Oct. '00 Final Fling Fun Fly

Saturday, Oct. 7 woke as a cloudless, slightly cool day, to remind us that Fall is here. By 9:00 AM, the pilots began arriving to what worked out to be one of the better TCRCM events of the year, one of the few that didn't have a 15 kt. crosswind to contend with.

By 10:00 AM, 18 eager flyers had assembled to try their hand and machines at "Fun Flying." Dave Turner from Yakima, plus those PropTwisters Roy Lightle and Mark Ewert from Walla Walla joined us to determine who was the best at Timed Flight, always popular Climb and Guide, Touch and Go's, and the hair-pulling "Blind Taxi" events.

With only a zephyr of wind never more than a couple of knots, everyone was flying at peak form, with the only casualty a broken prop.

The Final Fling'ers.  Mark Ewert took 1st place, with Ryan Phipps taking 2nd.  Ryan was leading most of the way, but Mark Ewert got a better dice roll in the Touch and Go event to edge out Ryan.

Ron Wright prepares his Goldberg Tiger for the Climb and Glide. For this event, contestants got 15 seconds from wheels off the ground to climb as high as possible, then they had to shut down their motors. The objective was to glide as long as possible before settling back to terra firma. Extra points were earned for landing on specific spots on the runway.

Roy Lightle brings it in over the fence after the Timed Flight.  Objective was to fly, from wheels off to wheels back on, as close as possible to 150 seconds (2 1/2 minutes for the math impaired).  The error (+ or -) was subtracted from 150 to determine a score.  Of course, no clock or stopwatch could be used by the contestant. Again, extra points were earned for landing on specific spots on the runway.

Ted Tanasse had his new Kyosho what-ever-it-is out for its first event.  The new Kyosho really looks well built and Ted reports very stable flight characteristics.  that little white line on the grass below the airplane is the end of the 10 point landing spot Ted.

Talking about it was almost as fun as doing it!  Ted Tanasse and Tom Griffin discuss the finer points of a good touch and go.  Or were they wondering when their wives would bring lunch?? Not sure which.

Brett Bowen had a new Fun Fly ARF out to show.  He is just approaching the 8 point area in the Touch and Go event.

The 10 point (best landing) spot was a band perpendicular to the runway about 10 feet wide. There were bands for 8, 6 and 4 points on either side of the 10. Outside of those areas, but still on the runway got ya 2 points.

Ron "Chief" McMahan tries to dump that altitude with a sideslip as he tries to hit the 10 point area on the Touch and Go event.  Each contestant got 5 T&C's, with one restart allowed if you dug that prop in a little deep on a "dropper".  Larry Mitchell humbled us all with 4 tens and 1 eight.

Roy Lightle hits the 4 spot.  Or was this a takeoff??  After each contestant was finished getting his/her best score at the Touch and Go's, they had to roll them "bones" (dice for you non-gamblers) and their scores were multiplied by the number of spots showing. Steve Sterling's "snake eyes" did nothing to improve his score, but those eleven's sure helped Mark Ewert take home the grand prize.

These guys got their wives to bring lunch!  Left to right we got Dave Phipps and his son Ryan, with Ron "Chief" McMahan blocking the view of Dave's wife, then Gordon Anderson and his wife, followed by club Vice President Jerry Wallis.

Dave Phipp's tries to stick his thumb in the prop while his son Ryan (red coat) watches.  They are preparing for the "Blind Taxi".

Ever try to taxi a model airplane through cones without looking??  Not exactly an easy task, even when you have an assistant yelling left, left, no right, right. This is Bill Bowen showing us how it is done.

1st and 2nd place prizes were SIG Ultimate Bipe Fun Fly Airplanes.

Here are the final standings from the Final Fling:

As planned, the events were low key and fun, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I want to thank all who assisted and particularly, Charlie Main, Gordon Anderson, and Bill Greger.

As usual, Mark Ewert took first place but we were particularly pleased to have Ryan Phipps win the second SIG Ultimate kit. Now he won't have to share flying a bipe with his dad!!

The weather was perfect - maybe we should hold all our events the first week in October!!

This page last updated 05/21/03 23:00