First off I want to send out my most sincere thanks and appreciation to all who attended, all who helped out as judges, tabulators, and runners. A very special thanks goes out to Tom Huff for the amazing amount of behind the scenes work he did in helping me get the trophies and other assorted stuff that needed to be done.
Next I want to thank the Lehigh Valley Radio Control Society (LVRCS) for allowing us to use their field for the entire weekend. There was a full day of practice on Friday, and a full day of competition on Saturday, with Sunday reserved as a rain date (thankfully we didn’t need it, and it rained most of the day on Sunday anyway).
One person I forgot to thank at the end of the day was Joe Boligitz. Joe shot dozens of photos, which will be posted on the LVRCS.com website. Sorry for the omission, Joe.
Also need to thank my wife of 46 years, Marianne for putting up with all the craziness of trying to organize a contest from scratch in less than a month. Yes, I’ll be taking her out for a very nice dinner…
Special thanks also to Sarah Marie Huff and Debbie Richlen for working along with Marianne to do all the tabulating. That is a thankless job for the most part, so, for all of us, I’m sending along thanks for a job well done.
Things I learned:
I tried to put too many circles on one field and had minimal distance between the circles. Technically the field was laid out within AMA guidelines of 160 foot diameter circles, but, in reality, it was a bit cramped.
Due to the three circles using up all the field, the pits were small. I had asked during the pilot’s meeting that only five models at a time be placed in the pits, but that didn’t happen. My fault for A: not enforcing that rule, and B; for not having a larger pit area.
I wanted to have a practice circle available all day, so I didn’t put any events on that section of the field. It appears that after the contest started running that only two or three practice flights were flown anyway.
So, here’s my first take on next year’s contest:
There will be only two circles on the main field, and the pit area will be laid out between the circles. We will determine how many models can safely be in the pits at any given time, and will enforce that number.
We will use what was designated as the practice circle as the third event circle. And it will have its own pit area.
We will (hopefully) go to a two day meet and add OTS, Classic, and Super-70s to the event menu.
The Pizza Party at my house is a must; we had a ball that night and there were about 35 people attending.
The food at the contest was universally thought to be exceptional. The beef for the hamburgers was fresh, not frozen patties, and was purhased the day of the contest. The dogs were all beef. The only problem was that the club did not anticipate the number of burgers and dogs that would be consumed, and they had too small a grill to keep up with the demand. That will be rectified with a new, larger grill.
All in all this contest was a success because everyone worked together to make it a success.
Again, my thanks to all concerned for making this a contest to remember all winter.
As a brief aside, a plaid shirt was left at our house, and a blue jacket and a folding chair were left at the field. Sound familiar to anyone? Let me know...
Later - Bob Hunt
Topic: Just before the snow flies contest... is on! (Read 8196 times)
