Radio Control Aerobatics - 2008/03

[eric.henderson@comcast.net]
Radio Control Aerobatics Eric Henderson
A successful new entry-level “Club Class” contest
Saturday’s Club Class winners (L-R): Steve Maurice, second; Tim Becker, first; Bryon Martin,
third. Tim, the club’s secretary/treasurer, built the Duelist from plans.
Mike Dorna with his Smaragd (pronounced
“Smaract”) at the 2005 AMA Pattern Nats.
He is the chief architect of his progressive
Club Class Pattern primer.
John Kreitzer, the Flying Electrons club
president, took the first-place awards on the
second day of competition.
IT IS EASY to write about what should be
done to bring more people into an activity or
sport. I have put forward many readers’
suggestions in this column. It takes much more
to go ahead and actually try to do something.
I received a couple communications on the
subject from Mike Dorna of Wisconsin, who
has been a prolific supporter of RC Aerobatics
(Pattern) competition for many years. We
served together at the national level for at least
four years surrounding 1997. Not only is Mike
a great contributor, but he is also a master
builder, an extremely good flier, and fun to be
around.
Mike took the concept of making a real
entry-level class, and he added it to a contest
he has been running. Although he sent me a
report on his contest, I have included the bulk
of the following to give you a feel for the
larger picture and flavor of a Pattern contest.
He wrote:
“I’m attaching a preliminary article about
the Club Class. Basically it explains the
concept, how it came to be.
“The score sheets are pretty neat—the
small numbers in the corners of the boxes
where you would enter the score are the
maneuver numbers which helps the
scorekeeper tremendously. Jim Chaffee from
Wisconsin Rapids, WI came up with these
score sheets long ago.
“We’ve got a great club and it’s very close
to my home in an urban area—a rare treat
these days. The club is located in Menomonee
Falls, WI. The field itself is about 5 miles or
less from the border of Milwaukee County.
You can Google ‘Flying Electrons,’ or better
yet, here’s the link—http://flyingelectrons.
com/navigate.htm.
“About 6 years ago, I was looking for ways
to make the local contest that I’d been running
for a few years more interesting to the
members of the host club, the Flying Electrons
of Menomonee Falls, WI. I really don’t want
to take credit for this concept, because I’m
sure there was input from others.
“Somewhere along the way I’m confident
that I read an article, had a conversation or
something related to the idea of having a club
only class that allowed any AMA legal plane
to be flown in a basic Pattern sequence that
allowed host club members to get their feet
wet at a Pattern contest.
“I put together a modified list of
maneuvers based on the old Novice class. I
dubbed it ‘Club Class’ and presented it to the
membership. It was a flop. No one showed any
interest, at all. I tried in vain to drum up some
curiosity, but the next few years proved
fruitless. I gave up after about 3 years of noshows
in ‘Club Class.’
“A few years ago, my contestant turnout
was hovering around 16—just about the breakeven
point for our event. We made a miniscule
amount of money and club members were
giving up two days of flying for this. Of
course, I know it should not be all about
making money, but breaking even or losing
money is not a club option.
“Historically, the weather on our contest
weekend was either windy, raining, cold or all
three—un-flyable for 99.9% of the
membership. The other .1% was the club
members flying in the contest. The worst part
was there were only about three club members
participating out of a membership of close to
200. Something had to be done.
“In 2006 I decided to resurrect the ‘Club
Class.’ I promoted it heavily, ran a trimming
clinic at our monthly ‘Club Only Fun Fly’ and
we had new members that were interested in
giving it a shot.
“We had five or six people participate and
it was well received. I had heard that there
were more people interested that did not come
out so I did some investigating and found that
quite a few could not make it out both days.
“This year I’m running Club Class and
Sportsman as two separate one-day events. If
you sign up on Saturday, you’re done on
Saturday afternoon. You can come back
Sunday if you want to, but it isn’t necessary
for a complete contest.
“The basics are that the Club Class is
limited to host club members only. Any AMA
legal aircraft is allowed. Club Class pays $10
for one day of flying. If they decide to come
out both days, it was $20. I charge the
‘regular’ contestants $25 for the weekend
Pattern contest.
“With this particular set-up of two one-day
events, we can’t afford to have full-blown
trophies for the top three spots. Instead, the top
three places in Club Class and Sportsman
receive a ‘paper-in-frame’ award and the
placement medals that are available from the
AMA.
“Our club hosts ‘Club Only Fun Flys’
about four times a year. Club members
volunteer to run them. They usually involve
some Fun Fly type of activities—Balloon
Burst, Limbo, Spot Landing—you get the
idea.
“I jumped at the chance to host the Club
116 MODEL AVIATION
03sig4.QXD 1/25/08 8:15 AM Page 116118 MODEL AVIATION
Eric never misses a chance to publicly
tease an old friend. Mike Dorna’s lookalike
pilots his Pattern model at the 2003
Nats. At right is a prior picture of Mike.
Only event two weeks before our contest. I
recruited my co-Contest Director at the time,
Paul Hohensee, and my friend from Chicago,
Bill Gregg, to come up and do a ‘Trimming
Clinic’ for the Fun Fly.
“Of course, this was a thinly veiled
precision aerobatics clinic! We took all of the
participants and helped them trim their
airplanes—there were no contingencies about
flying in the contest.
“I don’t particularly expect a mass of
Pattern converts using the ‘Club Class’
method. It’s done to let folks get a taste of a
little good-natured competition while learning
something about their airplanes and
themselves.
“We’re having a good time, we’re
exposing a good number of club members to a
real Pattern contest experience and maybe,
just maybe, we’ll get one or two ‘regular’
Pattern fliers out of the effort. Even if we
don’t, it was worth the effort. One major point
we make to them is—you control the plane,
not the other way around.
“Last year we had five ‘Club Class’
contestants participate on both days. Everyone
enjoyed himself or herself, and the club
seemed pumped to have more people try out.
“When it comes down to it, I think that
most people just flat out avoid competition.
They are not in the hobby so that someone can
judge them. They find it relaxing and
enjoyable to get away from the competition of
life and not have to worry about besting or
being bested by someone else.
“I will continue to offer the option of a
‘Club Class’; however it will be done in two
one-day events, perhaps even to the point
where they fly back to back rounds twice so
they can come out, fly and go home if they so
desire.
“As you can see by the attached score
sheet the schedule is straightforward. The
score sheet lays out the exact sequence
including ‘free’ non-scored turnarounds. They
are flying duplicate maneuvers meaning that
the pattern repeats itself.
“As far as promoting the whole deal, this is
where I probably fall a little short. I could do
more. Write more articles about it in the
newsletter, hold more clinics, etc. My Co-CD
this year, Joe Burzinski was a huge help with
the contest and he bought a used Hydeout a
few years back and is hooked big time!
“What got Joe interested in Pattern? He
wanted to be able to fly and handle his scale
warbirds with more proficiency—what a
concept!
“(Years ago I bought one of those scale
documentary handbooks—I forgot what it is
called. They are always advertised in the
magazines and a new one usually comes out
every year. Mike Barbee wrote a forward in
the one that I have that said he flew Pattern for
years because he wanted to be a better Scale
pilot. Now he is one of the top Scale pilots/
builders in the country. A great plug for
Pattern by Scale! Go figure. I think the book is
called Bob’s Aircraft Documentation or
something like that.)”
Highlights From the Last Contest: At the
most recent Club
Only Fun Fly, 23
pilots were attracted
to the Pattern contest.
That’s a good
number, and they
were able to get in six
rounds of flying
between a few
raindrops and one
usual Wisconsin
downpour.
Joe Burzinski was
the Co-CD. He edited
the scoresheets for the
new maneuver
schedules, made
awards for Club Class
and Sportsman, and
did countless other
tasks and errands that
made the contest
work.
Last year the Club
Class and official
Sportsman class were
run as separate twoday
events. The
contest had a special
guest who traveled all
the way from
Arizona: Troy
Newman. He is a topclass
FAI pilot who
loves to attend and
support any local
contest that is within
his reach.
Troy is a Team JR
member who is well
known for his helpfulness to fellow
competitors. This event was no exception.
He even loaned one of his competition
engines, a YS 170, to Club Cass entrant Joe
Burzinski when Joe’s 140 misbehaved on
Friday!
There were two electric-powered Pattern
airplanes in the air at the Electron field!
Even cooler was that one of them was flying
with a JR/Spektrum radio system.
Mike thanks the entire club for allowing
him to host the 10th annual Pattern contest.
In a more reflective moment, he added:
“I think it boils down to one thing—
people either get it or they don’t. The first
time I saw a Pattern plane fly I was hooked.
That’s what I wanted to do. And I still feel
that way. It’s fun, and I’m crazy about it.
However, I’m not going to force it down
people’s throats.
“I’ve seen guys practicing the pattern
that will never fly in a contest. I’ve also seen
guys in my club buy a Pattern type plane, fly
it like a Pattern plane, tell me they are
coming out to the contest, and never show
up. That’s about all I know.”
Mike, I say you know a lot about this sport.
Thanks for your letter and a job well done.
Please keep the Pattern flag flying in
Menomonee Falls for all of us. MA
Contestant Name
Contestant ID
Name K- Flight Flight Flight Flight Flight Flight Flight
Factor 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
0
0
0
1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
0
3 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
0
3 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
0
2 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
0
0
0
1 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
2 9 9 9 9 9 9 9
1 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
0
3 11 11 11 11 11 11 11
0
3 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
0
2 13 13 13 13 13 13 13
0
1 14 14 14 14 14 14 14
26
F.E.P.C. - "Club Class"
Contestant I.D.
Takeoff
FREE Turn Around
TRIM PASS
FREE Turn Around
Straight Flight Out
Procedure Turn
Straight Flight Back
FREE Turn Around
One Inside Loop
FREE Turn Around
1 Horizontal Roll
FREE Turn Around
Cobra
FREE Turn Around
TRIM PASS
FREE Turn Around
Straight Flight Out
Procedure Turn
Straight Flight Back
FREE Turn Around
One Inside Loop
FREE Turn Around
Landing Sequence
Total
1 Horizontal Roll
FREE Turn Around
Cobra
FREE Turn Around
The Flying Electrons’ Club Class scoresheet.
03sig4.QXD 1/25/08 8:31 AM Page 118