I attended the FCM contest Muncie this year, in late August, or the first time. We are having a ten week cross country RV trip, and the late August date for the FCM fit in perfectly. We arrived Friday afternoon and set up "camp" at the AMA RV site. I wandered over to see who was already flying, and it was Bob McDonald! He was getting his classic plane "Aquila" ready for action. Very pretty plane Bob!
I returned to the RV and assembled my plane. We had dinner and retired early. I slept in had breakfast and headed for the racing circles as I thought their surface would be better than the L pad caverns. I had to shake the cob webs out and the memory of the last plane I flew before starting the trip, which was B-17 #1. The first flight was quite shakey! By the end of the session, it finally looked like I had flown the plane before.
Lunch was had, a quick nap, and then back out to the field. It was now "hot"....maybe 78 degrees, but somewhat windy. I flew several more and fiddled with the timers sensitivity to help it in the wind. It worked very nicely.
Saturday night Alan Goff (the contest CD) had a catered dinner in the pavilion. Great food, and more than you could eat!
This was followed up with a dart competition. Alan grouped everyone and like a tennis match one by one contestants were eliminated. The final match came down to myself and Steve Hines. After the first round, we were tied. The second round had Steve edging me out to take the prize, which was a gift certificate to Sig. A fun time was had. After dark, everyone departed.
Sunday was the competition for Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert and Masters. I was asked to judge Advanced with Will Hinton. We both enjoyed that job. I gave several of the Advanced fliers a few tips on how to improve their planes after Advanced was finished.
I flew in Masters and the first round was flown in very nice air, and it wasn't too hot! When done with that round, we broke for lunch.
The second round saw the wind pick up, and as a result there were passes. I flew sixth, and there were two more fliers after me but as they watched my flight they decided to pass as well.
The trophies were then handed out to all who earned one. There was still one more, and it was a BEAUTIFUL "prop" trophy for the concours, made by Eric Taylor. When Alan awarded it to me it was a complete and total surprise!!! Thank you Alan and Will for choosing my plane, and a special thanks to Eric for building such a nice award. I truly appreciate it. I WILL find a special place for it.
Thanks to Alan for a great contest. I only wish I was closer so I could attend more. I really liked the laid back attitude and all the friendly people. You did well Alan with getting the weather to cooperate. The weather was magnificant.....until Monday morning. Monday morning the rain just swept through and we had to hook up and then dump the tanks, all in the significant rain. But, it was still a great weekend. Thanks again.
Topic: FCM contest (Read 1824 times)