August Play-by-Play
by Duane Barrett, Contest Coordinator
Overview
I arrived at the field about 8:00am to find a mild wind blowing with cloudy skies and a very heavy mist falling. The trees on the far side of the runway were barely visible. Weatherman predicted 71 degrees, cloudy haze and 5-8 MPH winds for today. Winds were not there yet. By 8:45AM, the drizzle had fizzled and the wind was basically about 5mph and right down the runway the wrong way for a racing start to the North. Competition Saturday in August ended up being an interesting day for all who attended. Thank you to everyone who turned out to support us this month. We had about 25 people counting all the spectators and the racers. With Susan on vacation and Floyd in Texas on medical leave we have to give a big thank you to KC for making the pizza run for us today!
Weather
The drizzle fizzled out before racing started, but the skies remained cloudy all day with about a 5 to 7 mph wind blowing the wrong way, but we were still able to do a northly take off for immediate racing action and then we landed the opposite direction.
T-28 Class
Heat 1, Section 1:
We had 8 pilots choosing to fly so two sections of four each today. Terry first, Duane second, John third, and Tom fourth, uneventful first section heat.
Heat 1, Section 2: Rick first, Nick second, and Marlon third, Geo crashed out lap four for a DNF. Geo's crash was rather scary as he came unexpectedly from overhead of the three other pilots and crashed behind the pilots and in front of the spectators. Everyone safe.
Heat 2, Section 1: Four planes with Terry first, Duane second, John third, and Tom fourth. Clean uneventful heat.
Heat 2, Section 2: Rick first, Geo second (he had a backup plane), Nick third, and Marlon fourth. Clean heat no issues.
Heat 3, Section 1: Terry first, John second (he said he was going to beat me out this time and he did), Duane third, and Tom fourth.
Heat 3, Section 2: Rick first, Geo second, Nick third, and Marlon fourth.
T-28 Wrap Up: Out of the fourteen (14) who signed up to race this year we had nine show up and eight race today. We flew two sections of four. The weather stayed cloudly but warmer by the end of the T-28 racing today and I believe that everyone had a good day today, ecept maybe those who crashed. Good turn out for the day and thanks to everyone for your support. Oh yes, the drizzle held off for racing.
Reno Class
Heat One: Terry first, Rick second, and John third. Geo crashed into the # 1 pylon completely severing section 4 of the pylon and taking out his reno plane. There were many close almost cuts during this heat.
Heat Two: Rick first, Terry second, and John third. Geo clipped John on launch with his back up plane and went down before the heat started. Rick first because both Rick and Terry made cuts during the heat with Terry making the last one which allowed Rick to over take him before the finish. But it was very close and I could have called either one first. There were many close almost cuts and many that didn't get called that should have been during this heat.
Heat Three: Terry first, Rick second, and John third. Geo was DNS as he had ran out of airplanes.
Reno Wrap Up: It was fast and exciting at times today! Thanks guys for coming out and joining the fun. Geo had a very bad day today losing three planes during the course of the day, hope he still had fun.