6th Annual East Tennessee SPA Contest
Johnson City, TN
August 9-10, 2025

  Scores   Photos  


The Pilots competing at the 2025 East Tennessee SPA Contest
 L-R: Vic Koenig, Roger Gillis, Victor McIntyre, Duane Wilson, Jeff Owens, Terry Boston, Jerry Black, Jamie Strong, Jimmy Russell, Ellis Newkirk, George Manning, Johnny Judd (rear), Carl Zavalney & Warren Oliver.
Not shown: Jim Johns

The 6th Annual East Tennessee SPA contest sponsored by the Johnson City Radio Controllers was held August 9-10, 2025 in Johnson City, TN. Although it’s quite a drive for many contestants, it is definitely worth the trip. The JCRC club always gives SPA a warm welcome and a very well-run contest. Also, without doubt, it has one of the best raffles on the circuit, but more about that later.

People started arriving Friday for practice. Many practice flights were flown with only one major mishap and a few minor incidents.

  • Unfortunately, Jim Johns misjudged the approach speed of his new Super Curare on only it’s 2nd flight and crashed well short of the runway. The impact ruptured the LiPo battery causing a fire to erupt in a cloud of smoke that fatally damaged the fiberglass fuselage ahead of the wing. The wing had only minor scorching to the covering while the tail feathers escaped totally intact. Jim carried it all home well wrapped in a garbage bag to salvage the radio, servos and any reusable hardware.
  •  Duane Wilson, (a relative newcomer to electrics), received a LOT of help diagnosing and fixing various set-up abnormalities with his prop and spinner. Sincere thanks to the 4-5 people who became involved with their advice and assistance while solving the problems. A newbie to electrics has to learn the finer points of electric set-up somehow. It was suggested that Duane send the new motor with only 10 flights back to have it checked out which he plans to do.
  • Victor McIntyre also had an interesting problem on Saturday morning. On his landing approach his plane dipped below the horizon, then reappeared inverted and he landed inverted on his canopy. His pilot figure suffered some mental trauma but was back on the job later to complete the contest.

Even with a couple last minute cancellations, 15 pilots from 6 states registered - 8 from Tennessee, 2 each from Alabama and North Carolina, and one each from Florida, Mississippi and Texas. Several local pilots entered their first SPA contest. Particularly interesting was the mix of competitors in each class. There were actually five Masters pilots, the most in any class, followed by three in Basic, three in Expert, two in Sportsman and Jim Johns flying alone in Advanced.

Weather was fantastic with cool mornings turning into warm but comfortable afternoons. Winds were not a problem being light and variable, and it was a real pleasure to fly under those conditions.

There was a very close contest in Basic. Only 14 points separated all three contestants after the 5th round, but local Roger Gillis won the final round – his fourth K of the contest - to secure the victory in his first SPA outing. Johnny Judd fought valiantly for 2nd Place honors, closely followed by Victor McIntyre in 3rd Place.

Carl Zavalney won all six rounds of Sportsman to secure the win with Duane Wilson finishing 2nd. Vic Koenig registered but opted not to fly giving him 3rd Place.

Jim Johns was the lone entrant in Advanced class. He flew only the 1st round to record the win then helped with scorekeeping for the rest of the weekend.

Jimmy Russell won the first five rounds of Expert for the win. President Jeff Owens won the 6th round to secure 2nd Place and gain a moral victory, while Terry Boston finished 3rd Place.

Masters had 5 entrants with CD Jerry Black winning five rounds for the win. Second through 5th places were separated by less than 123 points. George Manning won the other round to finish in 2nd in his first SPA contest. Warren Oliver was only 20 points behind George in 3rd with Jamie Strong and Ellis Newkirk rounding out the field in 5th and 6th.

Thank Yous: CD Jerry Black ran the event with many JCRC club members heavily involved as they have been for all six Johnson City contests. Vic Koenig and Dale Benton handled registration, and Craig Quillen helped with scorekeeping. Don Martin and Dennis Sams judged all weekend long. Karen and Johnny Judd prepared a wonderful Friday evening chili and cornbread supper for the early arrivals. They also helped with Saturday lunch which was greatly appreciated by everyone. Bobbie Johns handled raffle ticket sales and kept CD Jerry on task during the  trophy presentation.Without a team effort such as this, it would have been impossible to put together such a great contest. Of course, the same thing applies to each of our SPA contest venues. SPA wouldn’t be able to have these contests in the absence of such a cooperative effort.

Special mention should be made of the fantastic raffle that this club has always held. JCRC club member Ed Ritsko of Johnson City Heating and Air once again sponsored the raffle and generously donated 36" and 22" Blackstone Griddle packages complete with all the accessories, and a full-size Yeti cooler. Ed also donated 20 oz. Yeti tumblers that were presented to each entrant as well several more for the raffle. Another big Thank You goes to Ellis Newkirk who drove all the way from Texas to join us and sweetened the raffle by donating a Tower Kaos 60 ARF and BadAss 3530 700Kv motor. You can see who the winners were in the Photo section.

Thanks to all the pilots who traveled long distances to attend, and the tremendous efforts of JCRC club members for staging another very successful SPA event. Thanks to everyone who bought scads of raffle tickets which benefits the club!

Duane Wilson & Jim Johns

Final Scores
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