The 37th Annual GSSC is over, and I'm well on the way to have the CD report done, and stuff packed back away for next year's use.
For those not able to attend, you missed a great show. We had 3 judges for expert, and given the final scores, I'm really glad we did. The scores were so close in expert; can you believe that the top 3 were all within 0.6 of a point! I really thank everyone who judged at the GSSC, but a special thanks has to go out to the 3 expert judges who had the 2016 USA World Team to score. Pete Cunha, Clint Ormonsen and Kirk Mullinex did an outstanding job, and I sincerely thank them.
The pilots had to fight some hellacious winds all day Sunday. I watched my wind meter hit 25 mph on one occasion; no idea if that was the high speed for the day. Watching the experts fly in that kind of wind was really something; how they can maintain the pattern is beyond me.
The day before during the Classic flying, the wind was gusting in the 15-18mph range. During some really “good” gusts I watched Uncle Jimby literally chase his Feno around the circle; I was afraid he might lose it, but he was always able to recover and continue the pattern.
Here are the scores for the weekend:
Expert: Judges; Pete Cunha, Clint Ormonsen & Kirk Mullinex
1. Brett Buck, 603.3. Infinity w/ Ro Jett 61
2. David Fitzgerald, 603.0. Thundergazer w/ PA 75
3. Paul Walker, 602.7. Predator w/ E Flite 32
Advanced: Judges; Brett Buck & Chris Cox
1. Osvaldo Campos, 491.5. Not stated
2. Ethan Chen, 489.0. Cavalier w/ Saito 40 FA
3. Brian Moore, 477.5. SV-11 w/ Stalker 60
Intermediate: Judges; Bob Swan & Howard Rush
1. Charles Carter, 474.5. TF Score w/ ST G51
2. Roger Karmar, 457.5. KI Tony w/ Saito 72
3. Dennis Nunes, 442.5. Circulas w/ ST 60
Beginner: Judges; Bob Swan, Charles Carter & Brian Moore
1. Greg Metzger, 216.3. Magician w/ OS 35
Old Time: Judges; Alan Resinger & Paul Walker
1. Bob Whitely, 314.75. Humongous w/ Double Star 60
2. John Wright, 306.0. Big Job w/ ST 60
3. Ray Firkins, 298.0. Ringmaster w/ OS25
Classic: Judges; Joan Cox & John Wright
1. Gordon Delany, 570.0. Apterix w/ PA 61
2. Steve Harris, 568.5. Hawker Hunter w/ PA 65
3. John Callentine, 566.0. Rabe P-51 w/ PA 61
I want to thank Orestes Hernandez for making the trek all the way to California for the contest. It was really something to have the entire 2016 world team present. And I want to make one scoring correction; our board shows Orestes high score as 587. It was not, by error one of his scores was posted, not the average of his scores. His true score was 590.3. It is amazing to watch him fly.
Brian