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2019 SPA East Masters
CULLMAN, AL….October 13, 2019…..The
East applied the “icing to the cake” on the 2019 SPA
season this weekend with the “dandy-dozen” plus two
participants
enjoying what we most like doing…..flying our SPA
Pattern airplanes in an organized contest. This “finale” was overseen by “the
most experienced Director on our circuit”.
I’m describing :
Following some 46 days with nothing
by drought conditions, the National Weather Service saw
fit to predict morning temperatures in the upper 40’s
and low 50”s for Saturday and wouldn’t you know it,
their prediction was accurate!
There was cold and stout winds of 15 to 25 MPH,
but the Clouds that precipitated the conditions were
just what the CD ordered for the flying area faces the
Eastern sunrise til about mid-morning……….allowing him to
start about 1 to 2 hours PRIOR to the normal start time
here. This
allowed completion of 4 rounds for all classes but one;
and 5 for that one. This allowed some contestants who
are HUGE college football fans to flock to their
radios and TVs for the Alabama/Texas A & M,
Tennessee/Mississippi State, Oklahoma/Texas or other
favorite games that kicked at 2:30 PM Central time. Sometimes the author reports on
crashes and mishaps…..NONE to report on here.
Despite the wind and cold conditions on Saturday
morning, mishaps remained away from the Cullman flying
site. Some
gathered in the nearby steakhouse on Saturday night.
Dave Phillips said he and Peggy swapped steaks
they had as the others’ suited their “cook-too”
preference when they arrived. Sunday morning brought a 180 in
weather conditions, with the air as calm as ever in the
state of Alabama this Sunday in Cullman.
Cloud cover allowed Experts Jerry Black and Jamie
Strong to each exercise their favorite
pastime……..”flying their pattern models”.
Low and behold, just about 10 AM CDT, those
clouds yielded to that beautiful Alabama Sky that
normally prevails….so…..off came the light jackets and
out came the sunshield for the first few flights and
then away it went to the storage shed. The two remaining rounds were
completed by noon…..even before the ladies had completed
their yarns to each other about their “grandkids” and
relays regarding whose husband enjoyed our sport of
modeling more than the others.
Here are the ladies just after the group photo of
the participants was made…….and Bobbie Johns has
graciously agreed to label each of the wonderful ladies
names:
Aren’t we the luckiest guys alive
to have had this group say “I Do” to us when they
did??????????? Joe Grant had the NOVICE class to
himself and a good weekend of preparing to “move” up
after acing the class. Vic Koenig had a perfect score of
4000 in SPORTSMAN followed by Terry Boston, 3890.
Charlie Johns was 3rd with 3802, Ken
VandenBosch 4th with 3644 and Duane Wilson
capped the Quintet with 0000.
I never did learn why Duane didn’t fly but he was
so kind and helpful to your author on Sunday by calling
and assisting on the flight line.
(Duane, when you publish the “write-up”, please
advise) Jim Strong piled up a quartet of
K’s in Advanced for a tally of 4,000.
Ken Blackwell kept him motivated with his 3285 in
2nd. Jeff Owens and myself had the most
difficult job of the weekend, I think (Jeff
Agrees)…….finding any “flaws” in the flights of Jerry
Black and Jamie Strong in the EXPERT class.
It was a typical weekend of sheer joy watching
these two experts fly our maneuvers like they are drawn
in the book.
Jerry scored the most points of 4000 to Jamie's’ 3958.
Thanks for the performances, guys! In the quartet participating in the
Senior Expert Class,
President Jeff won all but 1 of the six rounds
for a perfect 4000…..Bruce Underwood shakily put in
3934, Dave Phillips was 3rd with 3408.
Jim Johns elected to give a day of rest to cold
and flu-like symptoms on Saturday, and manned the
scoring computer on Sunday.
Jim, not only the Cullman Aeromodellers these
weekend, but all other clubs you’ve been so much help to
want you to know how much you are appreciated.
This word….THANKS from us all. One of the highlights of the
MASTERS each year
is the presentation of the POINTS CHAMPIONSHIPS for the
year. Steve made those presentations for the EAST
DIVISION at the conclusion. They were: NOVICE – Dan Jackson Jeff explained that the “fly-off”
for the annual Memorial Trophy this year and last was
called-off due to the unavailability of “qualifiers”.
He assured, “the Memorial trophy is safely stored
in my storage shed and in good shape”. In his parting remarks, he
encouraged all to make plans to participate in the
coming season, and “the same pattern flown this year
will be in it’s 2nd year in 2020”.
Jeff says he is contemplating naming the coming
cycles’ “pattern-committee” in the Spring to fly and
perhaps publicize the coming schedule in plenty of time
for comment and discussion before a decision is made for
2021-2022.
Cullman Aeromodellers, “GRACIAS”
(tad of Spanish lingo there) for this great weekend.
It was, as stated at the beginning,……………..”a
DANDY!” Bruce Underwood, SPA PIO |
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