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The Emerald Air Corp (EAC) hosted the 20th Annual Labor Day Pattern contest in Creswell, Oregon on September 3rd and 4th. This event was well attended with 24 contestants and competitors in every class. The contest has a fantastic reputation and always draws lots of pilots. We had several Canadian pilots make the trip south also some District Seven pilots were able to attend. My wife and I traveled on Thursday so we could have all day Friday to practice and chat with our friends.
I think the reason everyone enjoys this contest so much is all the effort the EAC club and their families put into this event. We were fed dinner on Friday night and enjoyed a big BBQ Saturday night. The weather was great, calm in the morning with a slight breeze in the afternoon. Temperatures were also nice cool in the morning but all in all a very good contest weekend.
Gary McClellan CD'd the contest and the whole McClellan family made sure everything ran smoothly and that everyone was enjoying themselves. This was the 20th EAC contest giving us a little more to celebrate. Roy and Dorothy Speights have attended all 20 contests and were on hand to help get this event rolling. Roy was recovering from surgery and was not able to fly. It was great to see them and the contest would not be the same with out them! D8 wishes Roy a speedy recovery and we hope to see you flying next season. We ran 4 rounds on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. Those of us who did drive home on Sunday were on the road pretty early, a lot of the pilots stayed Sunday night and made the trip home on Monday.
We had two new pilots flying in Sportsman, Rob Hoover and Ray Gauthier. We ran the dual sportsman option to give the pilots more time in the air. Rob really dominated the contest winning all 6 rounds. These new pilots had a great time and I am sure we will see them next season. I would expect to see Rob flying Intermediate or Advanced very soon!
Intermediate had 6 contestants including the legendary "Tractor Mike" (Mike Miller for those of you not in the know) from D7. Jim Hiller and Tractor Mike had a really good back and forth battle. Each winning 2 rounds on Saturday and 1 on Sunday, but Jim's flying was just a bit stronger and won the event. I would not be surprised to see these pilots in Advanced next season. Some very nice flying all weekend. John Gaylord was the only pilot in the Advanced class but I expect that will change next season. John flew every round and had a great time. Hope to see John next season!
In the Masters class we had 9 pilots and a real slug fest for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place between Gary McClellan, Gordon Anderson, and Frank Capone. After 6 rounds each pilot had won two rounds resulting in less that 50 points separating 1st from 3rd. In the end Gary won the contest. It seems kind of fitting that the CD wins the 20th annual contest. A second battle was also fought for the D8 District Championship. Gordon came into the event with a sizable point lead and the only one that could take it away was Gary. Gary had to place 3 places above Gordon to win. Gordon flew a strong 2nd place to hold on to the points lead. The FAI class had 6 pilots; I think this is the most pilots we have had in FAI in D8 for the last several years. Dave Villwock and Craig Blodgett were in a very close race all weekend. Dave was flying his biplane and Craig with his electric. Craig won the contest but only by 13 points. Next year the FAI routine changes and I hear several Masters pilots talking about giving it a try, we will see! Below are the standings for the contest.
The EAC contest has a special raffle tradition. Tickets are sold all weekend and after the awards the raffle tickets are drawn. Each time a ticket is drawn the winner gets to select a prize from a goody table. Lots of great items to choose from! There were cool grand prizes as well. I think pretty much everyone got something. A big thanks to the EAC pilots and their families for organizing this contest and collecting and creating the gifts.
The EAC event is the last District 8 contest and as a result I got to hand out the point championship awards and honor those winners. I will write details on the point champs next month but I would like to list the winners: Sportsman: Ray Gauthier In addition to the point champions I select a District MVP. This year I selected my wife, Meri. She did a tremendous amount of work for the district this year and is very deserving. She was sure surprised when I announced her name!
This event marks the closing of the 2005 pattern season. We sure had a blast! We enjoyed a lot of great competition and great friends. See you in the pits…. Gordon Anderson |
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