The Northwest Regionals returned this year to Roseburg, Oregon, a town famous for lumber and blowing up (
http://www.cityofroseburg.org/visitors/1959-blast/). Turnout was good. It's supposed to be a Northwest contest, but I think most of the prizes went to Alberta, Arizona, and California. Weather when I went to fly was chilly and breezy, but I found a jacket in the car, and my batteries had enough energy to get through the stunt pattern-- a concern on chilly days. I spent most of my time socializing with folks I hadn't seen for awhile. I demanded that the stunt officials fill out the official who-flew-what forms for Stunt News, and then left the contest without them. I also forgot who placed in most events, so this report will be mostly about me, as usual. Ted Fancher won Classic stunt, beating Jim Aron. Dave Fitzgerald won Expert stunt. Former West Coast Junior Varsity member Chris Cox was second. I had the unusual, rare experience of winning a stunt prize at the Northwest Regionals, possibly for the first time. This was because: 1) Paul Walker moved up to stunt management and didn't compete, and B) there was a Ill Wind. I shall try to explain.
My first round was flown in a very smooth, Muncie-like 10 mph wind. It was some pretty good stunt, except for the takeoff. I was chicken to take off upwind. I saw Manong Ted (
http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/manong.1101340/) take off downwind and get away with it. His airplane hopped into the air, as airplanes will when taking off from the downwind point in a stiff breeze, but he held it at 3 inches for awhile, so the takeoff looked good. I tried to do the same, but mine hopped up 3 feet, and I uttered an exclamation which notified the judges what had happened, had they not noticed. My first-round score was half a point less than Brett's, putting me in 4th place, which I though was pretty good. People observed that Chris's airplane was hard to see against the forested hills in the background. "As long as he can't see it, that's all that matters," I said, but he could, putting him way ahead of me in score. Wind on my second flight didn't seem as bad, so I took off on the upwind side and got away with it. The first part of the flight went OK, except I noticed some funny turbulence in the loops. It was a thermal. The fill came about the time of the round horizontal eights, and it wasn't whispering Louise, I'll tell you. I waited for a lap to do the square eights, but the wind stayed up, and they went at combat speed. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my second round score passed Brett's first round score.
Brett flew last in the second round. I casually stated that this would be a good time for another thermal to go through. Unfortunately, witnesses heard me, but fortunately the wind itself heard me. I think the wind appreciated my showing it respect by putting in an extra lap before my square eights in the first round. It really, really blew about the time of Brett's vertical eights. His airplane flew around inside the circle for awhile. His engine seemed not to care, chugging along as usual. I was embarrassed. I yelled, "I was just kidding, Brett," but the damage was done and I got third place.