2020 Greater Southwest Aero Modelers SPA Pattern
Greater Southwest
Aeromodelers Spring 2020
contest summary 15 pilots gathered at the Greater
Southwest Aeromodelers club field on June 27 2020 for
the first contest of the year for the SPA West division.
“Adversity” is the word I’d use to describe the whole
process, and our pilots showed their spirit. The GSW
field was attacked by feral hogs only a month before the
contest and barely repaired in time. Rainstorms left
puddles on the field 2 days before, but a day of bright
sunshine took care of them. Texas’s measures in response
to Covid 19 made the possibility of the contest
uncertain and forced pilots to consider the risks of
attending. The day of the contest was hot and windy with
gusty rollers wreaking havoc on our landings. The
contest itself was a day of attrition, with multiple
models not able to finish. Sam Corlett lost his plane to
a radio failure, Co-CD Paul Mayhan dropped out after
round one with a wing mount failure, Ken Knotts lost his
Curare in practice the day before but was able to
compete with a backup plane, and CD Wayne Galligan had a
wing tube failure but was able to finish with a backup
plane. Then the scorekeeper was unable to attend due to
a health issue, so co-CD Paul Mayhan took on scoring
duties with some much-appreciated help from Jason
Nowicki who normally flies novice but chose not to
compete on this day. Pilots fought the wind and the sun
to get in 4 rounds by 2:30 in the afternoon. Those who
finished with winning scores certainly earned them! The contest saw one new pilot
trying out SPA with Daniel Boamah taking advantage of
the “any plane” rule for novice class. He flew his Sbach
342 quite capably. While he wasn’t eligible for an award
due to the engine rule, Daniel shows promise as a future
competitor in the higher classes. Keith Maddox, the only
other novice competitor, has shown significant
improvement in his flying since last year and took home
first place. Sportsman was the biggest division
in SPA West 4 years ago, but most have moved up. So it
came down to SPA Vice President Frank Cox and Nathan
Haycock. Frank chose not to fly in the windy conditions,
so Nathan took it with some still quality flying. Advanced class consisted of 3
longtime aerobatic pilots. With Paul Mayhan dropping out
after round 1, it was a tight contest for first and
second with Chris Berardi edging out Eddie Bernaldez for
the award. Expert class saw the most intense
competition with 5 very capable competitors. 17 year old
Sam F Corlett competed against his father Sam Corlett
for the first time, choosing to move up to Expert class
only a week before the contest. Kudos to young Sam for
taking on the challenge and congratulations on your
third place finish! Todd Blose took home the gold in
Expert with some phenomenal flying. The two Senior Expert pilots put on
a good show as well with Danny Jackson edging out Ken
Knotts for the title. Watching pilots who have been
flying RC for 40-50 years shows a comfort and
perspective that is unattainable any other way. I think
we all hope to be flying as well at that age as both of
these guys do. The day ended with raffle prizes
and congratulations all around for competitors. Many
thanks to our sponsors Roy’s Hobby Shop, RTL Fasteners,
and F3A Unlimited for prizes. I look forward to our next
event. Paul Mayhan |
Final Scores
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