Alburquerque contest and the NMCCLA Club- Thanks!

[Bill Heher]

The annual High Desert Fiesta is in the books, and I'm sure results will be posted soon. I just want to say Thank You to the NMCCLA, and especially the folks at Control Line Central - Jim, Lance, Emily and Howard, - along with Pete Cuhna, "Ross Greigo" (inside joke!), and Dick Perry.

After crashing my plane last weekend, a loaner model was offered and I was able to compete.

The club trainer- a Sig Banshee - got some TLC from me on Thursday night, and the replacement OS.35 sent from Phoenix is snuggled in it's new tempory home. The combo is a good flier and I managed to survive and take 1st in Beginner Aerobatics - my 1st contest placing where I actually finished 2 official flights without crashing!

The Banshee even served double duty by allowing Lance Snelson to complete his 2nd flight after an  unfortunate "Ground upheaval" raised the pavement about 2' right in front of his plane while flying in the 1st round.

The contest had a great turnout, and even though it was HOT!, Dry, and windy in the later part of the day I think it went pretty well. There were some unfortunate incidents / airplane canage, but other than a few scraped knees and a cut finger, no serious injuries / blood spraying/ missing flesh occurred, and no stiches were required.

I'm sure a more detailed report will follow soon, afetr the organizers get some rest, a chance to catch up, and their thoughts together.  I have to focus on work now, but will post some pics if I can get my laptop up and running ( it died on Fri).

Thanks again to all involved, and I hope to see some of my new friends from Texas / Colorado /AZ at future contests soon.

[Balsa Butcher]

What Bill is not posting is that he was probably the hardest working person at the contest. Timer...he's there, runner...he's there...pit for a a carrier flight, fly a Fox Racer, etc. ...well you get the picture. On behalf of the ABQ club, your enthusiasim and willingness to help were very much appreciated.  Great contest.

[Robert W]

Congratulation Bill, It is good to see your hard work pay off. It seems like the only time you get to fly is when you are on the road.

Robert

[Roger Vizioli]

Congratulation Bill, It is good to see your hard work pay off. It seems like the only time you get to fly is when you are on the road.

Robert

Robert,
"If" we can put him on the "no fly" list, he wont be able to go "on the road" and he will be here to fly with us!          
Roger V.
 

[Bill Heher]

Pete,

I think a couple Advanced / Expert judges ( see pic below!), and CDs spent way more time in the sun than I did, and they didn't even get to fly!  I enjoyed almost every minute ( a 3-5 minute span during racing I could do without), and hope I can be here next year - for the bigger and better version!

[Joe Gilbert]

Is that Gary and Linda going out to judge I love it, you guys look to have had a great time.

[Robertc]

Gary and Linda wanted everyone to know that they hear judges are blind.  They just reinforced it.
Good turn out, good people.

Robert C

[Bill Heher]

To quote Arlo Guthrie
" It was a typical case of American Blind Justice - and the judges wasn't going to look at the 27 8 X 10 color glossy photos with the pictures and arrows and a paragraph on the back describing the events"

[john e. holliday]

 I love the picture of the judges.  I often wonder what the contestant would do if the judges turned there back to them?  Also I think I recognize a few fugitives from the Tuscon area.  Sounds like everyone had a good time.  Thanks for the pics.

[Bill Heher]

Robert,
"If" we can put him on the "no fly" list, he wont be able to go "on the road" and he will be here to fly with us!          
Roger V.
 

I fly more on the road is because my day ends at 5-6:00 P.M. and my boss lets me decide if I want to work weekends.

At home the boss arrives around 5-6:00 P.M., and she usually has work all lined up for the evening and the weekends.

Another benefit of being a traveling flier with planes stashed around the country- she never gets to see me bring a new one "home"!

[Jerry Leuty]

   It was a great time. I finished third in Intermediate with an all time high of 342.5  I am always glad when I have finished a pattern and get to take my plane home in one piece. That doesn't always happen. I have learned that after 7 or 8 flights I had better cool off or pack it in. Or else I am going to pack it in the ground..........usually coming out of the reverse wing over. I came away from the contest inspired to get better equipment and practice more.  Everyone that I met was just super. The ABQ club is small but one of the best hosts around. You cannot beat the atmosphere in Albuquerque. They say HOT. Nah. Try 101 to 105 for the next week here in north Texas. Our average is 16 days of 100+ temps in the summer but we surpassed that last week. Then  of course we had more snow this past winter than the past 50 years total. So no complaints. Generally the weather in Texas has 4 seasons; HOT, COLD, WET, and WINDY. My condolences to Tom Hambiet on his fatal crash while flying Intermediate. Tom is 80 and has up coming surgery scheduled. I hope I am still around at 80 and able to pick up a handle to fly.

    Next our Dallas club has a contest coming up on Labor Day weekend. I will judge classic on Saturday and fly again in Intermediate on Sunday. Wow, what a great time of life.............................Jerry

[dale gleason]

The Gleasons are with the Leutys on the ABQ contest.....just wonderful!

Dick Perry reported that this Control line contest had more contestants than the RC contests there.

We'll be back, thanks to all,

Ol'Dad & Linda Bob

PS: Those judges you see above obviously judged the flights by "sound", a well discussed topic,....but they also
did the appearance judging by "sound"!  How they do that? 

[thomas farmer]

I enjoyed the contest and hope to be back next year. The best part is the hard working, friendly people that made the contest contest possible. Thank you,Tom Farmer

[Jerry Higgins]

Just to add my two cents.....it was a fun contest with good stunt weather and good people.  The BBQ at Gary's was great!
Jerry Higgins

[Jim Snelson]

The results have been posted in the "Contest Results" section.

I would like to thank everyone that attended and all of those that helped make this a successful event. We hope to see you all here at our event again next year.

Jim Snelson