I’m finally fully rested and pretty much awake after this past weekend’s Before the Snow Flies contest. This report is a bit overdue, but, believe me, I was in no shape to sit and write until now. This getting old stuff is just darn inconvenient…
As Ken Culbertson wrote in an above response, the high surrounding corn at our field evoked thoughts of the Field of Dreams movie where the ghosts of baseball’s past appeared from the midst of the stalks and once again took human form to play the game they loved. I think everyone present at the contest had that same thought, only the ghosts expected were those of the past greats of the CL Stunt event. The thought of seeing George Aldrich, Lou Andrews, John D’Ottavio, Dave Cook, Bob Gieseke, Bob Gialdini, Big Jim Greenaway, Jim Kostecky, Vic Macaluso, John Miske, Lew McFarland, Don McClave, Rolland McDonald, Bob Palmer, Art Pawloski, Gerry Phelps, Al Rabe, Gene Schaffer, Bill Simons, Bob Whitely, and all the many other legendary fliers from the past once again competing was both chilling and inspiring to all in attendance.
I want to thank everyone who attended this contest, and I especially want to thank all the people who helped to make this contest run smoothly. I was the CD, and the lion’s share of my work was done in preparation for the contest. Once contest day arrived I was able to hand it over to my crew and just marvel at how they took over and made it all work virtually flawlessly.
On Saturday we ran Classic Stunt, Nostalgia 30, and we hosted the Garden State Circle Burners who in turn hosted their 50th anniversary Old Time Stunt contest. As many of you know, the GSCB club lost its legendary field in Lincoln Park, New Jersey two years ago, and were not able to hold the 50th OTS event as planned. We offered to let them do that at our contest last year, but, alas, the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic precluded that.
The OTS event was conceived by the late John Miske, and it was first contested in 1970. Some weird guy named Hunt won that event flying a Veco Mustang. John called me a week or so before that contest and asked if I was going to attend and fly. I told him that I’d come and watch, but that I didn’t have an airplane that qualified as a pre-1952 design, as was the rule. He informed me that the Veco Mustang I was flying was indeed designed prior to the deadline date. I had no idea… Well, as we all know now, that event became popular world wide.
Since the GSCB club lost its field the membership has dwindled. The three remaining movers and shakers from that club, Mike Cooper, Mike Ostella, and Ron “The Deli Guy” Testa loved the idea of being able to complete the fifty-year run of the OTS event and put a fitting cap on the club’s activities by hosting this event at the LVRCS (Lehigh Valley Radio Control Society) field. And, they went out of their way to ensure that it would be a most memorable last event by obtaining truly exquisite plaques for first through third place, and also one for Best Appearing OTS model. They also handed out participation certificates to all the OTS contestants to commemorate the event. Mike Ostella and Ron Testa did the judging for OTS, while Mike Cooper manned the pits.
That OTS machine, John Saunders once again fired up his trusty, beautiful -and fast becoming ancient -Ted Snow-designed Humongous and topped the field of fliers. Jim Vigani flew one of Doug Benedetti’s fleet of fabulous Hal deBolt-designed All Americans to second place. Tom Schaffer placed third also flying one of Doug’s fleet of All Americans. Doug is now somewhat disabled and can’t fly anymore, but he was there to support the event and to watch Jim and Tom fly his silked masterpieces. The Best Appearing OTS Model award was presented to Tom Luciano for his faithful rendition of a Ringmaster that his father had flown years ago. Tom’s father had built a Ringmaster in 1974 with which to do a silking demonstration at a Union Model Airplane Club meeting. Tom flew that Ringmaster in his first contest in 2012!
Over in Classic and Nostalgia 30 we had the father/son team consisting of Keith and Michael Ferguson judging. Keith has judged East Coast contests for years, and he often competed in the Classic event with his gorgeous rendition of Gene Schaffer’s Judge. The Classic event was won by Craig Gunder who was flying a very pretty John Simpson-designed Cavalier. Craig had to fight for it in some challenging wind, however, as Rick Huff flew his beautiful new Caprice to a first round lead. Craig won out in the second round. Rick took second in Classic and then also received the Best Appearing Classic Model award for the flawless Caprice. In third was that Tom Schaffer guy; he collected a lot of loot at this contest!
The turnout for Nostalgia 30 was a bit disappointing, but the quality of flying by those who did show up was impressive. John Saunders doubled up on Saturday by winning in Nostalgia 30 with his very well-traveled Stiletto 660. There is certainly something to be said about flying one airplane for a long time. He is very consistent with both his OTS Humongous and his Les McDonald-designed Stiletto 660. Joe Daly showed up with Windy Urtnowski’s 1992 Cardinal, but he replaced the glow system with an electric system. Joe placed a close second to John. In third place was Joel Costantino who was flying a Big Jim Greenaway-designed Pattern Master. Joel also took home the Best Appearing Nostalgia Model award.
On Sunday the PAMPA classes were contested. We had two Beginner fliers, and of those Saramarie Huff was the top placer. Joseph Meyer took second. Joseph also acted as Pit Boss on Saturday for the Classic and NOS 30 events. The judging for the Beginner event was very suspect as the CD took on that chore…
Tom Huff laid in the flight of his life to capture first in Intermediate. Tom has been flying well at the recent East Coast contests, but has not put it all together as he did last Sunday. He received a huge ovation after landing on his first flight, which was all he needed to capture the win. Andrey Vasilik placed second in Intermediate flying a glow powered Tanager. Andrey and his brother Jerry also set up and filmed a lot of flights that will be featured on You Tube with tracing.If you have not seen any of their tracing flights, you should check them out. It is a very valuable coaching tool. Our judges for the Intermediate event were Alan Buck and George Waters.
We had quite a good turnout for Advanced, with Gabe Alimov showing up from Ohio to take the win. Gabe was flying a plane that featured a homemade composite wing. Gabe is just 13, and is already set to make the jump to Expert class. I’m hoping I can talk him and his father, Mike, into writing up the procedures used to make the model Gabe was flying. He let me have a flight on his original design Ripslinger, and I found it to be excellent in all respects. The Alimov's also won the Longest Distance Traveled award… by 56 miles over Rick and Saramarie Huff! Tom Schaffer took home second place in Advanced, giving him three plaques for the contest! "Doc Pete" (Doctor Peter Moskel) placed a fine third. That guy who just can’t say ”no,” Mark Weiss, and Ken Armish handled the judging chores for the Advanced class.
In the Expert class we had 15 entrants and some amazing flying Rick Huff won the first round flying his original design BelAir twin. It looks just like a 1957 Chevy! But Joe Daly flew a great second round pressure flight to sneak by Rick for the win. Rick placed second, and that very consistent and persistent John Saunders took third with the Stiletto 660 to collect his third plaque of the weekend. He’s amazing… Our judges for the Expert class were Dean Pappas and Bernie Suhamski.
Two years ago this month my very good friend, Buddy Wieder passed away. We started the Buddy Wieder Memorial Perpetual Concours award in his honor, and it was won this year by Bruce Jennings with his gorgeous rendition of Bill Werwage’s Juno.
Perhaps the most thankless job at a contest is that of Tabulator. This year’s adder-uppers consisted of my Wife, Marianne, Amy Costantino, Saramarie Huff, and Maureen Jennings. My wife had to go home half way through each day to let our Golden Retriever, Casey out, so I asked Maureen Jennings if she could pitch in if needed. She didn’t wait for Marianne’s break; she just went to work posting the scores when they had been added. I was left with not too much to do but schmooze… A huge thanks go out to them for a job very well done.
Our runners consisted of the Hunt brothers, Robby and Brian. My thanks go out to them for helping out dear old dad for the two days.
We had a very large number of raffle prizes donated, and we ran the raffle as a “Tricky-Tray.” You could purchase as many tickets as you wanted and then put them in the bucket that was in front of the prize you wanted to win. My thanks go out to all those who donated prizes to this contest. The following is a listing of the donated products.
Trains and Lanes - Selection of adhesives and kickers; S&W Fuels- Two gallons 50-50 10% fuel.; Rogerio Fiorotti - Active Timers (four units with each winning ticket receiving one timer); Brodak MFG.- $50.00 gift certificate and catalog; Anonymous -Windancer Models Ballerina III kit; Anonymous - Midwest Panther kit; Robin’s View Productions - Paul Walker Impact MasterFlite Foam wing with landing gear system; Robin’s View Productions - 20 DVD library; Robin’s View Productions: Caprice Lost-Foam system for fully sheeted wing, and a set of Caprice plans; Robin’s View Productions - Complete set of Bob Hunt design plans: Caprice, Prowler, Genesis Extreme, and Crossfire Extreme; Okie Air Models - Cell Meter Battery Voltage Checker; Okie Air Models- Four bellcranks with flexible leadouts; Okie Air Models - Two 1/8-inch wire Ball-Link control horns and one 4-Inch bellcrank with flexible leadouts; Pat King Models - 1/2A Sopwith Camel kit with plans; Jim Lee Machine Shop - Three weighted prop nuts.
The food service on Saturday was taken care of by the LVRCS club, and its members did all the cooking. On Sunday I threw a pizza party for everyone in attendance. No one went hungry!
My thanks also go to to the members of the Lehigh Valley Radio Control Society - the host club - for their cooperation and help.
What can I say; it was a great contest, with great weather (thanks for that go out to the man above…), great flying, great judging, great helpers, great food, and especially great fun. I hope we can do it again next year. - Bob Hunt CD
Topic: Pictures from Bob Hunt's "Before the Snow Flies" Contest (Read 7136 times)