazona Championships-Eloy, AZ
KOI 0 King Orange Intl- Palm Bay, FL

F1H
1 VanNest, Brian 74 SWR-2 MM-1 SCA-1
2 McKever, Mike 44 SWR-3 MM-4 SCA-3
3 Jones, Kyle (Jr) 43 MM-2 SCA-2
4 Hines,Lee 26 SWR-1
5 Coussens, Ben (Jr) 17 MM-3
6 Parker, Dallas (Jr) 11 SWR-4
6 Smith, Norm 11 SCA-4
8 Sifleet, Bob 7 MM-5
9 Davis, Jon 6 SWR-5
9 Thompson, Mike 6 SCA-5

Key to competition abbreviations and number of sportsmen:
SWR 6 Southwest Regionals- Eloy ,AZ
MM 11 MaxMen 14 Rounder- Lost Hills, CA
SCA 4 SCAT Annual- Lost Hills, CA
SCh 0 Sierra Champs- Sacramento, CA
SCT 0 Spring Cup- Seguin TX
NCA 0 NorCal FF Champs- Sacramento, CA
EFF 0 Eastern FF Champs, Ingleside, MD
IFA 0 Intercity FAI Muncie, IN
Hcu 0 Hoosier Cup, Muncie. IN
Sky 0 Skyscrapers FAI Challenge, Wawayanda NY
BAl 0 Big Al, Lost Hills, CA
McL 0 McLaughlan Fiesta 5 Flags - Pensacola, FL
TCC 0 Texas Cloud Climbers, Allen TX
MMM 0 MMM 14 Rounder-Denver, CO
HC 0 Huron Cup- CFB Borden, Ontario Canada
USO 0 US Outdoor Champs (NFFS)- Muncie, IN
NWF 0 NW FF Champs, Tanget, OR
ESF 0 Empire State FF Champs, NY
AFA 0 Chicago Aeronuts-Muncie, IN
DC 0 Dynasty Cup-Denver, CO
CC 0 Canadian Cup, Camp Borden
USF 0 U.S. Free Flight Champs, Lost Hills, CA
CFA 0 Calif. FAI Invit./ Canada Cup, L.H. CA
Scu 0 Sierra Cup- Sacramento, CA
SkA 0 Skyscrapper Annual,Wawayanda, NY
SWC 0 S.W. FAI Challenge, LasVegas, NV
ACT 0 Autumn Cup USAF Aux Field- Seguin, TX
PC 0 Patterson FAI Challenge- Lost Hills, CA
AZC 0 Airazona Championships-Eloy, AZ
KOI 0 King Orange Intl- Palm Bay, FL

F1J
1 Warren, John 27 MM-1
2 Archer, Randy 26 SWR-1
3 Mennano, Guy 25 SCA-1
4 Spence, Steve 22 MM-2
4 Roberts, Mike 22 MM-5 SCA-3
6 Pulley, Lynn 21 SWR-2
7 Carroll, Ed 20 SCA-2
8 Shirley, David 17 MM-3
9 Kerger, Terry 16 SWR-3
10 Servaites, Bucky 12 MM-4
11 Ellington, Jeff 11 SWR-4
12 Ginder, Fred III 10 SCA-4
13 Thompson, Mike 6 SWR-5


Radio DT Concerns
=================
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dear Roger

some comments about the new CIAM rule of RADIO CONTROLLED DT

Dear free-flyer

I am one of the numerous fanatic of electronic in free flight. My last model
has:

- fully servo controlled model
- servo controlled hook opening
- GPS beacon (allow 15m accuracy retrieving and 6km ground range)
- blinking led for better visibility
- in flight trimming using radio (only for training)
- radio DT (only for training)

Everything is home made.

However, I think that the CIAM authorisation of RADIO DT in 2006 is extremly
DANGEROUS. If a receiver is in a model, nobody can control that the receiver
is only dedicated to DT. It will be incredibly easy to modify the model
trimming during the flight, to send the model in a thermal and so on.
Most of my friends have the same opinion. We understand the necessity of
radio DT for F1C, but there is no reason for F1A and F1B.

I hope to open a debate. May be is it to late...

Frederic



Jr Bulletin No. 2
=================



2006 Jr Team Selection Information Bulletin Number 2 March 2005
Chuck Marcos has replaced Jim Bradley as the Jr Team Selection
Sub-committee chairperson. Jim will continue to support the Junior
program. We appreciate his efforts.
The 2005-2006 Jr Team Selection Bulletin No. 1 referenced the "Junior
Plus" contests. The Plus contests are to augment the 29 America Cup
contests (the Nats does not count as an AmCup contest for the Jr Team
Selection Program) used as part of the Jr Team Selection program. The
intent is to provide Juniors access to contests in the parts of the
country with few or no AmCup contests and add contests in the summer
months to better accommodate school schedules. To date only two offers
have been made and are so now announced as official Plus contests.
*Wilber& Orville Society, 6/11/2004, Waywayanda, Art Ellis (203)
453-1850
*MaxMen Summer FAI, 7/16/2005, Lost Hill, Bob Tymcheck (805)929-1605
NFFs Master schedule
http://freeflight.org/competition/master_contest_calendar.htm has added
a "+" designator to these two contests.
NFFs Master schedule has many several summer contests that could be Plus
contests. All that is required is that F1A,B and P be flown by rounds to
FAI rules and the results submitted to me (or to SEN). We need local
support to make this happen. How about: Rebel Rally, Palm Bay; June Bug
Jamboree, Whitesburg; Tri City Annual, Seguin; Mini FAI , N. Branch; MMM
monthly, Denver; Western State Champs, Weagel; Heart of America, KC
Speedway, Dixie Nats, Palm Bay, Jimmie Allen, Otay Mesa; Noonan
Memorial, Bong.
It is time to act and drop me an email to offer your contest. You would
likely find a few more flyers than you normally have. The deadline to
submit an offer is April 30, 2005. The Jr TSC will select 4 more
contests and will publish Jr TSP Bulletin No. 3 with the Plus contests.
The Pre-Nats /Nats is the other major component to the Jr Team Selection
Program. You should be thinking about your Muncie plans now. Pre-Nats is
scheduled for Sunday, July 31, 2005, register per the Jr Team Selection
program. The Nat events schedule is: F1A, Monday Aug.1, 2005; F1P, Aug.
2; and F1B, Aug 3. 2005. Entry forms are available from the AMA website:
http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/entryforms.asp.
Note that F1P is not shown on the AMA entry form. F1P entry will be done
on the field. More information will follow in subsequent Bulletins.
Thursday, Aug 4, 2005 is a reserve day and all Junior Team Selection
participants should be prepared to fly if so announced on a preceding
day.
Correction: The NFFs Master schedule had shown the 2/14/2005 Isaacson
Winter Classic as an Am Cup Contest. It is not and Am Cup contest. Alan
Peterson has corrected the calendar. I also encourage CD's and Clubs to
review the master calendar and make updates and corrections.
George Batiuk
Chuck Markos
Art Ellis
Jim Parker
2006 Jr Team Selection Committee



Team Shirt
===========
From: Blake Jensen

Last chance to order US Free Flight Team shirts. Please help support
the 2005 US Free Flight Team by purchasing a supporter T-Shirt. The
shirts are 5 color front/3 color back on a white Hanes Beefy-T. They
will sell for $15 for short sleeve, $20 for long sleeve and $28 for
sweatshirts. Please email me with the number, style, and size of shirts
you would like. S, M, L, XL, XXL, and XXXL are available. Please add
$3.85 for postage in the US, or email me for postage amounts outside
the US or for large orders. We have almost sold out of the initial run
of shirts. I am going to produce a second run of shirts in the second
week of April. In order to be sure that the sales of these shirts earn
a profit for the team, I am only going to produce shirts that are
pre-ordered, so there won't be any leftover. Please get me your order
ASAP, but by April 6 for sure.

Thermals to all,

Blake Jensen
2005 Free Flight Team Manager
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F1Q has been approved by CIAM!
==============================
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
From: "Anselmo Zeri"



Great news about the "electric". At this moment only one class
has been approved (F1Q). It corresponds to the US proposal
before the very last correction (the one taking into account the
Trevor Grey comments).

The only limitation to the model is battery weight (125 for
Ni-something and 90 for Li-something, so covering also
Li-Ions.

No limitation in wing span, nor in weight (max or min), nor in
surface (max or min).

Motor run up to 25 sec. (contest director will indicate it before
the flight will start, according to all the parameters he will want
to take into account, including the max), and maximum time up
to three minutes (this also to be indicated by the contest director
before the flight).

In the light of the experiences, we [CIAM] can re-discuss
further limitations/modifications in the future.

Anselmo



New blood
=========
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I believe the days of having youngsters build models from scratch in
whatever event, even including the Wright Stuff Science Olympiad event, may
be gone- forever. The mindset, the fascination, the motivation to build
simply is not there anymore. From what I'm seeing, we're living in a fool's
paradise if we naively think we can do something inspirational to bring it
back. There are and will be exceptions, of course. But the great majority of
kids today aren't interested in gluing sticks together as most of us older
guys are (I'm 73).

I have no idea as to whether or not dropping the BOM rule would be a viable
answer to getting new free flight blood, be that blood young or old. But
somehow I believe it might help the situation, and would be worth a try.
Maybe Half A, P-30, HLG, CLG, and classic towline would be good trial
events. We might just be surprised to see an increase, albeit modest, in
participation. AMA Cubs are not going to do it, gentlemen. Neither is the
Wright Stuff (regretfully, as I've been a mentor and event director for this
event for about eight years or so) to any significant extent.

And let's not think only of kids as the chief source of new participation in
free flight. I think the evidence clearly shows that we get more from
adults, especially those who were once modelers to one extent or another but
gave it up for x years due to school, family, and job responsibilities. What
we need is better PR for our hobby in the form of media coverage of our
activities as well as public demonstrations of our skills and machines. What
we do is unknown to the majority of the general public, young or old. We
should be working to change this non-perception. A few of us are, but most
free flight participants seemingly could care less.


Bob Clemens




Fw: 2005 SCAT Annual
====================
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.



Roger,
Below is an email I've sent out to some that were confused and didn't
understand yhat the results were at the bottom of SEN # 936.
I also felt my report, as I explained to Pierre should have been printed
with the results. Lee feels I should resend this, but I am a bit
reluctant here as I feel you do such an admirable job in handling SEN,
with little reward and loads of gripes. Please keep up the great work.

Regards,
Roger Coleman


[ Roger

as I explained last issue to hank .. there is no conspiracy theory here ..
I just did not notice your write up ....
so a reminder is not out of place or considered griping.

and because you were too neat you sent the results in PDF - which means
tha they have to be sent as an attachment and not in the text.

Generally the best way is to senf the results of a contest is in one
MS Excel file. I then will format this and embed it in the text.
]


Pierre,
The following is what I sent to Roger Morrell. Lee's version said I
asked him to send it, which should have said he asked and I didn't mind.
In the F1A results Kyle Jones and Tyler Secor should have been listed as
Juniors.

Regards,
Roger Coleman



So now here is Roger's contest report .. .

and thanks to Roger and Sam for running the event and the dogs for keeping
us in order.!

########################################################################

Hey! Ya'll missed a great time. Flying was exceptional and the mud pie
throwin' event to kick off the weekend was incredible.

This year's event didn't have a very encouraging start, in fact it was
careening toward a disaster . Lee Hines and I met at the Containers at
Holloway Gypsum early Friday afternoon. We tried to enter the container
with a new key, which wouldn't open it up.
Lee mentioned that the rain was over Ridgecrest and moving in a North
Easterly direction, per the weather prognosticators. We noticed a very
foreboding sky South West of us which was heading in the aforementioned
North Easterly direction... straight at us. So we abandoned our plan to
go to Blackwell's Corner to purchase goodies for the officials booth. I
followed Lee onto the field, which took some concentration not to get
stuck in the muck leftover from the MaxMen, F1E Team Trials and
Issacson, and the unseasonal rains here in California. We set up the
canopy while Lee went back to the containers with George Batiuk to
gather up equipment required for the contest, but before we could start
the registration process, the storm struck. It rained for a couple hours
at a 1" to 1 1/2" per hour rate accompanied by both cloud to cloud and
cloud to ground lightning. We ducked into the motor home and grabbed a
bite to eat. It was now past dusk. My wife, Sam asked what the bright
lights to the East were. I said it was vehicles on the entry road,
however none were making their way to the flying field. We heard that
Pierre Brun was stuck, but the cloud cover
made it really dark, so there was little we could do until daylight. Lee
and I made a decision to postpone the Saturday start from 8am for at
least an hour or two and hit the sack. We are now convinced that Roger
Morrell's trip to Lost Hills to test out his Audi's four wheel before
the events of Feb. and Mar. was not folly.

In the morning at 6am I ventured out to a very wet field under cloudy
skies. We decided to postpone the start till noon. Bill Booth arrived
looking like he had been to a mud war. He said he was playing in the mud
with ten or so of his best friends. The folks at Holloway Gypsum came to
our rescue and pulled many folks out of the mud. Dick Wood tossed his
chase bike off the back of his van. Terry Kerger's bike broke the window
on his van, but I'm not sure at what point that occurred. Rich Rohrke
got stuck trying to be a good guy while moving a potty out of what had
become a vernal pool. We know that some flyers turned around and went
home and many others chose to stay home. The full stories relative to
the goofy stuff that happened here will be best told by those that lived
them.

We started flying at noon but didn't use the extended max as we had
planned per our event flyer. We also flew 45 minute rounds and got all 7
rounds in as the weather improved steadily all day. We pushed the flyoff
rounds to 7am Sunday and delayed the mini event start till 8:30am. We
had great flying weather on both Sat and Sun. The competition was close.
The field dried throughout the event. We also compressed the mini
flyoffs as much as possible to keep folks from leaving after dark. It is
advised to all who attend an event at Lost Hills that you do not attempt
to enter the field while it's raining or shortly thereafter when it's
dark, as you can miss the dry spot by inches and get stuck. Rain at Lost
Hills is a rarity and will remain so in the future. So, don't let this
story scare you off. We were all having a great time flying and swapping
stories at a really fun contest. To bad you missed it.

George Batiuk took up a collection (I don't know how much.... you'll
have to ask George) for the folks at Holloway who spent Saturday morning
pulling us out of the mud. Some offered money to the Holloway folks at
that time, but they refused.

Kyle Jones a Junior from Cleveland set a new record in F1H JR. at this
event, so kudos to him. That also keeps alive the fact that records have
been set at this and other events held at Lost Hills in Feb. or Mar. The
South West is a great place to fly Free Flight
during the winter and early spring months even though you may have to
dodge occasional rain and operate your models with cold hands in the
early hours. See you all next year, but we do intend to move this event
to the third weekend in March.

Thermals,
Roger Coleman



Max Men F1J Flyoff
==================
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.



Hi Roger,
I'm wondering if my previous question got lost? It appeared as though the re
sults of the F1J flyoffs at the Max Men contest was incomplete. Does anyone "ou
t there" know the final outcome?
Bill Lovins (Denver)


[the final outcome was published .. i.e. a many way tie.
In ideal conditions a good F1J will no 11 minutes on a
7 sec engine run .. so we just ran out of time.

In speaking with george he has a solution for next year ...]



Re: SCAT Electronic News - Got it
==================================
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Thanks, Roger. I had gotten used to going directly to the SEN digest
page, and then it suddenly did not work. By this I mean going to
http://www.aeromodel.com/TM/T356. Do you sometimes change this address
without notice?

[ Hank

each year I create a new "Topic" for the reports from that
year so the "T" part of the address will change each year in the
Jan/ Fem Timeframe.]


The issue of what is going to happen to FF, is darn serious, and it has
nothing to do with the kids. If we do not find a way to get adults
interested in FF the same way they are in park fly RC, then FF has a
short future life. Which is why I strongly support tearing down the BOM
barrier we have put up. Make it easy to get into FF. Yes, I understand
FAI does not have the BOM, but I refer to the more basic events more
suitable for a raw beginner. Like Nostalgia and Classic AMA. And of
course P-30 and gliders.

Thanks, again.
Hank


.............................
Roger