Mile Hi RC Sweeps SSC and places first in Open B

Airpark Elite Combat Challenge II

Dateline Airpark Elite RC Club, Aurora Colorado October 1, 2005:

 The Airpark Elite Challenge II was the last opportunity to garner COCOA points for the 2005 season.  5 pilots showed up for SSC and 13 for Open B.  You could not find a better day for combat than today.  Temperatures in the mid to upper 80s.  It was a bit warm for October, but otherwise just about perfect.  We had a breeze in our face most of the day with an occasional gust that could pose a problem, but in general the breeze was light and posed no real issues.  Phil Kenney did the cooking for lunch, and this is the BEST lunch I have ever had at an event.  More about that later.  Tom Neff brought out the coveted RCCA North/South “CUP” for all to drool over.  The arguments ensued as to whether Colorado belonged with the North or the South until Tom finally said, “Guys, it is like this, the north guys did not want anything to do with this guy from Colorado, and the guys from Texas that I met in Paris said they would take me for the South, so we became part of the South team”.  Tom we are proud to have “THE CUP” in Colorado and to have you be the keeper of it!  3^rd in the Paris and the NATS ain’t too bad, and you deserve to be keeper of “THE CUP”

 The day started with 5 rounds of SSC.  The 5 pilots were ready and up for the first round.  It has been a LONG time since I have flown any SSC.  I got up late for the first round and was having trouble getting the OS .15 LA to run decent.  I do know there were some mid airs, as I was in two that forced me down, but I don’t think the destruction from mid airs was very bad.  I had two mid airs, which brought two dirt naps, and two other dirt naps, and I flew the same plane (only SSC plane I had) all day.  I thought it was quite survivable.  At the end of the day, the SSC scores looked like this:

Randy “RH” Hodges                         920

George “Web-Pilot”  Kerr                 872

John “JJ” Jaugilas                             800

Adam “Adamdb” Bryant                   675

Tom “Top Gun Tommy” Neff            580

 After SSC we broke for lunch and an Ecombat demo.  Lunch as served by Phil and Elaine Kenney was nothing short of OUTSTANDING.  Lunch is the most important plan of the day, and this lunch was worth coming out for even if you did not get to chase any streamers.  Phil prepared Smoked Turkey, baked potatoes, dressing, gravy two different vegetables, cranberry sauce and Pumpkin and Apple pie!  Does that sound like a fantastic holiday meal or what!  The smoked turkey is some of the best turkey I have ever had!  THANK YOU PHIL!!!!  Now back to Combat.

Several of the guys got their electrics up, but technical problems prevented a real good test of Ecombat.  Electrics are here to stay, and I see this segment of combat getting bigger and bigger.

 Open B was a mad house!  We flew 5 rounds of Open B as well.  There were 13 pilots for Open B and 13 judges, so it was, as they say, a target rich environment.  Getting ready for round one, I discovered that the number one bird, the one I failed to test fly yesterday, had a throttle servo that would not work, so before the contest started I had to switch to one of the backup planes.  I did not do well in round one, and was in the air about 20 seconds before putting the plan in a serious dirt nap.  Well that plane is done for the day, and the wing is done forever.  So it is switch to the last plane I brought, the Fairey Fulmar. This is one of Hat Tricks 2610 Fulmar Kits, and they are tough as nails and fly very very well.  I don’t know why I decided to bring this plane, but it has been the best plane I have flown in a combat the last 3 months.  I flew rounds 2, 3, and 4 with the Fulmar.  Between rounds, I was stripping a throttle servo out of Go Devil 4 put in Go Devil 3 so I could get the primary plane back in the air.  I did get it done in time to fly Go Devil 3 in round 5.  I should have stuck to the Fulmar, I flew it MUCH much better!  JJ keeps telling me to just build a fleet of Fulmars and fly them in all the classes, Open B, 2610 scale, and 2548 scale.

 I did not have any mid airs in Open B, but I heard some so I know there were some.  I did not see tight furballs today.  There was a lot of pursuit flying.  The air today was not good for tight furballs, so the furballs stayed pretty large and loose, with pilots flying pursuit.  There was a lot of good flying today!  The quality of the pilots just keeps improving.  I guess that is what practice does for you.

This was Jim Ferm’s first combat meet, and he had a tough day of it.  Round one did not last very long for him with an early mid air.  Jim did not have a backup plane, so he was done quickly.  Jim, don’t get discouraged, it will get better!

 Scott Stringham drove in from Salt Lake City for the competition.  Scott had a pretty good day of combat, which is good after the long drive to get here!  Thanks Scott for making the trip.  We enjoyed having you in Colorado and hope to see you here again soon.

When the final blast came, the Open B scores looked like this:

 Frank “Birthday Boy” Scharnell III    1120 - Frank turned 41 today!  Happy Birthday!

Scott “Pathous” Stringham   1044

Tom “Top Gunn Tommy” Neff          1004

Rick Scharnell                                     820

George “Web-Pilot” Kerr                    720

Bryant Johnson                                    680

Frank “Quad” Scharnell IV                  664

John “JJ” Jaugilas                               560

Randy “RH” Hodges               484

Vic “VJ” Jaugilas                                 276

Jim “First Timer” Ferm                       160

Adam “adamdb” Bryant                      100

Alan “Pylon Champ” Thovson              40

 I thought I was having a tough day until I look at some of the other scores, and it does not look like I had a bad day at all!

 Airpark did a superior job putting on this contest today.  It was very well run and ran smoothly all day.  Lunch was superb!  Thanks to Tom, Alan, Duane, Phil and all the rest of the Airpark crew!  I personally had more fun today than I have at any combat this season.

 George

Last changed: 10/06/2005

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