Now you are testing this old mans memory.   I still have the the two first place trophies I won in a club, Flying Eagles of Kansas City Kansas, beginner contest/event.  Flying my first Ringmaster with McCoy power.  Won't mention which one as I've been told it didn't exist.  First event was to get ready to fly.  The event director said go and started a watch.  But had to fly at least 25  laps after starting the engine.  Time stopped at 25 laps.  Second event was takeoff, level laps, loop if you wanted and land.  Was so excited I won that the folks, Mom and Dad took me out to watch my brothers at the flat track motorcycle races.  Then it was several years before I won another trophy and it is story in itself.

HI Donaldo!

My first real First Place Stunt trophy came at a Huntersville meet.  It was in Beginner stunt!  I had a profile I made based on the Impact.  I had flown "Stunt" for years but never entered a "Contest".  Everything I did before that was maneuvers from the OTS period so I had to learn all the "modern" maneuvers.  The Huntersville Meets are still going strong, twice a year.  Lots of great memories and friends have I met there!  Unfortunately, several are now flying on those perfect circles in the sky.......

About the time I was starting to actually fly patterns that looked respectable, I changed jobs.  No real flying for a long time afterwards, just going to whatever contests I could get to and flying there.

It has been quite a while since I have even won a trophy of any kind! LOL!! (but that's ok, and just might change before too long. )

Big Bear

My first 1st place trophy was in May of 2007.  We went to a contest in Wrentham, MA and I was a beginner at the time.

The plane I flew was a Brodak Fw-190 with a McCoy 35 powering it. I was the only beginner at that contest, and Bill Hummel told me I was already flying as well as the intermediates above me.  I didn't know the pattern at the time (I was only a beginner, I didn't even know how to do an overhead 8 yet).  The next contest was in Lee, MA.  This time there were 3 beginners and I won that by a large margin. I was then booted to intermediate. That was the beginning of my career in stunt.

The only first place trophies I recall getting were for shooting: UNIFIL pistol champion and part of the winning rifle falling plate team in summer 1991.

The pistol shoot made my heart skip a few beats: one guy with a whistle was timing us for two shots in a given number of seconds. At a kneeling stage, he missed a "stop" whistle and I was seriously late for the next pair of shots, being uncertain if the whistle that came was the "stop" or the next "start". In the corner of my eye, I saw everyone else get down on a knee and followed. Somehow, my quick "double tap" hit well enough...

Bruce...Was the F2B trials held at the Rice Mill Road site in Richmond? If so, what were the conditions, calm or windy? When going there, I keep thinking about bringing the chainsaw along....  Steve   

OK, I'll play. My first 1st place isn't actually a trophy, but a certificate. It was at the Western Associated Modelers (WAM) stunt championships contest in Corning, CA. in 1994. It was the Beginner class, but WAM contests used the full pattern for all skill classes.

It was windy as h*ll and my 38 Special w/ Fox .35 was struggling bad. But it was good enough for the win AND my first 400+ score ever. 411 to be exact.
Ted Fancher was the judge. At the time, I didn't know him from Adam.

I don't have any aeromodelling first place trophies.  Although since I started flying Beginner CLPA, I have finished last in every contest I've entered, and gotten a trophy for it (including an indoor free flight contest last winter).

I entered two events at Puyallup this year, though.  So even though I ended up last place in both Profile and Beginner, I only took had to take home one trophy for a last-place finish.  I'm kinda thinking of moving up to Advanced just to dodge that bullet, but at Puyallup there were few enough competitors that I would have been at risk there, too.

HUMAN BEINGS HAVE ALWAYS GAINED SKILLS FASTER BASICALLY FROM SIMPLY  "GOING TO SCHOOL" OR LEARNING" BY SURROUNDING THEMSELVES WITH EXPERTS AND GIFTED HUMAN BEINGS.

 (THESE REAL TIME TEACHERS!) MUCH MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD!

What better teachers...especially in CLPA are the consistant top three expert class flyers and then Entering ABOVE your skill level should REWARD YOU WITH FAR AND AWAY MORE CHARISHED ITEMS THAN  ANY 1ST PLACE AWARD.....

Simply hangin around "going to flight school" in a staging area...shoulder to shoulder, taking notes and watching close up and personal just how these EXPERTS of fellow and new found friendship of PEERS and then carefully watching just how they go about the task of preparing and performing their rountines and GAMESMANSHIP.

  Begin by making MENTAL NOTES...From the very first moment they sit their flight boxes down to the last minute that they pack up to leave for home.
"CLPA MONKEY SEE...MONKEY DO!"

I don't remember earlier 1st place trophies (yes, there were some), but I remember a 3rd place in '81 and a 1st place in '95 that are very fond memories. Both were flying F1A, aka Nordic Glider, starting in '70, retiring about '85, then coming back in '95 and '96. 

The '81 contest was in Rancho Cordova, CA, the 2 day, 10 rounder. I maxed out the first day (5 x 180= 900 sec.) and won the "Champagne Flyoff" with something over 8 minutes...1 flight, mass launch, no max. Next morning, before the crack of dawn, we went up again, and I dropped 4 seconds, and marked the only lift of the round, after towing for 50 minutes. Maxed the rest, for 1796 seconds of 1800, for 3rd, missing the flyoff between Lee Hines and Jim Parker, both of whom had been or eventually became team members, while beating several past team members. A good go, that weekend. But I came back from vacation to a pink slip at Boeing, and Mom died that month. But I got to be with her when she died,  tell her I loved her and that she was THE best Mom a kid could ever ask for. 

The '95 contest was up here at Ft. Lewis' "Harts Lake Prairie", for the "Western FAI Challenge". Pierre Brun had called me from California, to try to get me to fly in the contest. I had been planning on going to help, but didn't think I had a model left from the early '80's. Pierre said he would let me fly one of his old models, no problem (and legal, being FAI rules). He really wanted me to fly because he was leading the America's Cup competition, and the more people he beat, the more points he got. I knew that, but don't know if he knew I knew that! I had to join AMA plus FAI, plus entry fees and by the time I was done had $95 invested. Suddenly, I got real serious about doing well, because that was a lot of money to me, and only cash was awarded, except for 1st place. I ended up winning 1st in F1A, beating Pierre with the same model he was flying. Ralph Cooney (Fourmost hardware and tools) placed 2nd, also flying the same model! The win put my name on the Marc Nagasawa memorial perpetual trophy, which meant more to me than the $240 I won, and means even more to me now.

The original perpetual trophy disappeared sometime after '95, but was replaced with a new plaque. The contest stopped when the Strat-O-Bats club folded up around Y2K, but a few of the active fliers are still around, and I asked about the trophy. It was in a storage locker, and now it's on my wall where I can see it as I twiddle on the computer. Oh, FWIW, Pierre didn't win the America's Cup until the next year.  Steve

Cool! I won my first one, also with a towline glider. I had the high time at a St Paul Minnesota contest flying a Jasco Thermic 50. About 1946!
Don

" My first model airplane contest win was Beginner at the 1981 Middle Earth Stunt contest in Lexington "

I bet it was in perfect trim also.

What was the model brett?

Well I got first trophy for being oldest flyer at the regionals. Not too many people can top that!

My first first place trophy was in a contest at California Missouri, the summer 1957. Model was a Guided Musscle with a Veco 35 loaned to me by Pete Asjes. Great memories: Forerunner

Hmmm, I won Advanced once during a windstorm over Joe Dill. But I'm pretty sure it's the only first place I've won in PA. I won classic once when I was pretty much the only guy dumb enough to put up a pattern in a wind storm.

1st 1st place was in Albuquerque last year at the High desert Control Line Classic-Beginner Class. I Beat Lance after he pitted for me and I pitted and repaired the Club Banshee for him to make sure he put up his last attempt to try and beat me. Turn about is fair play- he beat me the year before!

My first 1st place trophy was at the first KOI ,1954 ( age 12 ) i built a Redskin with a K&B 23 and won team racing with my dad pitting . my second 1st place was four years later in JR comat also at the KOI flown on the runway.

I had started competing in control line and free flight almost simultaniously and the first award was actually a home made placque for a hand launch glider event (still have it) at a combined WAM control line and free flight meet in 1969. But it was two more years before I got a first flying control line to back up the 2nds and 3rds I had been getting. It was in a scale air race event at Delta College in Stocton, CA. Actually got two that day and was definatly hooked.

"...My pilot was so exhausted he had to lift his pint left handed, his right hand just wouldn't go high enough."

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I can relate to that.     

HMMMM, I thought I'd responded to this but I guess not. My first ever trophy was a Senior High Point trophy at the '68 SAM Champs. Taibi Powerhouse, O&R .60 sideport converted to front rotor, 1098 seconds in a single Antique flight. Then '71 first in ABC combined Gas FF at the Michigan state meet. Then after a change from power to rubber I won Wakefield and the '90 Nats. My first (and only) CL first was in Dayton 2006 I think, John Sunderland and Joe Reinhardt were judging Advanced. I'd practiced hard prior to the contest and when I landed after my second flight these guys came to the center and trapped me and informed me that I was from that point on, an Expert, my first and only 1st place Advanced trophy (certificate).