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2019
Ben Oliver Memorial SPA
Thursday afternoon had several SPA'ers already showing up to the field to set up camp and start practicing. Jimmy showed up to get some more trim flights on his new electric UFO. As the peanut gallery ohh and ahhhed, he attempted a 4-point roll. During the inverted portion the motor died and controls froze. He said he was holding full down and full right as it flew a perfectly straight line into the trees. Jimmy emerged from the woods with what was left of the UFO. He kept his sense of humor saying to Jim Johns and Phil Spelt “you think it's still legal? I just clipped the wings a bit.” Les Smith came all the way down from Michigan to fly with us again this year. Those same trees grabbed his Astrohog on Friday during a dead stick attempt. Both the UFO and Astrohog were retrieved by wonderful KCRC members and will fly another day. Saturday morning rolled around and we had 16 registered pilots. A couple regulars were unable to make it. Bruce Underwood had to call off his first KCRC contest ever. We hope you get to feeling better Bruce! The real treat of the weekend was watching Jamie Strong coach Norm Bonnette flying a 47 year old Lou Andrews Aeromaster. Jamie would take the Aeromaster up, hand the controls to Norm and calmly talk him through every maneuver. Norm hailed from central Kentucky and had a smile on his face the entire weekend. We had 2 Novice, 6 Sportsman, 3 Advanced, 3 Expert and 2 Senior Expert contestants. Judges were at a premium due to large Sportsman class and few in the others. CD Jimmy Russell even stepped in to judge several rounds. A big thanks to Keith Watson who drove up from Atlanta and judged several rounds for us as well. We kept the flights going till about 4pm. We managed 4 rounds in each class on Saturday. The only casualty during the contest was had by Dave Phillips with his new Killer Kaos. He experienced a dead stick and overshot the runway. His pretty yellow and black Kaos cartwheeled. He assured us it will be fixed soon. Since Advanced and Senior Expert were sewed up Saturday, we opted not to fly those classes Sunday. The forecast was supposed to be pretty windy around 11. Jimmy had both flight lines back in the air a tick past 9. We flew back to back expert rounds while Novices flew back to back on the other flight line to get their 6 in. Then he sent sportsman to the expert flight line for their 5th and 6th rounds. We cruised through the remaining rounds before noon. Once all the dust settled Dan Jackson took first with 4k in Novice followed by Norman Bonnette with 3365. Sportsman was a real tight race with Scott Anderson squeaking out the win with 3940 followed closely by Ken VandenBosch with 3827 and Terry Boston in 3rd with 3758. Advanced had Jim Strong showing that he has it, and all that practicing really shows with 3k. Jimmy Russell wasn't far behind with 2960 and Phil Spelt back competing was having trouble keeping the canopy on his new Kaos and brought in 1564. In Expert it was Jerry Black putting on a clinic with 4k. Jamie Strong was close behind at 3914 with Steve Drake getting used to that new reverse point roll keeping them honest slightly behind at 3691 for 3rd. In Senior Expert Jeff Owens cruised to 1st with 3k. Dave Phillips was having engine and radio issues most of the contest but still put in a good showing. Jimmy Russell had nice pile of goodies sponsors donated for the raffle. APC, Sullivan, Sig, Balsa USA, Performance Model Aviation and CCK/HobbyExpress all donated items. Lets keep these company's in mind and support them. They are all American and trying to keep our hobby alive. Just about everyone walked away with something. The grand prizes were 2 Killer/Ultimate Kaos short kits designed by Jimmy and cut by Mark Ackerman at CCK. These were won by Jim Johns and Ken VandenBosch. Thanks to everyone that came out to help. It sure was a good one! If you missed it, you sure did! Hope to see you next year! Jimmy Russell, CD |
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