District X - 2012/12
Lawrence Tougas — Vice President
I attended the US Free Flight Championships, which were held at the Lost Hills FF Model Airfield in California’s Central Valley. I am impressed by the skills on display at a FF contest. If you’ve never been to one, you owe yourself the treat of attending. I guarantee you’ll enjoy yourself.
CD Ted Firster — Contest Summary
The US FF Championships were held September 21–23, and we enjoyed three of the best flying days we have seen in some time. We approached this event with questions about our new neighbor: 1,600 acres of future nut trees.
Kevin Sherman and I traveled to Lost Hills in mid-August to assess the effect the trees would have on our southwest and west boundary. We secured permission from Holloway Mining Company to have launch sites on the company’s property 1/2 mile north of our normal launch site. Holloway even volunteered to clear the site of tumbleweeds—what great neighbors!
The new planting area extended farther east than we had anticipated. Chasing in that area was impossible, rendering our original launch site useless. We moved our launch site farther east on our property where we had never flown before and found excellent chasing areas to the south.
This contest was one of the most successful FF championships we have had in the past five years. The temperature was typical for this time of year and wind conditions hovered at approximately 10 mph, but thermals were tricky to find.
At the FF Champs, we run a different schedule than the usual FF contest. The contest is for the contestant and not for the ease of the CD. Old-Timer (OT) events and all non-power events can be flown on any of the three days and do not have to be completed on the same day, with the exception of Catapult and Hand-Launched Glider (HLG). Nostalgia and Classic Power pilots could fly any of their first three flights on Friday and complete them on the scheduled days.
Rocco Ferrario from Napa, California, brought his usual contingent of junior competitors and they always seem to have a great time.
We had our Gollywock Mass Launch on Saturday morning. It looked like a World War II dogfight over the Pacific, but fortunately there were no collisions and we had several good flights. Carl Redlin climbed higher than the others and again walked away with the trophy. Carl also won the Twin Pusher Mass Launch and the Dawn Mulvihill event.
Fred Ginder returned after being absent for a few years and won High Time with a score of 1,418. He is a third-generation flier and his father was instrumental in getting the High Time trophy started.
Some of the more contested events were OT A Pylon, P-30, AMA A Gas, and all Nostalgia Power events — with five maxing out and two tied at 533 in A Nostalgia. We had a good turnout in E-36, with John Oldenkamp flying for 762 seconds. Sevak Malkhusyan started chasing late and ended up with 737 for second place. Good flying, Sevak.
We had 25 FAI fliers; that number was low because of the short time until team selections. The Sweepstakes Championship was highly contested until the third day when Terry Thorkildsen pulled away. Congratulations to Terry and to OT Champion Hal Wightman.
I have more photos from this event than I can fit in this month’s column. Visit the District X website, www.ama10.org, to enjoy them all.
Until next month, may you have nothing but happy landings.
Event Highlights
- Dates: September 21–23
- Location: Lost Hills FF Model Airfield, California’s Central Valley
- Weather: Typical for the season; winds ~10 mph; thermals hard to find
- Notable winners:
- Carl Redlin — Gollywock Mass Launch, Twin Pusher Mass Launch, Dawn Mulvihill
- Fred Ginder — High Time (1,418)
- Terry Thorkildsen — Sweepstakes Championship
- Hal Wightman — OT Champion
- Notable performances:
- John Oldenkamp — E-36, 762 seconds
- Sevak Malkhusyan — E-36, 737 seconds (second place)
- Participation: 25 FAI fliers; strong showings in OT A Pylon, P-30, AMA A Gas, and Nostalgia Power events
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
