GSSC in Madera

[Mike Keville]

Okay, so "who did what to whom?"

[Brett Buck]

Okay, so "who did what to whom?"

   The short answer is David did the usual to me!

    Brett

p.s. Dave has picked up 1/2 a point on me since 2007:

http://www.clstunt.com/htdocs/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=286776&mesg_id=286776

The quality of flying was MUCH higher overall than then.

   

[Brian Massey]

I'm home now and just beat! It's a hard weekend to work, but sure is fun. I'll have some pictures & scores etc tomorrow. Really to tired to think right now. Suffice it to say, it's really something to see a former World Champion handed a 3 place award. The flying was just fantastic, backed up by some really great judges.

Brian

[Howard Rush]

It was a wonderful contest.  There were 25 guys in Expert.  David posted an astronomical 586 in the first round.  Then Paul squeaked past him with 588.5.  It looked like the usual two-way battle until the "out-of-practice" Brett put up a 594.  Brett was then pressed into service as a score runner.  Chris Cox had a lead for Junior Varsity champ with 561.5, flying very well despite a thermal that put part of his flight upwind.  Paul flew early in the second round and didn't improve his first-round score.  Brett upped his score by 2.5 points in the second round, not trusting David to stay eight points behind.  David didn't, and posted a 597.5 to beat Brett by one point.  To illustrate the gulf between the Varsity and the JV, behold that my second-round score was 24 points higher than my first-round score, but my placing only went up one notch. 

Ted Fancher (remember him?) came out of partial retirement to win Classic with his Ruffy.  Bob Whitely won Old Time. I'll post some pictures later.  Time to saddle up the Prius and head out.

[Shawn Lenci]

I’d like to let everyone know what a wonderful time I had at the 20013 GSSC.  It the most fun I have had at a model airplane contest in years.  Even before I left I knew this was going to be a great event after talking with Brian Massey on the phone.  I am an intermediate level pilot and had not flown a stunt contest in probably 15 years.

I had decided a few months ago I wanted to fly the Golden State and pulled out my Vector 40 ARF kit and try to make a stunter out of it.  I knew it would be electric and proceeded to strip and rebuild the entire airplane.  My airplane was finished   Thursday just before leaving for the contest on Friday morning.  I arrived at the site on Friday with my flying partner, Mike Cassle, with an unflown airplane and a power system that had been untested.  I introduced myself to Alan Resinger, one of the nicest guys in the world and a true class act, and asked him to take a look at my airplane.  He did a thorough inspection of the alignment and determined it most likely could commit aviation.  We proceeded to set the timer for 9600 RPMs and launched the airplane.  It barely flew.   We determined that I had not programmed the ESC properly.  Alan pulled out his laptop and he and Paul Walker helped me get the programming correct.  How many other activities could you have guys of this caliber helping out a lowly intermediate flyer?  Alan spent a considerable amount of his practice time helping me out.  I really appreciate his help and now consider him a “friend in stunt.” I hope he feels the same way.
I flew the contest on Sunday and only flew one round as for some reason my ESC would not boot up for the second flight.  I will have to find the root of that problem.

I want to thank Brian and Mike Massey, Bob Swan, Pete Cunha, Walter Hicks, all of the judges, and the rest of the GSSC team for putting on such a wonder event at such a great venue.  I also want to thank Mike Cassle and Alan Resinger for their help and encouragement over the weekend.  Without them I would not have flown the event.

I had many positive comments on my airplane and many old friends welcoming me back to the stunt circles.  It feels great to know that you are wanted at an event like this.  At the banquet Saturday night I was lucky enough in the raffle to win a free night’s stay at the Hampton Inn for the 2014 contest.  Sunday Chris Cox offered to buy the hotel certificate from me.  I declined knowing full well that I would need that room for 2014 as I definitely plan on coming back to the Golden State Stunt Champs. 

Thanks everyone for a great weekend! 

Shawn

[Brett Buck]

It was a wonderful contest.  There were 25 guys in Expert.  David posted an astronomical 586 in the first round.  Then Paul squeaked past him with 588.5.  It looked like the usual two-way battle until the "out-of-practice" Brett put up a 594.  Brett was then pressed into service as a score runner.  Chris Cox had a lead for Junior Varsity champ with 561.5, flying very well despite a thermal that put part of his flight upwind.  Paul flew early in the second round and didn't improve his first-round score.  Brett upped his score by 2.5 points in the second round, not trusting David to stay eight points behind.  David didn't, and posted a 597.5 to beat Brett by one point.  

   A whole bunch of people asked me why I was bothering to fly a second-round flight (after Paul's relatively early second round flight), and several people were congratulating me on winning at 10 in the morning. I knew better than that, having had this sort of thing happen to me repeatedly (see link above, and, the 2008 NATs results and the 2009 TT). And, I actually watched David's first flight, and he definitely had something to gain.

     At least this time I didn't think I had left anything on the table - the second round was as good as I know how to fly a model airplane, and that's coming from *me*. The pressure was on David to fly almost perfectly, one small error was going to sink him, but there's a reason he has won 13 or 14 National Championships in all three age classes, and a WC. And, his evil plan to wear me out running scores for Advanced didn't pan out. The quality of flying was, shall we say, was of the highest order, as was the tension level. Dave had to sit there almost all day and stew on it, however, he has apparently discovered my trick from 2007/2008 where you volunteer to judge advanced all day.

     For me, (lack of) preparation is the key, and apparently as long as I fail to prepare adequately, I do fine. Howard is making fun of me but I really hadn't flown the airplane since August and when Sunday started I had 5 flights on the airplane since then. The conditions were very conducive to building  confidence, and were not too challenging, so the value of the vastly more practice that Dave/Paul/Howard/Ted had on me was minimized. And, the darn airplane and engine is so simple to fly with, not a lot of work needs to be done to get used to it. My 3 best flights of the weekend were, in order, second round, first round, and first practice flight I took since August at 3:30 on Friday.

   On the obvious other topic, Appearance Judging was something to behold and everybody commented on how the quality of the construction and finish is continuing to improve.

     Brett

[Brett Buck]

One other thing - if anyone doubts the potential of electric to improve flying qualities, all they have to do is watch Uncle Jimby. With a conventional engine (PA65) it flew pretty good, and he flew it pretty good. But I never saw what I would consider a perfectly "clean" flight (by the local David/Ted standards). After about 3 flights with the exact same airplane converted to electric, it was MUCH improved, and he was able to fly almost every flight cleanly. This may be a best-case example, with a very small (and thus unable to absorb power variations) and heavy (requiring a lot of steady-state power), but the results were perfectly undeniable. Getting rid of unwanted power variations is *critical*, and you sure get that when you have a governor on an electric motor. If he keeps flying it like he is, he will quickly jump into what Howard calls the "varsity".

   I also flew Paul's airplane, and the accelerometer-controlled speed adjustments work like a completely ideal 4-2 break engine, with MUCH faster response and none of the "break lag" or other uncontrollable speed and acceleration variations that you can never get rid of with conventional engines. It's the only power system I have found that is equal or better than mine, or at least, mine on those rare days I got the needle just right, the nitro just right, the pitch just right. Most days the electric would have been clearly superior because mine would be just a bit "off" - and mine is by far the best IC system I have ever used. It more-or-less validated what Dave/Paul/Ted and I had been thinking since the mid-90's on engine setup, and this is going to be perfectly repeatable and adjustable.

   Several people commented on the fact that the IC engines came out on top yesterday. Like it or not, this may have been our last stand at a major contest. This was very similar experience to watching Paul and the 40VF at the 1988 GSSC, you can see the writing on the wall.

    Brett

[Clint Ormosen]

After studying the expert scoreboard, it would appear that we got more generous with the points in rd 2 as almost everybody's score went up. But I don't seem to recall that (in general) the flying was that much better across the board. A few stick out in my mind (Steve Harris, Rich Walbridge, Howard Rush) that had markedly better 2nd flights. I had only written the number "40" one time all day and "39" came up two or three times. There needs to be a spot on the scoresheet for "general flight impression, 1-10 pts". Sometimes the numbers don't tell the whole story.

[Russell Shaffer]

Do we know who was the pilot's choice for appearance?  It wasn't me.

[Howard Rush]

Marshall Palmer. His airplane is immaculate. I regret that I didn't get a picture of it.

[Howard Rush]

We proceeded to set the timer for 9600 RPMs and launched the airplane.  It barely flew.   We determined that I had not programmed the ESC properly.  Alan pulled out his laptop and he and Paul Walker helped me get the programming correct. 

My homeboy Mike Haverly (first picture below, flying stunt at GSSC) did the same for me earlier in the week after I changed motor brands.   

More pictures:

2. Chip Hyde flying some pretty good stunt.

3. Chip chatting with Chris Cox.  Actually, the chatting was interrupted rudely for photographic purposes.

4. Charles Carter, who won Beginner after an all-night repair, with his family.  I got to have breakfast with them this morning after Charles got some sleep.

[Brett Buck]

Marshall Palmer. His airplane is immaculate. I regret that I didn't get a picture of it.

    Neither did I, but I knew who was going to win as soon as I saw it.

    Brett

[Howard Rush]

More pictures:

1. Here are some of the planes that piled up on the edge of the Expert circle after their flights.  You may recognize the aircraft in the foreground from some of Matthew Brady's early photographs.

2. We did not go hungry at the GSSC. There were cooked-to-order hot dogs all day, boxes of California fruit, boxes of donuts, and plenty of other goodies.

3. Norm Gayer was hanging out with a tall, pretty lady somewhat younger than Norm.  Experience has taught me that in such a situation one does not ask the gentleman if the lady is his granddaughter.  I went to Norm and asked, "Is that your granddaughter?"  Sure enough, she isn't his granddaughter.  She's his great-granddaughter. Nice girl, but not keen on being photographed by the undersigned.

[Heman Lee]

Marshall Palmer. His airplane is immaculate. I regret that I didn't get a picture of it.

Howard, here you go:

[john e. holliday]

And that great granddaughter is good looking.   Thanks for the pictures of the planes and people also.  Hey I failed the dirty old man test years ago.

[Brian Massey]

Charles Carter, who won Beginner after an all-night repair, with his family.  I got to have breakfast with them this morning after Charles got some sleep.

On Friday Charles found a place to fly. But the field was a little smaller than he anticipated and he hit a tree. After spending hours repairing the plane he left Escondido and drove for 6 hours arriving in Madera at 4am Saturday morning.

By the way Howard, did  you read what is on his son's shirt? Good advice.

Brian

[john e. holliday]

Still need a battery to start that glow engine.   Now diesel is another story.

[Brian Massey]

And that great granddaughter is good looking.   Thanks for the pictures of the planes and people also.  Hey I failed the dirty old man test years ago.

Failed? Seems to me you passed with flying colors.

Brian

[Ted Fancher]

On Friday Charles found a place to fly. But the field was a little smaller than he anticipated and he hit a tree. After spending hours repairing the plane he left Escondido and drove for 6 hours arriving in Madera at 4am Saturday morning.

By the way Howard, did  you read what is on his son's shirt? Good advice.

Brian

Hmmm.  I spent some time with Charles.  He seemed much too bright to believe he could mow trees with his airplane.  Maybe when he gets a little more experience...

Ted

[Howard Rush]

Now, Ted, who among us has not hit a tree with a control line airplane?

[Steve Helmick]

Now, Ted, who among us has not hit a tree with a control line airplane?

I know you aren't including me, Howard. I did knock a leaf or two off one of the trees at Carkeek Park many years ago, but no damage was done to my combat model.  I heard somebody hit a tree at Delta Park some years back with a stunter.  I don't recall whose Impact it was...(sure!), but I know it wasn't yours.  Steve 

[Howard Rush]

I think it's been 50 years for me, so it should be erased from my record.

[Ted Fancher]

Now, Ted, who among us has not hit a tree with a control line airplane?

Well...er...uh...only twice.   BUT, that was over many, many years.  Trees get bigger as they mature, you know.

Ted

[Chris Cox]

Joan and I had a great time in Madera.  What a wonderful site to play with model airplanes.  The sign off to one side advertising a new Fixed Base Operator as "Coming Soon" is a little frightening, but with the rather stale economy, one might consider the planned expansion a little premature.  That said, much more room to the north available for paving, and in so doing, retain this site for many years to come.

Congratulations Howard on your Junior Varsity win. It was well deserved, but I would suggest you do not get comfortable, next year's airplane is going to be awesome 

I am still trying to deal with Mr. Fancher sneaking past me   . I know how Brett feels. 

Brian, Mike, Bob, and countless others, many thanks for the superb job.  We will be back next year, once again competing for the top JV Crown!