August 2003 165
News from Colorado: The Rocky Mountain Soaring Association
(RMSA) Spring Thermals Contest was held April 13, 2003. The
contest director (CD) was Jim Barr who wrote the following report
taken from Thermals, the club newsletter.
“The RMSA Spring Thermals, held the first Sunday after the April
meeting, usually provides excellent soaring conditions. But, in the
24 years that I have been the contest director, this year’s original
date was the worst! On that date there were 20 to 30 mph winds as a
winter storm put an end to any soaring plans.
“The following Sunday was warm and sunny—ideal conditions
for five rounds of 10-minute duration task with AMA landing. As 25
pilots began the day, the majority soon realized that 10 minutes was
obtainable and on most flight groups, the score depended on a
successful landing. Fliers soon realized that it was necessary to
achieve at least an 85 to stay with the pack in Master’s Class.
“As the afternoon wore on, the brisk crosswind launches
hampered the novice fliers somewhat with launches less than
optimum. But Danny Dermer and Steve Suntken hung on and
finished the contest with Danny coming in first in Novice, some 70
points ahead. Chuck Stasek led the pack of Sportsman beating out
Jim Newcomb and Wayne Hollenbeck.
“The remaining 18 pilots fought it out in Master’s Class. To
show how close the scores were—there was only 75 points between
the top 4 fliers (in 5 flights), only 17 points between first and second,
and 32 points between second and third. Mark Howard, flying a
Zenith, was top dog with 4,986 out of 5,000 for 14 points from
perfect! Lenny Keer and Bob Lewan were runners-up.
“Special thanks to Tony O’Hara for helping out with scoring,
which gave Jim Monaco a chance to enjoy the contest more than
usual.
“Better luck next year!”
NEWS FROM NEBRASKA: The
Nebraska Air National Guard held its open
house April 11, and one of the aircraft
‘imported’ to Lincoln for the event was a
Navy F/A-18A Hornet, ably piloted by Lt.
Kent ‘Vasco’ Leonard.
Many Sky Knights may recognize Kent
as the young man Tom Hefley took under
his wing just a few years ago to teach the
fine art of flying Radio Control (RC). Many
flying lessons, both RC and full scale, have
taken place in the intervening years
generating quite a few interesting stories.
Former club member Lt. Kent ‘Vasco’
Leonard is pictured in his Navy F/A-18A
Hornet.
Kent held the office of Lincoln Sky
Knights’ secretary in 1996 and is now
employed by the U.S. Navy, having recently
completing a tour flying the F/A-18C off the
aircraft carrier USS George Washington.
Twenty-four-year-old ‘Vasco’ (his call sign
when flying) and his wife Jody now make
their home in Norfolk, Virginia. Vasco, by
the way, is taken from Vasco Nunez de
Balboa, the first European to see the Pacific
Ocean, less than 20 years after Columbus
discovered the new world!
Three Sky Knights, Tom Hefley, Ron
Vogel, and I visited, and our visit coincided
with the local crash, fire, and rescue teams,
there for orientation and an aircraftfamiliarization
tour.
The firefighters and rescue workers
received a briefing on such things as how to
disarm weapons systems, the location of the
canopy open switch, battery and circuit
cutoff switch locations, fuel capacities and
locations, pilot harness, and how to disable
the ejection seat.
It’s nice to know the firefighters are
eager to learn anything they can to be
efficient in the unlikely case of a Navy F-18
crash in land-locked Nebraska, but like any
red-blooded guy, I think they enjoyed seeing
a new aircraft and meeting the pilot.
Here is a look at Kent’s “office.”
The F/A-18 was put into service in the
late 1980s to replace the US Navy and
Marine Corps F-4 and the Navy’s A-7.
These days, it’s getting more and more
unusual for a US military pilot to actually be
older than the aircraft he’s flying!
From The Clanking Armor,
newsletter of the Lincoln Sky Knights
Associate Vice Presidents
Max Hansen, 1909 Wisconsin SW, Huron SD
57350
H. Michael Harrington, 6112 Ashton Ct.,
Ft. Collins CO 80525
Fred Hildebrand, 4015 Somerset Circle, Casper
WY 82609-3161
Nathan Lancaster, 3597 S. Kendall Street, Denver
CO 80235
Troy Lapp, 1619 Wichita Dr., Bismarck ND 58504
Travis McGinnis, 8027 W. 81st Circle, Arvada CO
80005
Don Moden, 410 Hart St., Salina KS 67401
Jim Ricketts, 4921 Fernwood Drive, Sioux Falls
SD 57103-5573
Jack L. Sibert, 3611 Kimberly Circle, Lincoln NE
68506-4524
Mark T. Smith, 14632 W. 50th Street, Shawnee
KS 66216
Frequency Coordinator
Steve Mangles, c/o Radio Service Center, 918 S.
Sheridan, Denver CO 80226
Colorado / Kansas /
Nebraska / North Dakota /
South Dakota / Wyoming
Russ Miller
Vice President
980 N. 3rd St.
Carrington ND 58421
Tel.: (701) 652-2321
Fax: (701) 652-2994
E:mail:
[email protected]
District IX Report
aug03.qxd 5.23.03 9:19 am Page 165
Edition: Model Aviation - 2003/08
Page Numbers: 165