[NSRCA-discussion] GMA contest (worth the read)

[Mike Hester]

Wow.....

Well, after getting some sleep, and digesting the weekend, I suppose it's time to give a CD's report.

First I have to thank a few people. The GMA club first. They were extremely supportive, and have one of the most awesome facitities in the southeast. Without them, this would not have happened. Thanks to Cameron Smith and Marcio Jorge for helping me get the field ready!

I want to thank Chris Hinson and Extreme Flight...not only for giving away a full vanquish package, but for having the foresight to design this thing in the first place. Everything the Brio 10 should have been, this plane IS. Chris is a great guy, and this plane is fantastic. If you're interested in a small electric pattern plane that flies similar to your 2 meter ship, THIS IS THE PLANE!!!!!

Thanks to Mercury Adhesives. These guys are brand new to the market, but thier dedication and willingness to listen and actually take action is unlike anything else in the glue industry. The products are second to none, and are full industrial grade. I have been using this stuff exclusively for the last 6 months and I love it. Thanks to them, we were able to give away a lot of free glue to anybody that wanted it. These guys are the best!

Thanks to Atlanta Hobby for thier support. These guys are the best in the business at electrics, so give them a call!

Now on to the contest itself....

I woke last Wed morning to a particularly disturbing email....contractors were installing new power poles on the access road to GMA, and were shutting down traffic. At the time it was rumored that they were going to completely shut off all access to the field for the weekend. They had a helicopter in the area, and the police were already shutting down the road. So, I spent the better part of Wed and Thursday on the phone with police, the helicopter contractors, the pilots, everyone I could find...and we worked out a solution. I was sitting on the "cancel" button all day for 2 days straight, but in the end it all worked out.

38 pilots showed up for the contest. Of particular interest there were 11 sportsman pilots, about half of which had never flown in a pattern contest before! Advanced also had 11 pilots. Although only 4 FAI pilots were in attendance, they were Bryan Hebert, Brett Wickizer, Ryan Mc Laughlin and Cameron Smith. That's a STRONG 4!!!!

Friday's practice opened to outstanding weather. The police were intermittently shutting down the road, but most people seemed entertained by the helicopter's presence. by the end of the day, they were done and gone for the weekend.

Saturday morning broke to almost textbook perfect srping Ga weather, and we got underway as soon as the sun was up. It was difficult keeping judges in the chair with such uneven classes, but we managed to pull it off. Thanks to everyone who judged! Without you, there would not have been a contest at all.

The quality of flying was superb. The level of flying in sportsman through advanced is downright amazing. All of the competition was very strong. by the end of the 3rd round, 7 points seperated 2nd through 7th place in advanced!!!! Watching that class was like watching the nationals. More on that later...

We got 4 rounds in for sportsman and intermediate on Saturday, and on Sunday we continued on to get a total of 5 rounds for all classes. FAI flew 4 rounds of P on Saturday and 2 rounds of F on Sunday. We dropped the loset P and the lowest F to tally the final score.

We had quite a few out of district visitors. Brett and Mike Wickizer drove in from Texas, John Pavlick drove in from Conneticut, Mike Doud and family drove in all the way from North Carolina, and Bryan Hebert and Brian Clemmons traveled all the way from Louisianna. Along with the contest, we stayed up socializing and working on planes in my shop until 3 AM both nights, it was a lot of fun! Of course lack of sleep was really getting to me by Sunday, but it was worth it.

Cameron and Bryan Kennedy managed to sell a good bit of stuff to raise money for the world team. These guys got in there and rolled thier sleeves up, and we managed to sell everything on hand. Thanks to them and to everyone who now has cool stuff to support our World team members this fall!

Sportsman was a dogfight, but in the end Blake proved he's on a mission with a perfect score of 4000. He's a great kid, and a lot of fun to be around. I did ask permission to be his friend, and he reluctantly granted me the status (inside joke). Second place was won by Kirk Sutherland, also a newcomer to pattern. As mentioned above, third place was won by Travis Bellows, who dug randy Beardon's crashed Eclipse out of the garbage in Ocala after a mishap with a tree, repaired it and added a set of wings that I had made for Jason last year (replacement Impact wings with a bit of a "massage"), and incredibly flew it to 3rd out of 11 in his first pattern contest. YEAH now that's what I'm talking about! Fourth place was won by Robert Campbell, also a newcomer and very talented pilot. Fifth place was won by a local GMA member and good friend Fred Henry, who was incidentally flying my old Typhoon 2000 that I scratch built for my own sportsman season. That's just cool to me!!!

Intermediate was yet another dogfight between Marcio Jorge and gary Courtney, with Marcio edging Gary in the end. This will be the matchup to watch in intermediate this year. But these guys may have company soon, because third place was won by Mike Wingo, who is steadily getting better and better and returning to his form of years past. A little more fuel and a few more green bottles and things could get even more interesting!

Masters was a good contest in itself. Joe Walker had returned from FAI, and won it out with a perfect 4000. Emory Schroeter nailed second, and it still amazes me how smooth he is with as little practice as he manages to get. John Fuqua won third place, after losing his Impact a couple weeks ago and flying the contest with a Focus borrowed from Ron Van Putte. 

FAI might have been a small class, but it was not small on talent. Brett Wickizer had come over from Texas. If you don't know who Brett is, you've been under a rock. I had the pleasure of competing with Brett at the nationals last year in advanced where I placed second to him, so when I gave him the trophy I gave him a little ribbing. Second place was won by Cameron Smith, and third place was won by Ryan McLaughlin (first and second place at the Nationals in masters last year). bryan Hebert was a bit out of practice, but he did show what a fantastic plane that Shinden is!! 

Advanced was hands down the story of the weekend, if not the story of the year. Keep reading, this is why I love what we do and the people who do it so much.

With 11 advanced pilots, ALL of which are easily national contenders, we knew this would be the show. it was that and much much more. By round 3, the scores were only 7 points apart through 6-7 places. With only 2 rounds left, the heat only grew and intensified. by the last round, Steve Homenda and Erik Newsholme were on top only a few points apart, and mathematically any of the top 7-8 were still in contention for the wood. it doesn't get any better than that. Or does it?

When the dust settled, Erik had stepped up, focused, flew with everything he had, and took the last round. Fighting from 5th to first, Erik had stayed the course and won the most heated class of advanced flown in the southeast that I can remember since I have been flying myself. Steve Homenda had clinched second, followed by Jon Lowe who had flown into a tight battle for third place.

When we were handing out the trophies I noticed Erik holding the wing of his old beater Focus. I knew that he had recently lost his Symphony to a battery failure, and had gone back to the focus that he flew at the Nats last year. The plane was well weathered to say the least. Erik and his wife have always been supporters of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and he had the "Live Strong" logo on the wing. When I announced his name and he came up to recieve his trophy, he told us all why he was carrying the wing.

Erik's mother was diagnosed with Cancer in late march of this year. She began treatment, but 10 days later she passed away. She had been planning to attend this contest as she had never seen Erik fly at a pattern contest. he dedicated his victory to his mother's memory, and the never ending fight against cancer. The fact that he lost his Symphony and had to fly his not quite as trimmed Focus was difficult enough, but to manage this feat under the pressure of his mother's death and to do it in the most competetive class of pattern I have ever seen this side of Muncie still overwhelms me.

I had not been told a word about it, I learned it just as most others did, standing there handing him his first place trophy. It brought me to tears as well as many others, and I'll again say what I said immediately following: "It sort of puts all of this in perspective doesn't it?" I'm proud to know Erik, and words simply cannot do this any justice. We were all honored to fly with him this weekend. This is why I love pattern and the people who fly it. And if I seemed like I was in a daze after that, well, I was.

Thanks to ALL who attended and supported this contest, made the drive and flew in one of the most memorable pattern contests in recent memory.

-Mike
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