September 13th, Moses Lake (John Hanson reporting):
This was one of the larger events, with 24 entries. TCRCM participants were Bill Greger (4th), Larry Mitchell (5th), and John Hanson (18th). Interestingly, this event was won by Bill Knoll, flying electric planes!
September 26th, Walla Walla: A low-key, enjoyable event, run by Mark Ewert and Dale Christensen. Six members of the TCRCM participated; Bill Greger (3rd), yours truly (4th), Ron McMahan (6th), Larry Mitchell (9th), Ron Shaver (10th), and Jerry Wallis (14th). My vote for most exciting recovery goes to Jerry Wallis, who managed to remove his landing gear during a touch & go without stopping the engine, then execute an unbelievable recovery to a ‘wheels gone’ landing without any further damage! The most spectacular moment of the day, however, occurred after the contest was over; yours truly and Mr. Greger, while flying out the last fuel in our respective fuel tanks, proved once again that two objects cannot occupy the same physical space— a mid-air that was detected as far away as the UC Berkley seismology labs! Both planes were (sob!) totally destroyed, and poor Larry Mitchell, already lined up for a landing, had to make his final approach through a virtual blizzard of balsa wood, Monokote, and servo extensions. Alas, my ‘old faithful’, after some 900 flights, is no more, and Bill Greger is reportedly building a Sherman Tank with titanium wings...
October 10th, Zillah: Another well-run event, with a total of 17 participants divided into Sportsman and Expert classes based on plane type. This was a somewhat more competitive event, with greater emphasis on piloting skill and less on chance. A total of six tasks were flown, and no restarts were permitted once a task was begun, which made it possible to get in all six tasks smoothly with no wasted time.
Bill Greger and Larry Mitchell placed 6th and 8th respectively in Sportsman, and yours truly finished 7th (also known as ‘dead last’) in Expert class.
Champlin Air Museum, Mesa, Arizona
John Hanson reports that the Champlin Air Museum at Falcon Field has the most impressive array of both restored and replicated World War I aircraft he’s ever seen... a better collection than even the Smithsonian, according to John, who also attended the Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas. Since I’m out of space this month, perhaps John will be kind enough to provide further details at the October meeting.