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Hotlanta Hotlanta 2013 - new site, new friends much fun, and fellowship! What a good “hook-up” for former members of the Paulding County Model Club that, upon loss of their field, migrated several miles to the West of Atlanta to be welcomed by the Douglas County Modelers and Mr. Kurtis Lynn, President of the 78 member strong club. Lynn and the club welcomed an annual SPA contest at their site and not only sacrificed their weekend of flying, for the most part, their huge gas powered scale like models, but constructed a huge covered area complete with cement flooring providing cool shaded area for most of the SPA pilots and planes. The runway, 50 X 500 asphalt was completely surrounded by neatly mowed Bermuda and 10 x 10 judges tents erected just behind two protective , removable, picket fences just in front of the judges and pilots. Lynn, was introduced to myself and immediately said, “we are proud to have you visiting our site, I’ve been wanting to undertake a project to introduce out-of-area flyers to our field”. Lynn and some younger members of the club retrieved some crashed models from rough brush and trees that our Senior pilots just weren’t physically able to traverse. They were “super nice” and the Association is so appreciative for the hospitality. There were more crashes and “landings in trees” this past weekend than any in the East this season. Dave Phillips lost a nice model when the arm-mount screw on a servo backed out. Dave explained it was a metal gear servo (elevator) and he had intended to place a “star-lock” washer under it but just failed to do it. It backed out at the bottom of a reverse outside loop. Lynn and clubmembers retrieved the wreckage from dense brush. Keith Watsons nice Compensator was still lodged in a tree on the West end of the runway as of Monday morning. He is hiring a pro to climb after it. Will Blackwell caught a tree off an end of the runway, his and Grandaddy’s plane was retrieved and a few holes repaired overnight Saturday night and back in the air on Sunday. While seeking Blackwells’ airplane the hunters spied another plane in a nearby tree, Roy Thompson told me it was “a club members’ FOAMIE”.. John Wasnewski (one of the designers of the Carl Goldberg FALCON series) spiraled in just off the runway with his own designed Falcon 56. Dr. Gray rekitted his famed KAOS (Army colors) when he admittedly applied UP at the bottom of a reverse outside loop. His “class” was displayed when he told me, “it was my thumbs that caused it”. The good doctor had a stroke of good luck at the raffle prize ceremony. Will Blackwell, up and coming youngster, scalped ole-timer Frank Stewart in the Novice class K’ing all 5 rounds. Stewart said, “I love to see young folks like Will flying like he does, reminds me of those decades long past when my thumbs would respond to my gray-matter input to them”. Jim Johns, dividing his time between flying and scorekeeping drove his Daddy Rabbit 1 to victory in the Sportsman Class with 4 K’s of the 5 rounds. CD DD copped one K. Jim’s lovely wife Bobbie was lots of help with the scorekeeping chores. Bobbie divided her time with those chores and some visiting with the other lovely ladies you’ll see pictured under the shade tent swapping “wives tales”. Notice, I didn’t include the word “old”. Jim and Dan were pursued by Roy Thompson, John Wisniewski and Doc Charles Gray. Advanced has proven to be a popular addition to the schedules this season. Scott Sappington and Mike Robinson tangled to within 72 normalized points for 1st and 2nd place respectively. Charlie Johns, Kenneth Blackwell, Bill Dodge and John Nessler, Jr (dad) finishing in that order. The Expert class was a genuine show of “brotherly love” and Sibling rivalry which, again was a “pure delight” to judge and observe. Eric and John Nessler III each won two rounds and none who judged them could declare a winner of any round, the flying was so doggone GOOD! Dan brought them together for the award presentation, which he should, for with only 4 of the five rounds judged, only 8.something separated them. No one knows how they faired in round 4, as, UNFORTUNATELY, one of Eric’s scoresheets was misplaced due to the absence of runners and never found resulting in John’s having to dismiss that round for them both. Dan and officials apologized numerous times for the incident. It being a first contest at that site, the runner situation was just overlooked in contest prep. It won’t happen again, declared the CD! Notice, I am purposely NOT naming either one of them in this coverage for they both were SUPER! VP Jeff Owens racked up win number two in a row in the Senior Expert Class driving that 2 stroke powered DB beautifully. Owens copped 3 K’s to outpoint Bruce Underwood, Dave Phillips, Russ Chiles and Keith Watson, in that order. Saturday night, many attendees gathered for some good eats and fellowship at the Golden Corral Restaurant where Dan had made reservations in a private room. With the buffet format of the Corral, too much good food was consumed....it was yum-yum good!
Raffle winners were:
your PIO, Bruce Underwood. Thanks, John. A special ‘Sportsmanship” award was presented Mr. Kurtis Lynn, DCMA President for his hospitality and kind assistance by members of the Douglasville Club. Lynn responded with a gigantic “thanks” and “looking forward to see you all next year”! DD thanked several who came to “work” judging, arranging, etc......for example, Bill Collins, Mickey Walker and Duane Wilson. Hopefully, this is the first of a long string of annual events at the new site for the annual “HOTLANTA” event. Bruce Underwood, SPA PIO |
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Senior Pattern Association |
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| Dedicated to the Building, Flying and Competition of Vintage Pattern Model Aircraft | ||