RC Aerobatics-2012/11

Congratulations to the 2013 United States F3A
team of Andrew Jesky, team captain; Jason
Shulman; Brett Wickizer; and Chip Hyde,
alternate. They will represent the US in the 2013 F3A
World Championships in South Africa.
Andrew Jesky Trivia
How many RC airplanes does Andrew Jesky own?
The answer is at the end of this column.
Power Update
Things didn’t work out with my 800-watt
Honeywell generator. The biggest problem was noise,
with the warranty service a close runner-up. The rated noise level is similar to that
of Honda and Yamaha generators at idle; however, the Honeywell was exponentially
louder as the electrical load increased. Long story short, I replaced the Honeywell
with a used Honda EU1000i bought locally. Life is quiet again.
Contest Participation
I would like to thank everyone who responded to the May column question about
why they do not compete. The reasons included the usual suspects: time, money, and
travel. The most interesting was the absence of comments about airplane cost.
The few comments related to cost were centered on the budget versus enjoyment
debate. Respondents did not see any increased enjoyment by spending more money
on their hobby. I fi nd this enlightening.
As your humble scribe, I appreciate the readers of this column and fi nd it
complimentary that non-Pattern enthusiasts read it. I rely on readers to keep me in
check with the realities of keeping our hobby and this column fun.
In response to those who stated that they do not compete because of a lack of
contests in their area, I urge you to hold your own contest. Below I offer my reallife
experience of being the CD of a contest in horrible weather, 300 miles from
nowhere. If I can CD a contest, so can you!
Contest Director
For the past three
years, the Boise
Area Radio Kontrol
Society (BARKS)
has hosted the
Treasure Valley
Pattern contest
outside of Boise,
Idaho. The inaugural
contest was a byproduct
of my interest in Pattern.
In the summer/fall of 2009, I was
set to attend my fi rst Pattern contest in
Redmond, Oregon. Plans came to an
abrupt halt after landing my Sword short
of the runway, resulting in the need for
major repairs.
Shortly afterward, Rex Lesher, the
National Society of Radio Controlled
Aerobatics (NSRCA) District 8 vice
president, offered to hold a contest
in Boise. In May 2010, Rex held the
contest, bringing with him a number of
fellow Pattern enthusiasts.
This concept of a traveling contest is
known as “Contest in a Box.” This mobile
unit comprises everything needed to run
a contest including scorekeeping and
awards in a plastic tote. The hosting club
doesn’t have to do anything other than
close its fi eld for the contest and collect
proceeds after expenses.
Fast forward to 2012. It is my second
year as the CD for what has now
become an annual event. Every CD
must understand that he or she cannot
do everything alone. With or without
“Contest in a Box,” there simply isn’t
enough time in the day.
I am fortunate to have excellent
support from BARKS and the NSRCA
District 8 membership. Without either
of these two bodies of support, the
contest could never happen.
Because of a June opening in the
District 8 contest calendar, this year’s
Matthew Hunt, age 12,
flew his foamie Spit re
in his first-ever Pattern
contest.
Participants and support sta of the third annual Treasure Valley Pattern contest;
people make a contest, not the weather.
Guy Hanson’s Lightning and John
Bentley’s Nuance sit protected from
Saturday’s wind and rain.
Matthew’s
enthusiasm got the
attention of fellow
Pattern pilots, who
made sure he had a
Pattern airplane for
his second contest.
He placed third
with his CA Models
Genesis with an O.S.
160 FX.
Shown at a previous event are BARKS
master chefs Lynn and Ronna Street.
Photo by Roy Keralla.
Guy Hanson (L) displays his scratch-built Lightning. Wayne Lovett’s
EMC2 was designed by Guy’s dad, Dick Hanson, many years ago.
Boise event was moved from May
to June. After snow during the 2011
contest, we thought that by moving
the contest to June, chances for better
weather would increase. Not!
Organizing a sanctioned contest
requires getting a date approved by
the hosting club and the regional AMA
contest coordinator. Simple enough, you
think? Not for me. I didn’t pay much
attention when fi lling out the sanction
form. It took two tries to get our
sanction approved this year. I commend
AMA District XI contest coordinator,
Steve Cook, for his patience and
understanding.
As part of the contest entry fee, lunch
is provided Saturday for contestants and
is available to spectators for purchase.
BARKS is fortunate to have Lynn Street
as a member. Not only do Lynn and his
wife, Ronna, cook lunch for the Pattern
contest, they also cook lunches for the
BARKS’ monthly fun-fl ys. Great people!
Contestants judge each other’s
classes, making preplanning unnecessary.
However, a contest requires a
scorekeeper. District 8 is fortunate
to have Gordon and Meri Anderson.
At most of the District 8 contests,
Meri takes care of scorekeeping, using
spreadsheet software written by Gordon.
I know of no other software with the
quality and level of support Gordon
provides.
During contests, Meri makes
scorekeeping look like a trivial task. She
is extremely effi cient.
She’s so effi cient
she has time to call
FAI for Gordon.
Scorekeeping is not
an easy task. It is a lot
of work to get scores
from the judges, enter
them, print them, and
return them to the
contestants.
With the
sanctioning, lunch,
and scorekeeping
in place, everything
is ready to host a
contest, right? There’s
one more thing to do. The CD needs
to get the word out, especially for
relatively new contests such as ours.
Promotion starts with a contest fl yer.
Make sure to include the four Ws:
who, what, where, and when. Local
hotel contact
information
and GPS
coordinates are
nice to include.
Now it’s time
to sit back and
wait. During
the year, many
people say they
are coming
to the contest. I have learned to
accept all attendance comments as
just that: comments. Most people
have every intention of attending,
but life happens and plans change.
Contest Weekend
With confi dence, I made
my infamous “good-weather
guarantee” on the NSRCA mailing
list, then reiterated the guarantee
at the Wenatchee, Washington, contest
two weeks before ours. Promising
good weather certainly elevated the
excitement level; however, when bad
weather started showing up in the Boise
weather forecast, that same excitement
level fell even faster. Apologetic “notgoing-
to-make-it” emails started pouring
in the week before the contest.
With contest wheels already in
motion, there really wasn’t an option
other than to hold a contest and hope
someone showed up. As the forecast
worsened, so did the no-show emails.
My low point came just two days
prior to the event when scorekeepers
Gordon and Meri emailed that they
could not make it because of a family
emergency. The emergency was
completely understood, but presented
the problem of how to get “Contest in a
Box” to Boise.
District 8’s Craig and Terry Ann
Christensen stepped up and volunteered
to drive the box to Boise regardless of
the fact that Craig could not fly because
of medical reasons. While all of this was
going on, Rex volunteered to keep score
for the event. This demonstrates why
hosting a contest requires the efforts of
many people.
With the scorekeeping issues resolved,
things began to look up. I received an
email from Canadian Murray Johnson
confirming his attendance. Then I
received an email from Advanced flier
John Bentley of Gilbert, Arizona, saying
he would be attending.
Much to my surprise, in a roundabout
way, I learned Andrew Jesky and Darin
Pierce, coming from Utah, would be
attending again this year. Best news of
all, Andrew and Darin would be bringing
five or six others with them.
The news kept getting better. BARKS
member Robert Sox told me he had
resolved his engine problems and
intended to enter Sportsman. Then, an
email from Darin confirmed that he,
Andrew, and a few others were going to
attend. Yippee! The contest was on.
On the Friday before the event, I
came to grips with the fact that CDing
and flying wasn’t going to work out. I
decided to fly, but resolved not to expect
much in the way of scores. Later that
afternoon, contestants began arriving
and practicing. All smiles, I answered
questions and shook many hands. All
of the ingredients of the contest were
coming together.
Saturday morning I woke up to rain.
Wind had been expected; rain had
not. Regardless, out to the field I went.
People started showing up. Rex nudged
me to get people registered.
After getting everybody registered,
round one started with (sacrificial)
Sportsman. It was overcast, windy and
no rain. The two of us in Intermediate
passed on flying, and then all three
Advanced fliers flew. Murray, the lone
Masters flier, passed. In FAI, Rex chose
scorekeeping over flying; Andrew
and Darin both proceeded to fly in
windblown rain.
On Friday night, BARKS master
chef, Lynn Street, saw the cold weather
forecast for Saturday and added chili
to the menu options. The chili sold out
in a matter of minutes. After lunch,
the rain continued as the temperature
plummeted, flying came to a halt, and
we called it a day.
Sunday morning arrived with cool
temperatures and mild winds. Everybody
stayed to compete and fly three rounds.
As the day wore on, the wind and
temperature increased. It was a great day
of contest flying.
I want to thank everybody for
supporting our relatively new contest.
Trivia Answer
As of June 2012, Andrew owned
33 airplanes, 13 of which are Pattern
airplanes!
Flight complete.
SOURCES:
NSRCA
http://nsrca.us
Boise Area Radio Kontrol Society’
www.barks.us
AMA Contest Coordinators
www.modelaircraft.org/events/contestcoordinators.
aspx