The King Orange International Event was held in McAlpin, Florida on October 24 & 25, 2020. This event had numerous sponsors that supported this event and some donated with prizes and raffles for the entries. Many thanks go out to all the sponsors: Karcher Construction, Par Builders, Bay to Bay Properties, EarthTech services, Strategic Construction, Robert Garcia, and the Flying Little River Homeowners Association and its members that supported and worked this event. Special thanks to Brodak Mfg., Frank Tiano Enterprises and Zap Glue, Tom Morris, Sig, Smith Brothers Stunt, Waldron Boys, and RTL for their donations that helped make this a great event for the contestants. This control line event had 16 registered pilots resulting in 32 entries in the 8 events. Entries were down this year due to the COVID issue.
Once again, this KOI event was different from in the past as the flying scores were totaled for both official flights. Also, there were no Appearance Points added to the scores as a totally separate Concours Event was held on Sunday morning to judge aircraft appearance, finish, and construction.
Saturday: In Old Time, Tony Ohnimus bested the field followed by Wayne Smith and Bob Whitney. In Nostalgia Alan Buck came out on top flying his Crusader followed by Rick Osborn and Dave Hallas.
In Profile stunt, Mike Waldron took first followed by Mike Londke and Ron Waldron.
In Warbird, Tom Weedman placed first followed by Rick Osborn and Dave Hallas.
The Saturday banquet was cancelled due to COVID and Sunday morning before flights Doug Patterson and Jim Smith judged airplanes for the Gene Martine Concours Award. Traian Morosanu took home the Gene Martine Concours Award.
Sunday: In the Beginner event, Len Bechtold took top honors.
Intermediate Class had Sam Londke come out on top followed by Tony Ohnimus and Rick Osborn.
In Advanced Mike Londke placed first followed by Dave Hallas and Ron Waldron.
In the Expert class Mike Waldron took top honors followed by Gene Martine and Eric Taylor.
For our Perpetual Trophy, there was a one-flight fly-off of the top three finalists in the Expert class. Mike Waldron, Gene Martine, and Eric Taylor were all vying to put their name on this Perpetual Trophy. These three had two attempts to make one official flight while three judges scored their flight. Mike Waldron ended up adding his name to this Perpetual Trophy by putting up the best flight of the three finalists. A full listing of all the contestants and results is posted elsewhere.
The consensus of the flyers giving me feedback regarding the format of this event was that they liked the combined two-flight scoring and the separate Concours Award. Even though a few of the flyers experienced problems that lowered their anticipated placement, they liked the format of both flight scores counting. Having a separate Concours Award for the aircraft was well received.
Contests cannot be successful without the help of our members and volunteers. Special thanks to Doug Patterson, Len Bechtold, Brian Cook, Kathy Smith, Jim Smith, and Wayne Smith for so graciously volunteering their time as judges. Jim Smith for photographer duties. Our tabulators: Patti Nasrallah, Debra Niebel and Kathy Smith did a great job of tabulating the scores and posting them for the contestants. We would also like to thank our runners, Kathy Smith, Debra Niebel, and John Craig for being very prompt in delivering the scoresheets to the tabulators. Debra Niebel and Kathy Smith for the registration duties. John Craig for overseeing the raffle. The great Flying Little River volunteers that provided lunch, the groundskeepers (Ron Waldron mowed Thursday and Mike Londke jumped on the mower Saturday evening to cut the grass very short for Sunday’s events), Earthtech Services, and other volunteers whose efforts made this a memorable event for everyone.
Keep flying, building, and promoting this great sport and hope to see you next year.
Wayne Smith
KOI CD
P.S. My brother Jim should follow up with some links to photos and videos soon.
Topic: 2020 King Orange International Wrap Up (Read 903 times)