Texas Wings
September 7-8, 2013

17 registered participants with 16 pilots flying enjoyed the fellowship and fun at the 2013 Texas Wings contest. Saturday in 98 degree temperatures with a mild wind and a few clouds 3 rounds were completed with a single flight line. 14 pilots returned on Sunday to finish round 4 and 5. No planes were lost and everyone had a great time.

The new novices all did really well for the limited practice they got and since they are fairly new pilots. Greg won the engine raffle taking home the NovaRossi and I think him and Tony have come up with a plane that will do the engine justice. Charles was flying with a Tiger2 which is a good starter plane. Frank Halpin made it out despite some problems, and won the Dirty Birdy raffle. Mark Ehlers won the NovaRossi 60CR and muffler combo and Greg won the NovaRossi 60CF. We had a few small raffle items that we did not get to so we'll pass those on to the finals at Thunderbirds.

I had a lot of support from Wings this year as well as Terry from Thunderbirds. We had Elton, Billy, Gabe, Terry, Terry, Jeanne, Brian, Joel, Tonia as well as other Wings members that stopped in to help. It was AWESOME, they helped so much!

My good friend Rod Balch sang for us at a great Mexican food restaurant. Rod is doing well on the charts 6 spots above his inspiration Bob Dylan. I know it's not the norm but the last 3 events set the entertainment value high. Saturday was a partly cloudy so we got some relief from the sun. We had a small microburst blow through from a rain cloud about 20 miles away that blew a tent over while Frank Reed was flying but he was not phased.

We had a couple Wings members sitting behind the judges and learning about scoring and watching the pilots and it opened their eyes to numerous things. A couple people were only able to make the event on Saturday so I held the raffle that evening. We had hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch and Tonia and her sister made potato salad that was great.

Sunday we had clear skies and a slight breeze. We finished our rounds and had hot dogs, sausage links, and 'hamburger bits'. We lost our original photos so we we took our individual photos with our group photo before lunch. The award presentation was made and we concluded with a volunteer raffle for those that helped out for 2 SPA West hats that I had made for the 2013 season.

The final placing for the classes was as follows:

B-Novice - 1st Frank Reed, 2nd Greg Fierst, 3rd Charles Dixon
Novice - 1st Gary Nelson, 2nd Tony Stelly, 3rd Tim Reed, 4th Steve Ehlers
Sportsman - 1st Gary Alphin, 2nd Mark Ehlers, 3rd Johathan Efinger
Advanced - 1st Ken Knotts, 2nd Michael Clements, 3rd Chris Berardi
Expert - 1st Dave Dingman, 2nd Blake Arnold

Thanks to all for the great help and to all the pilots for coming out and supporting the event!

Tim Reed

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