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Alabaster Spring Opener From the CD: Talk about a whirlwind of a weekend - three day's of flying and worrying about the weather, then the Defibrillator surgery on Monday! First of all I want to thank all that came in spite of our weather man's prediction. He was right on the 80% rain on Saturday the only thing is was gone by 8:30 and gave is a real nice day for flying. Friday (practice day ) was almost perfect with a little cloud cover and light wind.. The guys flew till almost dark with a lot of good ribbing about flying the new maneuvers! After the flying concluded, we washed up and headed to the Longhorn Steak House for some good food and fellowship!! What a great way to end the day.
As soon as I got home my thoughts went back to the
weather forecast for Saturday, with the weatherman still
calling for T'storms and 80% chance of rain. I told Peggy
that it was just not to be, at that point it was a rain out
for me. Saturday AM came. the rain stopped and we had a
contest!! The 10 pilots that came in spite of the forecast
were rewarded with a very laid back fun contest. After the
first round was over I started to relax and enjoy the
contest!! We finished up at 12:00 noon Sunday with the last
two rounds, tallied the scores and gave out the awards to
the smiling contestants. We, then gave away our draw prizes with a little twist. I had two airplanes to give away with one being a sport airplane and the other being a Classic Pattern Kit - a Jim Kirkland Nutcracker. Everybody does not want a pattern plane, so I offered a choice to the winner. I also did the drawing a little different as we drew 5 tickets out of the box then we drew again from the five giving the winner Dr. Charles Gray!! Now you would think he being a pattern pilot he would have taken the Nutcracker, No He took the sport plane !!! We also some very nice bolt assortment boxes donated by Dr. Gray and a can of fuel from the Alabaster club.. Our new President Jeff Owens won the fuel ! Funny thing our President Bruce Underwood won a can of fuel last year.
Speaking of Bruce - he knew of my up and coming surgery,
knew I was apprehensive about having it done, and had
talked to me all of last week telling me of how it had saved
his life and I should not worry about having it done. As he
was telling me about how great this thing was he was having
an "EVENT" as they call it and wound up in the hospital as
you guy's know! Once again the thing did it job ! Hey
I believe ya Bruce !! I'm now back at home with a very sore
chest with nothing to do but rest and get ready for the next
contest : 0)
For those that didnt make it we missed ya and hope to see
you in Knoxville !! Also thanks to all the well wishers!! It makes ya feel good.
Dave Phillips, CD From our President: Those of us who have been on the contest trail long enough know that weather forecasts are not known for their precision. The outlook for this past weekend in Alabaster was grim for Saturday - 80% chance of rain with thunderstorms. Nevertheless, ten intrepid SPA competitors braved the elements and showed up to fly. They were greeted with a wonderful Friday practice session to start off the weekend. Then Saturday showed up with clouds, but no rain until after 5:00 PM! Sunday was a blue-sky beautiful day. So, kudos to those brave souls who showed up to fly - they were treated to a great time by CD Dave Phillips and family and the Alabaster Club had the grounds in fantastic shape. Four rounds Saturday and two on Sunday were accomplished with one flight line. It was a relaxed contest, but a wonderful way to start off the season. It was fun for me to watch the new patterns being flown and I didn’t see or hear of any problems with the new sequences. Jim Johns has posted the scores to the list and will soon have the results on the web site. Some notes of interest:
The next contest is Knoxville. Let’s hope that the weather will let more folks get in some practice by then so that we can have a great turnout.
Jeff Owens
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Senior Pattern Association |
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| Dedicated to the Building, Flying and Competition of Vintage Pattern Model Aircraft | ||
