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Alabaster, AL The SPA EAST season is underway in earnest with the weekend at the lovely Alabaster, AL flying filed just inside the cities limits which are adjacent to Calera, AL........both suburbs of Birmingham. CD Dave Phillips echoed the accolades of the US Weather Bureau in Birmingham promising a beautiful Saturday but said Sunday wasn't too promising. He was accurate. Saturday with just ideal with temps to 83 degrees and just about 10 MPH winds out of the East, Northeast. This lovely day was sandwiched in between a blustery Friday and a stormy Sunday. Dave, wisely called it about mid morning Sunday as the storm was moving in. 20 pilots arrived, most on Friday, 18 survived Friday's practice to "go-the-route". Keith Watson's 8103 DSM transmitter displayed faulty RF emission eliminating his participation as a competitor but he did his chores as judge and remained all day Saturday to "fellowship". Tom Stennis lost a lovely bird when his RF stream elected to fail as he was on final approach early in the weekend. Tom's plane was retrieved by L'il Daves' retrieval service about 8 hours after the "thud". Note Little Dave's feet in the photos. Fred Robertson, a local modeler and Newsletter editor lost a nice KAOS when taking off after a host of repairs and evidently it was way out of trim. We've covered the bad stuff, now about the good........four lovely rounds on Saturday completed by 3:30PM then the fellowshipping began in Ernest. Several feasted together at a local Mexican restaurant. Jim Johns and helpers from the club scored every round with results swiftly posted each round. Not only did Johns tally every flight, he flew his initial contest as a Senior Expert. Welcome Jim and thanks for lending your talents in so many ways to SPA. Pete Coleman, posting a Kung Fu almost like Jim Slocum's took first in NOVICE winning 3 of the four rounds. Larry Hill won round one and took second. Third place went to newcomber Dr. Aftab Khan, a Birmingham psychiatrist, who flew his electric 55 powered foam model SPLENDOR. Welcome Doc Khan, hope the exposure to Senior Pattern was as much a pleasure for you as it was to us to have you participate. What a battle in Sportsman, total of 5 entries, with Bob Wetzel nipping Doug Harvel by 10 "normalized" points. Bob and Doug had a "virtual" fly-off" Sunday morning (make-believe), see photo. Wetzel won 1 round, Harvel two, and 3rd place pilot Jim Slocum took one of the K's in that class. Roy Thompson and Tom Stennis filled the class. In Advanced class, Mr. May, Scott Sappington, with his "back-up" KAOS (bad engine bearings in his new Phantom) K'd all 4 rounds. Ken Blackwell, Michael Wieczorek and Dave Phillips III kept him honest. In EXPERT...it was a duel of the CURARE's (new ARF's from Germany)....only 14 "normalized points separated Jamie Strong and Kevin Clark. Strong's total was 2978 to Clark's 2964. The Senior EXPERTS were pretty close but Jeff Owens copped 3 of the four rounds for a perfect score of 3,000. Bruce Underwood nudged him with 2972 and Jim Johns amassed 2357 in his 1st Sr. Expert contest. At the opening briefing, CD Dave inserted a passionate salute and memorial to Mrs. Linda Owens who died just a few days ago. Phillips said "she was one of us and most times was more active than us with the donations of time and talent to our events". Jamie Strong who voiced the opening prayer avowed she, and he named many other of our membership who are in Paradise, was part of the Angelic souls in His Kingdom. The awards ceremony was under the great pavilion provided the Alabaster Club by the City about mid-morning when it was determined the rain and storm was moving toward us. Phillips and Club President Bob Anderson named the helper and handled the ceremony. Raffle winners were: Cool Power 20% Pro-Pattern Fuel donated by Fred Lewis at Morgan fuels....Scott Sappington, Jim Johns, Dave Phillips III, Bruce Underwood. Scott Sappington won the DB supplied by the club. This kit has the original DB Canopy. Roy Thompson won $200 service from Carolina Kits whose sales rep is Kevin Clark. Carolina Custom Kits laser cuts kits, they offer kits and plans. They do CAD designs, scale original plans up or down, have custom canopies, quality balsa and ply, etc. Mark Ackerman is the designer. Their website is: CarolinaCustomKits.com. E-mail is: CarolinaCustom Kits@mail.com. Phone 828-407-0668. The Alabaster RC Club has us "rollin" with the 2014 season with a terrific opening in the EAST. Dave, and club we are most grateful that even with the pain of an evidently moving KS (Kidney Stone) you hosted us for a delightful weekend "kick-off". Bruce Underwood, SPA PIO |
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Senior Pattern Association |
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