District XI - 2008/09
Event
Dave Gardner, a member of the Northwest Skyraiders control line (CL) club in the Puget Sound area, sent this report on the club’s 27th Annual Stuntathon, featuring Navy Carrier and stunt events. Dave served as Contest Director.
The Stuntathon was held June 21–22 at Pierce County Airport (Thun Field) in Puyallup, Washington. The activity was supported by the airport management, Spencer Aviation, and the Hangar Inn Restaurant overlooking the flying activities.
Participation
- 30 entrants
- 8 events
- 55 total event entries
Fliers came from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia.
History
This contest was started in Portland, Oregon, in 1981 and has been held every year since. The venue moved to the Seattle area in 1983 (along with CD Dave Gardner).
Schedule and Events
The schedule included:
- Old-Time Stunt
- Classic Stunt
- NW Profile Stunt
- Three skill classes of Precision Aerobatics
The contest also featured two Navy Carrier events:
- Profile
- Nostalgia Profile
Competition notes
The overall level of flying in the Northwest continues to improve and control line flying is alive and well. Most of the contests were hard flown, with close separations of places in several events. No sandbagging was evident in the scores; nearly all fliers were scoring within the expected range for their respective classes.
In Expert, Paul Walker flew and won with the latest Impact XLE, his electric-powered World Champion–class stunter. Paul will take this aircraft to the 2008 Control Line World Championships in Landres, France, right after the Nats. We’re proud to have a member of the U.S. F2B Team from our group.
On Sunday we had a surprise visit from Chris and Joan Cox, who flew in from Vancouver, British Columbia, in their recently completed RV-6 with a beautiful white-and-blue paint job. Chris normally flies in the Expert category, but his latest airplane won’t fit in the RV’s cargo bin — it’s time for a take-apart airplane!
Awards and prizes
- First-place awards: Northwest Skyraiders folding chairs with the Skyraiders logo
- Second- and third-place awards: framed certificates
- All winners: choice of various merchandise prizes, including Northwest Skyraiders coffee mugs
Cleanup and closing
At the end of the day the remaining crew took down all the barriers, put away the carrier deck, took down the canopies, stowed the competition paraphernalia, and headed home after a satisfying contest.
Thanks for the report, Dave. Until next time. Bruce
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
