I would like to say this contest was the most stressful that I have ever had anything to do with. Most of you know about last five months as Peggy and I have had to deal with her being diagnosed with cancer. Going through the 26 days of radiation therapy. Then, waiting to find out when her surgery was going to be !! (before the contest or after.) We only found out on the 13th of this month, 10 days before the masters ! until then I did not know if I was going to be there or not.. I had 4 guys that were willing to take over the event If I could not attend, so we had a number 2 plan in place. There are so many people that stepped up to help, I don't know where to start !!

Now that we know it's going to work out and we are going to be there, the GAS line in Alabaster breaks, and the SPA web site is talking about not having any gas to make the trip !! At that point I had made my mind up who ever showed up we were going to have the Master's. if it was 5 or 25 !!

Now the good part ! We had a great contest and a good turn out !! Sunshine and blue sky's for the day ! The Alabaster field has a problem with afternoon sun being right in your face after 2:30. So the good Lord sent us some Big ole clouds to cover Mr.. Sun and we got 4 rounds in !! See it all works out !

Laughs and smiles were all around and everyone seem to have a very enjoyable time !! The contest was just added on to a great day. There was a good bit of things that went on, that I'm sure Jim Johns will pass along like the Mid air that didn't happen, the 5 Novice guy's that flew,4 of them won a round and the only one that didn't was his first time to fly novice !! Then there was Charlie Johns that had everybody wondering how long his OS would last. The sound it was making, nobody gave it much of a chance !!

Last but not least Peggy and I were overwhelmed with the outpouring of support from all our SPA family ! with all the hugs and heartfelt well wishes was something to experience after the last 5 months, and I can not begin to tell you how much it meant to us.. I have to add Dr. Phil Spelt for the support he has given me, (long Distance) as he shared his experience with Ms. Carolyn !! Thank you Phil so much ... As always, 2016 has come to an end for the year, but I feel everyone left anticipating next year and looking forward to seeing our SPA family again !!
One thing more ! On October the 6th would ya say a prayer for Peggy, as that will be the day of her surgery !!!

The two Dave's and Peggy !!!

From Bruce Underwood, SPA PIO

We're gonna share the "write-up" of the MASTERS with Dave Phillips and Jim Johns and will have it in a day or two right here. Jim Johns was kind enough to bring the ARF KAOS kit to Gadsden where I met him and picked it up to bring to Guntersville and deliver to Lucky Bill Collins who won it and had to leave with me Saturday night to return for big Church activities in Guntersville on Sunday morning. Dave is to get me a list of winners of the RAFFLE stuff and Jim to do the Sunday coverage as your PIO had to depart after just one day of the Alabaster hospitality.

While we are awaiting the "write-up" on the 2016 MASTERS................let me share a bit of "Mystique" with you here. Two rounds of regular schedules were flown, right on schedule Saturday morning...............then CD Dave amassed 5 judges to judge the "sudden Death"
FLY-OFF between the top two qualifiers for the MEMORIAL TROPHY. The one round is flown, judged by 5 judges, totaled, and the HIGH and the LOW is "thrown out" and the others totaled for the finished score. More on that later.

Here is that STRANGE....that happened Saturday during round 4. Lots of us were interested in seeing what the Tower Hobbies ARF KAOS is capable of....in the hands of a really GOOD pilot....so, Jerry Black (Yes, the candidate to become our Vice President for the coming two years in December's election)...was kind enough to obtain one (what with the recent price break on it by Tower).....I understand he received it on a Friday and test-hopped it the coming Monday at his field in Johnson City, TN. He had flown it several times at home and declared "it flies WELL!". Come round 4, after having flown his number 1 bird, his BOOTLEGGER the first three rounds, agreed to fly the KAOS. He replaced the tank that came with it with a 10 OZ, Kraft Hayes tank and had it mounted pretty much on the CG and declared the non-pumped OS 91 "drew the fuel well".

He took off, made his downwind trim pass (Dave Phillips and myself were judging)....He flew his typical Figure M with 1/4 rolls which Dave and I could only find VERY slight error and scored 9's. The next maneuver downwind is the --Two Rolls in opposite directions-in which an evidential "something happened"....I was watching intently when Jerry had to apparently "slam" the aileron stick each way to initiate the rolls, (this was expected due to the non-sealed, comparatively small ailerons). On the 2nd roll, the airplane just didn't want to stop it's rotation smoothly, as was a characteristic of Black's style of executing of that maneuver. I recall, vividly, scoring the lowest on that particular maneuver, he had scored previously with his BOOTLEGGER. That rocking of the airplane at that "violent" moment of completion of the first roll and the same on the completion of the 2nd roll. He turned and executed his "double immelmann" nicely, did his turnaround and was heading back downwind when Dan Dougherty's Daddy Rabbitt was in the same airspace and a loud and clear "whop" (you know the sound of a "mid-air" was heard, one wing of the KAOS was catapulted away from the remainder of the airplane which spiraled down to the earth, while the wing half was another three or four seconds in the air. Dougherty's DR just continued performing for the judges on line two "like nothing happened". Dan and Jerry examined Dan's DR just after the incident for damage. There ain't no damage! Honestly, there was NO visible damage. All of us on the scene just repeated, "we heard the mid-air and saw it"! After several minutes of discussing what we had seen.....dependable "Little Dave Phillips" donned his waders and as he has done so many times before for pilots in Alabaster........made his way right to the downed damage and retrieved it....the left wing hung onto the fuselage and rode it to the earth.

Now, after more discussion, a theory was advanced by Dan...that, "our models didn't actually mid-air, but our propellers did. The "Magic-Marker" arrow is pointing to a white creasemark just down from the tip of Dan's prop causing Dan to advance "my prop evidently struck Jerry's prop breaking it in half, and the resulting shaking caused the KAOS OS engine to shake the ARF so violently, it just shattered it". That's a sound theory. After my reccollections of that 2nd maneuver, the two rolls in opposite directions, I would almost wager that the hold-on PLASTIC 1/4 /20 screw, that comes with that kit (black plastic) broke during the execution of that maneuver and it, (anchoring the right wing half) allowed the half wing to "give up the ship" at that moment and the sound (that mimicked a "mid-air sound") was it exiting from the fuse speedily!. (The thumbcap of the right wing half was found IN the fuse wreckage! I have heard others who have had a problem with those wing hold-on screws having broken, much like the original nosegear holdon bracket breaking on the early editions of the KAOS ARF. I hear that is now of nylon, and if that be the case, perhaps Tower will do the same with these holdon screws, meantime, I would personally suggest one replace those hold-on (Black Plastic) screws that come with the kit with some better DuBro nylon ones. Perhaps Jerry's "maybe a mid-air or maybe not" will profit other KAOS flyers. I'll wager this experience may energize other suggestions from Tower ARF KAOS owners.

Best to all, SPA PIO

From Jim Johns, Webmaster

I want to thank Dave, Little Dave and Peggy Phillips for putting on another amazing contest at Alabaster. Dave and DP III ran the contest very smoothly and assembled a great array of raffle prizes, while Peggy took care of registration, raffle ticket sales and kept everyone in line.

Saturday dawned bright and muggy with very little wind. The pilots showed up early because the Alabaster field faces west causing an afternoon sun problem. The lines ran smoothly, a few clouds drifted in and out during the day and four rounds were completed by 4 p.m. Everyone retired to their accomodations for some A/C and a shower, followed by a group dinner the Olive Garden.

Novice class was a real dogfight. Four of the five pilots won at least one round, and the total point spread from 1st to 5th was less than 350 points. Joe Grant won 2 rounds to score the win. Jimmy Russell also won two rounds to finish 2nd, David Johnson was 3rd, with Anthony Blair and Jim Strong rounding out the field in that order. These talented flyers are truly an asset to SPA and will be tough to deal with next season.

Charlie Johns flew a gorgeous Compensator to 5 round wins and 1st Place in the Sportsman class. Dan Dougherty won the other round and finished in a strong 2nd with Dr. Charles Gray finishing 3rd.

All three Advanced class competitors won at least one round, but Scott Sappington won five rounds to post the win with Jim Johns 2nd. Bill Dodge bounced back from a Round 4 crash to finish a strong 3rd. Interestingly, Jim and Scott actually TIED for the Round 4 win with identical scores. 

Expert featured Jamie Strong winning all six round to take the contest. Steve Drake from Bowling Green, KY, flew a Tower Kaos 60 ARF to a strong 2nd place finish.

Jerry Black flew his Bootlegger to wins in every round except Round 4 to take the Senior Expert title. He flew his Kaos ARF in that round and had a decent flight going until his Kaos had a "theoretical" mid-air with Dan Dougherty's Daddy Rabbit and was destroyed. See Bruce's much more detailed account below. Jeff Owens flew his Deception to 2nd with Keith Watson rounding out the field with his Daddy Rabbit in 3rd.

Joe Grant	Charlie Johns		Scott Sappington
Jamie Strong		Jerry Black

The Memorial Trophy Flyoff was conducted during the lunch break on Saturday. Five judges (L-R: Dave Phillips, Scott Sappington, Bruce Underwood, Jamie Strong, and Steve Drake), representing many decades of pattern experience, scored the flights by Jeff Owens and defending winner Jerry Black. Jerry prevailed again this year and carried the Memorial Trophy back to Eastern Tennessee.

The East Annual Points Championships were also decided at Alabaster. You can see their photos here - Annual Champs

• Novice - David Johnson.  David didn't win a contest during the season, but he won the annual award by 1 point simply because he attended all but one contest.
• Sportsman - Dan Dougherty. After receiving his award, Dan announced that he's moving up to Advanced next year. Welcome to the fray, Dan.
• Advanced - Scott Sappington
• Expert - Jamie Strong
• Senior Expert - Jerry Black.

The final two rounds were complete by noon on sunday. Jeff and Jerry demonstrated the 2017-2018 Advanced and Expert patterns and new Calling Cards were passed out to all. The trophies, points championships and raffle prizes were distributed by 1 p.m. to allow everyone to get on the road home early.

It's sad to see another SPA contest year come to an end. It's tough to know we won't see many of our friends again until next spring. I'll continue practicing the current patterns for the West Open Championship in less than 3 weeks. I look forward to seeing everyone in the East at the opener next season if not sooner.

Jim