2013 October Fun Fly What a great day for a fun fly. Blue skies, very mild wind and low 70's for temperature. The day started with our fall highway cleanup, we had a great turnout, so it only took an hour and a half or so. We then had another cookout for lunch and then after a lot of open flying, we flew 4 events. They were good events to test everyone's skills. We also scored the events separate for electric planes and nitro powered planes, except the Pony Express. The nitro planes did very well, better than I would have thought. The silver lining of the day, no destroyed airplanes, only a few broken props and bent landing gear, Event photos are at the end of the results. Thanks to Rege Hall, Tom Carlyle, Vern Hines and everyone else who helped run and officiate the events. It takes everyone to have a great event, even the peanut gallery. All in all, I believe everyone enjoyed the day!

The first event was a spot landing. The grid was laid out in a large square with lines denoting 50 points - 25 points - 15 points - 10 points and 50 points. There was a S shaped taxi lane going to the grid that each pilot got the opportunity to text their taxi skills. Each pilot had 4 chances to make 3 scores on the grid and then received 5 bonus points for being able to taxi through the S both before and after the spot landings.

Second event was called loop, roll & land. Each pilot taxi between orange cones and took off, performed 3 loops, three rolls and then had to land and taxi back through the orange cones. Fastest time wins. Again, very surprised that the nitro planes outperformed the electric. Strategy did play a role as you had to perform loops first and decide to do the loops up wind line or on the downwind leg followed by the rolls.

Next came the Crapshoot, that really is what it is. You can fly a great time and have bad luck on rolling the dice. In this event, each pilot rolled the dice then took off and flew past a pylon on the upwind line then turned and landed upwind taxied back to designated area and rolled the dice until they rolled the same number they rolled to start the event.

Then came the crowd favorite Pony Express. Teams consisted of three pilots. Time started when the event official handed the mail to the team and ended when the team handed the mail back to the event official after all three planes circled the pylons. The first plane had to taxi though the orange cones, turn left into the wind and take off, fly the pylons and get the mail transferred to the second pilot. All mail transfers had to be made in the designated box. Same thing for third pilot, except the mail had to be retrieved from the plane once it was in the box and then handed to the event official. Lots of fun, exciting flying, no hard landings or sudden stoppage (wrecks for you non aviation career folks) and a little bit of running to get a plane back in the box to transfer the mail. Honest, never once heard the infamous "run Forest run" anthem. Well behaved Blacksheep today.

Spot Landing - Electric.

PlacePilotScorePlane
1Bill Clontz80 pointsAdvance 25E
2John Louden70 pointsSuper Sportster EP
3Brian Martin65 pointsSuper Sportster EP
4Tom Hatfield35 pointsE Flight T-28
5Weir Thurman10 pointsWatt Cat
Spot Landing - Nitro.

PlacePilotScorePlane
1Parker Hall135 pointsPhoenix Sonic
2Matt Shelton100 pointsOMP Yak 55 profile
3Brian James70 pointsGreat Planes Cherokee
4John Lawyer60 pointsGreat Planes T60
5Ray Courtney35OMP Yak 55 profile
6Bryan Baumer20 pointsGreat Planes Super Sportster
6Joe Hartsock20 pointsTop Flite Contender
Loop. Roll & Land - Electric.

PlacePilotTimePlane
1Bill Clontz46.57Advance 25E
2John Louden53.31Super Sportster EP
3Brian Martin1:11.41 Super Sportster EP
4Tom Hatfield1:18.25E Flight T-28
5Weir ThurmanNo timeWatt Cat
Loop, Roll & Land - Nitro.

PlacePilotTimePlane
1Parker Hall31.42Phoenix Sonic
2Matt Shelton31.97OMP Yak 55 profile
3Ray Courtney45.97OMP Yak 55 profile
4Brian James59.31Great Planes Cherokee
5John Lawyer1:19.34Great Planes T60
6Bryan BaumerNo TimeGreat Planes Super Sportster
7Joe HartsockNo TimeTop Flite Contender
Crapshoot - Electric.

PlacePilotTimePlane
1John Louden35.69Super Sportster EP
2Bill Clontz51.13Advance 25E
3Weir Thurman1:07.22Watt Cat
Crapshoot - Nitro.

PlacePilotTimePlane
1Matt Shelton31.40OMP Yak 55 profile
2Parker Hall36.78Phoenix Sonic
3Brian James43.85Great Planes Cherokee
4Ray Courtney43.88OMP Yak 55 profile
5John Lawyer1:02.54Great Planes T60
6Bryan Baumer1:04.44Great Planes Super Sportster
7Brian Martin1:22.69Sig Four Star
8Joe Hartsock1:24.75Sig Kouger
Pony Express.

PlacePilotsTimePlane
1Matt Shelton / Parker Hall / Joe Hartsock1:32.75OMP Yak 55 profile / Phoenix Sonic / Sig Kouger
2Brian Martin / John Louden / Rege Hall1:42.00Flight Zone T-28 / Super Sportster EP / Hawk 60
3Tom Hatfield / Ray Courtney / Bill Clontz1:52.62Flight Zone T-28 / OMP Yak 55 profile / Advance 25E
4Bryan Baumer / Brian James / John Lawyer2:35.07Super Sportster / Cherokee / T60
Raffle winner for the Troy Built 48" wing span Sback 342 - Tom Carlyle
Bill Clontz taking off after a successful pass through the S for the spot landing event.

Joe Hartsock on a spot landing attempt.

John Lawyer taxiing through the S course getting ready for the spot landing.

John on a fly by.

Bryan Baumer spot landing with his Great Planes Super Sportster.

Bryan's Super Sportster lining up.

Ray Courtney with his OMP Yak 55 profile, turned out to be a good choice of plane to fun fly with.

Brian James taxiing through the S to start.

Brian working his Great Planes Cherokee onto the spot landing grid.

Tom Hatfield with his T-28 working the course.

Brian Martin with his Super Sportster EP flying his first fun fly.

Brian's Super Sportster up close.

Matt Shelton with his OMP Yak 55 profile ready to go on spot landing.

Matt's plane hitting the grid.

Parker Hall with his Phoenix Models Sonic.

Parker zeroing in on the grid.

Weir Thurman crossing the finish line with his Watt kat, an electrified Scat Kat.

Wild Bill Clontz through the cones for the Loop, Roll & land event takeoff.

Weir's Scat Kat off for the Loop, Roll & Land event.

Brian Martin bringing his Super Sportster EP back to the mail exchange area in the Pony Express.

Ray Courtney taking off for the Loop, Roll & Land with his OMP Yak 55 profile.

Brian James with his Great Planes Cherokee, who would have thought this would make a good fun fly plane?

John Louden preparing to take off in the Loop, Roll & Land with his Super Sportster EP.

Rege Hall's Hawk 60 flying the Pony Express event, quick turn and accurate stop.