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Combat Report
Mile Hi Madness IV May
7, 2005
Saturday May 7th dawned bright and beautiful in Colorado. The day called for 4
rounds of 2548 Scale and 6 rounds of Open B combat. We were scheduled to “Start
Combat” at 9 am. The field was laid out and all was ready to go. There were 5
pilots registered for 2548, and I wanted to run that first to take advantage of
the denser air. Unfortunately, two of the planes did not make it through the
trim flights, and were out of commission. That left only 3 2548 pilots, and you
need 4 to have an official contest, so 2548 was scrubbed. I was looking forward
to that. That gave us a little more time to get prepared for Open B.
One of the Open B Pilots was scheduled to get in off the road (he is over the
road truck driver) and be at the field by 10:30 or 11. We delayed the start of
Open B until he arrived.
We had 12 pilots for open B. The largest open field we have ever had at Mile HI!
Since we did not have enough judges to put 12 up at a time, we split into two 6
pilot heats. This to me is the perfect size for a contest. Two heats of 6 pilots
each. Here is a photo of the Open B group after round 1. I forgot to get the
picture before we started.
I don’t remember any significant events in Round one, except that Brett
“Smelyal8r” Sugamele flew the entire round with no mid airs and had a complete
round. Congratulations Brett. Actually I think Brett had 3 complete rounds
before he had to leave.
Around the beginning of round two, the thunderstorms started moving in from the
south. I was watching pretty closely for a while, but that cell moved off to the
east and we had sunshine again. After round three we broke for a short lunch and
Vic Jaugilas was in the lead in his very first RC combat contest.
After lunch, we started with round four heat 1. The wind came up and was gusting
to 20 mph straight out of the northwest in our faces. Conditions were a little
difficult, but nothing we could not handle. At the end of heat one, the wind
picked up even more, and the thunder cell in the northwest looked like it was
not going to go around us. We started heat two as quickly as we could. During
the heat, our Safety Officer was monitoring the wind. It was right in our faces
and blowing the planes hard toward the combat engagement line. We had one plane
that the wind caught and put into the ground just behind the pilots line
narrowly missing the Line Marshal. The club Safety Officer informed me that the
winds were steady 20 to 25 with 35 mph gusts. With the wind so strong trying to
blow the planes over the lines, I decided it was not safe to continue. We had a
official 4 rounds done, so I called the meet.
There was some carnage and planes lost. Frank Scharnell lost an Avenger fuse in
a mid air with JJ in the first round. It is probably repairable, but was not
field repairable. In Round 4 heat one, Quad (Frank Scharnell IV) was chasing Tom
Neff when I got in his way. The center punched my right wing with his engine and
took a chunk of blue foam over a foot long and 4 or 5 inches wide out of the
wing. Needless to say, I came down with a flapping wing in a hurry. Quad’s plane
was not running well, probably on only half a prop, and he could not engage and
had to bring it down.
When it was all said and done, Randy Hodges walked away with a 1st place award
flying his very good and durable SPADs. Who says SPADs are not competitive and
are not durable? Don’t tell Randy that. Frank Scharnell III won the Last place
sucks award which was a Go Devil donated by Mike Nemesh of Aerowright. Thanks
Michael. We also had a $25 gift certificate donated by FMA direct and $5 gift
certificates donated by AirScharnell for each of the pilots and volunteers.
Thank you FMA Direct and AirScharnell for your contributions!
Scores are:
Randy Hodges
904
Tom Neff
880
John Jaugilas
720
Alan Thovson
668
Frank (Quad) Scharnell IV 620
Rick Miller
620
Adam Bryant
524
George Kerr
480
Vic Jaugilas
480
Rick Scharnell
200
Brett Sugamele
184
Frank Scharnell III
160
Congratulations Randy, Tom, JJ, and all the rest of the pilots. Thanks for a
good contest under difficult conditions!
Next is June 4th at Airpark Elite in Aurora. That should be another good one. Be
There!!!!
George
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