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Scores                                               Photos

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A gorgeous April Saturday at Mac Hodges Field!

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Wow! Where do I start? There is so much to talk about that it’s going to be hard for me to cover it all and keep this from being too long.

Well, the 2023 season is underway with the completion of our contest at Hodges Field. Competitors began arriving on Wednesday, and Friday seemed like a full on contest with airplanes in the air all day.  

We had 21 pilots from 8 different states (AL, FL, GA, IN, KY, MS, TN & TX) sign up, but unfortunately two had to cancel. We wound up with 19 total with every class having 3 or more pilots. It always feels good to give out all of the awards and not have any left over. You will find information about the pilots, as well as their planes, propulsion and radio in Pilots section of the photos.

The competition began on Saturday morning around 9:30 and what a beautiful day we had. The sun in the past had been a problem but this time it had moved far enough to the north enough that it didn’t bother anyone. The flying heated up as the day progressed and we had some very close competition with much fun had by all.  There were no crashes, mid-airs, or other damage to aircraft, although a few egos were bruised. :-)

We looked at the weather forecast for Sunday, which didn’t look as good. So we decided to fly five rounds on Saturday and only one on Sunday ! This seemed to work well for some of the long travelers as they were able to get on the road a little sooner.

We finished the 6th round Sunday morning and proceeded to present the awards!

• BASIC - 3 pilots: Two fellows who fly with Greg Hoke in the GAMA club filled the top two places. First time SPA pilot John Amerson won, Paul Higginbotham placed 2nd in his second SPA contest, and Norm Bonnette placed 3rd. Both John and Paul said they would be back ! They are very nice guys and fun to be around. Welcome to the SPA, guys.
• SPORTSMAN - 3 pilots: Gordon Talbot placed 1st, followed by newcomer Jeong Hur in 2nd and long missing SPA competitor Rick Helmke finished 3rd. Jeong is from Atlanta and came by the SPA booth at the Perry show. He told Jim that he used to fly pattern "over 4 decades ago" and is very excited to do it again!
• ADVANCED - 4 pilots: CD Dave Phillips ran away with this class winning all 5 rounds flown, followed by Jim Johns, Ken VanderBosch and Terry Boston.
• EXPERT - 5 pilots: This was a very tightly fought class, with the top three spots changing hands between Warren Oliver, Jimmy Russell and Jamie Strong after the 4th, 5th and 6th rounds. Jamie outlasted the others for the win, followed by Warren, Jimmy, Jeff Owens and Robert Lane.
• MASTERS - 4 pilots: Jerry Black "mastered" the class, followed closely by Greg Hoke in 2nd, Ellis Newkirk in 3rd and Joe Ryan in 4th.

We had some very nice draw prizes: Old School Model Works sent a Kaos kit, Innov8tive Designs provided a complete BadAss power system including a 3530-570 Kv motor with a 100A ESC, and Robert Lane donated a very nice new in box OS 60FSR Gold Head engine!

• Joe Ryan won the Kaos kit and the BadAss power system.
• Debbie Hoke won the Gold head OS. I’m sure her hubby Greg will find it a good home. LOL!!

I would like to give a big thank you to all that helped make this event go so smooth.

• Everybody who manned the judging chairs.
• Jim Johns for handling the score keeping.
• Jim's wife Bobbie did her usual fine job taking LOTS of pictures.
• Debbie Hoke and my wife Peggy handled contest registration and raffle tickets, plus the most important thing - the food!

A very special thanks to my wife Peggy for all she did in helping me get ready for the contest! Without her, I couldn’t do it - period!

Next up is the Memphis contest on May 20th & 21st (the weekend before Memorial Day) with Terry Boston and Jim Johns CDing! It's a really great field! Come if you can as we'd love to see all of you in Memphis!

 Dave Phillips and Jim Johns

Final Scores
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