2009 U.S. Scale Masters Championships
by Duane Kaasa
Event summary
September 10–13, 2009, the Wenatchee Red Apple Flyers (WRAF) in Washington hosted the Scale Masters event at its new flying site. The club had taken possession of the field from Waste Management (WM) in November 2008 after years of planning and construction. WM built the site for the club in exchange for the old flying site so the company could expand its operations. The result of this transaction is the gorgeous site the WRAF has today.
Gene LaFond, a longtime WRAF member and Scale Masters participant, presented the concept of hosting the competition at the club’s new site to Scale Masters Association personnel more than a year before the contest. Since we were getting a world-class facility, we thought we might as well host a world-class event. As a result of significant effort, the site was reviewed, recommended, and accepted, and the WRAF was chosen to hold the 2009 Scale Masters Championship.
Registration and attendance
Early arrivals began signing in on Wednesday. Registration and static scoring were completed by Thursday afternoon. At that point the field was occupied with 46 motor homes, RVs, and campsites supporting the 47 total entries. There were pilots from across the United States.
Weather and flying
Fall weather in this region is usually 80°–90°F, clear and sunny, with cool nights. We had wind and rain the weekend before Scale Masters, but conditions improved: scattered clouds on Wednesday followed by clear skies and sunny weather with almost no wind for the duration of the event.
There were two flight rounds both Friday and Saturday, with a fifth round flown Sunday morning. Four flight lines were in operation throughout the event. Flying went smoothly overall, though there were a few tense moments when a model was performing a landing-type maneuver (such as touch-and-gos) while another aircraft was low on fuel and needed to land immediately. The air boss was kept quite busy at times.
Aircraft and competitors
This was the first Scale Masters Championship I had attended, and I was amazed by the quality of the aircraft and flying I witnessed — this was definitely the “Best of the Best.” I spent the four days on the flight line; almost zero nonstarts or balky engines affected flight performance. The competitors’ professionalism was obvious at all times.
Only one airplane had a major crash, with an unscheduled stop in an orchard. About five models suffered landing gear problems, but all were quickly repaired and returned to flight. Judges often had trouble finding flaws in the static displays; perfect static scores were rare in theory, but the workmanship made deductions difficult at times.
Banquet, awards, and special aircraft
The Saturday-night banquet was well attended, with many longtime Scale Masters dignitaries present. Various awards were given to contestants. The guest speaker was Bob Heikell, who told the story of Miss Veedol, a full-scale Bellanca Skyrocket that completed the first nonstop transpacific flight in 1931. That expedition ended roughly three miles from the site of the WRAF field. Bob has flown his 1/4-scale replica of Miss Veedol at several Scale Masters Championships. The replica had suffered severe damage previously but was skillfully repaired for the 2009 contest and looked like a new aircraft.
Sponsors, outreach, and future events
The list of event sponsors was long, and many happy winners received raffle prizes. Numerous individual sponsors also deserve the club’s thanks. The successful Scale Masters and WRAF Apple Blossom Fly-In have brought many first-timers to the site and sparked interest in the club and field. Meeting attendance has increased significantly.
We are almost booked with competitions for 2010 and have added many new members. There will also be a new competition this year: the Northwest Scale Championship, a Scale Masters Regional Qualifier to be held late in the summer, a few weeks before the Scale Masters Championship.
Note: the original page also contained photos, captions, and a sponsors list; no additional body text remained.
Duane Kaasa [email protected]
Sources
- U.S. Scale Masters, (859) 881-8347, www.scalemasters.org
- Wenatchee Red Apple Flyers, www.redappleflyers.org
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
