Chattanooga, TN
August 25-26th, 2012

CD Mike Robinson and early arrivals on Friday began the week-end with jovial greetings and “jawing”…..but during the afternoon that mood was interrupted by two “thuds” we modelers are accustomed to “not wanting to hear”. It was the crash of Vic Koening’s DB and Warren Oliver’s new Oliver Twist. Koenig fessed-up to having gotten in too big a hurry and not plugging in his ailerons. Oliver, drove back to Knoxville and retrieved his back up electric clone and returned with it. He sheepishly admitted, “I can’t recall having plugged in the ailerons on mine either”. Koening had a “back-up” as did Oliver after the trip back home.

Other than the two “rekits” it was an afternoon of practice with all of us honing our skills for the weekend of competition. Mike, Paul Wright and other members of the host Chattanooga RC Club tended every need.

Saturday morning came the dreaded phone call from relatives of Mr. Rhea Starnes, our beloved Senior from Kingsport ferried to enjoy the weekend by Vic Koening….was informed of the Helicopter crash, flown by his Son Bill, Age 64 near Bristol, TN – VA,
the wrecked copter recovered, his Son missing in deep waters near home. He had carried passengers to some entity and was just a short distance away from departure over the waters when the copter crashed.

Vic Koening, immediately loaded his car, even before the pilots briefing, and made that long and sad trip with Mr. Starnes by his side back to Kingsport and the site of the search for his Son. As of this writing, search crews were still scanning the crash area in the murky waters for the missing pilot. (Date of writing August 27, 2012).

Vic was awarded, most deservedly, the SPORTSMANSHIP Award. See photo and event story elsewhere on the Discussion List or in this publication. This event was the object of Prayer for Mr. Starnes comfort, consolation and perhaps some “understanding” from the Creator. Mr. Starnes was recently “widowed” when he lost his wife and Bill’s mom.

Weather for the event was perfect…..the CD and the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce took credit for that. (Tongue in Cheek). At no time did the wind exceed 8 to 10 MPH but did shift as is expected in the rolling mountains of Tennessee.

A trio of Novice pilots included two of the CRCC modelers, P.J. Wright and John Davis. Roy Thompson won 5 of the 6 rounds with P.J. Wright and Mr. Thompson BOTH garnering the Big K in round 6. Thompson is enjoying the SPA fellowship after a long decade or so lay-off preceding his retirement. These three were indeed “charms” and the two locals launched what is hopefully a long tenure of SPA competition.

Dennis Sams of Kingsport, TN guided his model to the top spot in the SPORTSMAN class K’ing 4 of the 6 rounds. John Wolfe, who shared a DB ARF with Greg Hoke, K’d round 4 and veteran Phil Spelt won round 1. An excellent Sportsman class of 10. One of the 10 was the object of a semi birthday party at the eating get-together at the City Café on Saturday night. Gentleman Jim Slocum was presented a HUGE wedge of cake with a candle atop it (he blew it out with one breath)…and the gang in unison sang the Happy Birthday song….then Slocum shared the cake with all present. Whatta guy. An example of SPA loyalty for as long as this writer can remember.

The widely acclaimed GeeBee electric pylon race took place at the conclusion of round 4 on Saturday. (See the photos). Your writer was privy along with Vice President Owens to serve as pylon “flagmen” charged with declaring “cuts of the pylons”. There was plenty of those indeed. When the dust settled, Phil Spelt enjoyed the spoils of having the only un-crashed foamie still alive. He was declared the winner of the “atta-boy”!

The old guys in the Senior Expert class fought to keep their models in sight what with the haze of August serving as a “blinder” on turn-arounds. All survived and your writer finally got back into the winners column after having been “waxed” by VP Jeff Owens at the last two events. Bill Dodge kept the pressure on placing 2nd in round 6.

Previews of this contest had predicted, EXPERT competition closer than a banana to it’s peel. That prediction came true for when the scorekeeper Jerilyn presented Mike with the final scores, he saw fit to postpone the finals announcement til after the raffle and other class awards had been given. The crowd was in more suspense than a Father awaiting the daughter’s return home following her first date! Look at the scores and see for yourself why. The winner, Jerry Black who was 2nd to Eric Nessler in Asheville, nudged Eric by (dramatic pause)…..2 normalized points out of a possible 4000. John Nessler III only 4 “normalized” tallies behind Eric. Gosh, any closer than these 3 would find a body wondering if they all showered Sunday morning. Warren Oliver, tried some sort of electric prop on his “Twist” and upped his round score 4 to 983. I heard him mumbling, “why haven’t I done this before?” Greg Hoke “flew the wings” off the DB ARF with the 2-stroke mill up front. (Figure of speech). He shared with John Wolfe. Kevin Clark’s Son Avery helped Dad through 5 rounds on Saturday and very good flying with his electric powered bird. Folks, I wish all had been “privy” to this excellent flying as it was on par with the TOC of the 70’s, maybe better.

We had enjoyed several meets without a “mid-air”…..but it happened here on Saturday in Round 1 when Garry Singleton’s DB and Eric Nessler’s Phantom-1 “smacked” each other in the blue. Gary’s was “totaled”….Eric’s was able to be landed with one of Gary’s landing gear lodged in a rip of the foam wing core of Eric’s plane. Eric called on dear Brother John III to again loan him his Phantom-1 and proceeded to compete as if nothing had happened. Daddy John examined the model and declared, “I’ll fix it for you Son”. Wouldn’t it be a “hoot” to have a Dad like that! Oh, Dad Nessler and myself decided we’d “mimic” the Nessler Brothers rocking gesture they do when calling for each other, sort of like a line of cheerleaders singing their high school “Alma-Mater” for the last time. Daddy John and I call it the “Nessler Shuffle”….it’s amazing how it relaxes you between maneuvers and garners some glares from judges and spectators.

For lack of space….I’ll skip the small raffle prizes promoted by CD Mike and report that Duane Wilson was the BIG winnah of the treasured DB ARF. See photo, he was astonished and gratified when Mike called his ticket number. Proud of you Duane, based on the Wolfe/Hoke performer, you have a great bird!

Chattanooga has a new marquee at the field entry and I snapped a photo of it for consumption by those of you who could not attend. Believe me, when you see the Marquee in October, I assure you, you’re in for one of the finest MASTERS contests of this era….for our good Sec/Treas Mike Robinson, Jerilyn and associates in the CRCC know their stuff when it comes to running a great contest. Mucho Gracias, CRCC. We long to see you for the MASTERS. The annual meeting at the Masters will feature a guest speaker that will motivate your revered memories as no one else can!

Bruce Underwood, SPA PIO

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