District XI - 2008/09

DAVE GARDNER, a member of the
Northwest Skyraiders CL club in the Puget
Sound area, sent in a report on the club’s
27th Annual Stuntathon, featuring Navy
Carrier and Stunt events. Dave CDed the
event.
The Stuntathon was held June 21-22 at
the 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.
There were 30 entrants flying in eight
events for a total of 55 event entries. This
contest was started in Portland, Oregon, in
1981 and has not missed a year since,
although the venue was moved to the Seattle
area in 1983 (along with CD Dave
Gardner!).
This year’s turnout was excellent for this
legacy contest. Fliers came from
Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British
Columbia. The schedule included Old-Time
Stunt, Classic Stunt, NW Profile Stunt, and
three skill classes of Precision Aerobatics.
The contest also had two Navy Carrier
events: Profile and Nostalgia Profile.
The overall level of flying in the
Northwest continues to improve and CL
flying is alive and well! Most of the contests
were hard flown, with a close separation of
places in several of the events. No
“sandbagging” was evident in the scores.
Nearly all of the fliers were in the scoring
range of their respective classes.
In Expert Paul Walker flew and won
with the latest Impact XLE, his electricpowered
World Champion-class stunter.
Paul is taking 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 US F2B
Team from our group!
Angela Gardner is hard at work tabulating
scores.
Above: Don McClave
and Paul Walker
behind the Impact
XLE.
Left: John Thompson
in vertical maneuver.
First-place awards
were the prized
Northwest Skyraiders’
folding chairs with the
Skyraiders logo on
them. Second- and
third-place awards
were framed
certificates. All winners had choices of a
variety of merchandise prizes, including the
Northwest Skyraiders’ coffee mugs!
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 sporting a
beautiful white-and-blue paint job. Chris
normally flies in the Expert category, but his
latest airplane won’t fit in the cargo bin of
the RV. It’s time for a take-apart airplane!
A b o v e :
Aircraft for
the Classic
Stunt event
line up in the
pits.
Right: The
awards for
the contest
are safe with
H o w a r d
Rush (R) and
CD Dave
Gardner.
Dave Gardner awards Bob Smiley a chair for
first place in Profile Stunt.
At the end of the day, the remaining crew
took down all the barriers, put away the
carrier deck, dropped all the canopies, put
all the competition paraphernalia away, and
headed home after a satisfying contest!
Thanks for the report, Dave. Until next
time. Bruce
District XI
Bruce Nelson, District XI Vice President; [email protected]
Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington
Bruce Nelson
Vice President
807 E. Vicksburg St.,
Spokane WA 99208
Fax: (509) 467-1852
Cell: (509) 863-7096
[email protected]
Associate Vice
Presidents
Rick Allison, Issaquah WA;
[email protected]
Darrell Anderson, Great Falls
MT; [email protected]
Al Culver, Wilder ID;
[email protected]
Jerry Holcomb, Vancouver WA;
[email protected]
Gene LaFond, Wenatchee WA;
[email protected]
Reeves Lippincott, Wasilla AK;
[email protected]
Mike Mosbrooker, Oak Harbor
WA; [email protected]
Claude Tanner, Boise ID;
[email protected]
Frequency Coordinator
Phil Tallman, Medical Lake WA;
(509) 299-5102;
[email protected]
District RC Coordinator
W.T. (Bill) Smith, Seattle WA;
[email protected]
Web site:
www.yosemiteflash.com/
xiama.htm
District XI Volunteers
September 2008 167
09amanews.qxp 7/24/2008 4:45 PM Page 167