Post your contest results, future contests, plan contests, etc.

RJ

Mark Ehlers was kind enough to share these photos taken at our last SPA contest last year.

Thanks Mark.

RJ

The first event held in SPA West is in the books. Here are pictures from the event.
Ellis Newkirk is the photog who snapped these during the contest this past weekend.

Garry

Courtesy of Ken Knotts ....

Pictures of the winners ....

Congratulations to our intrepid members who attended the contest.

Gary Alphin finished !st. in Sportsman class with 10 contestants

Ken Knotts finished 4th in Advanced class our of 6 contestants.

Great showing guys.

Garry

As reported by Tim Reed ....

We had a great event. I'll be posting pictures as I get time to work on them. This week will be busy getting caught up on work but I'll sneak some in as we go.

We had 17 registered participants with 16 pilots flying on Saturday in 98 degree mild wind and a few clouds and completed 3 rounds with a single flight line. 14 pilots returned on Sunday to finish round 4 and 5.

No planes were lost and everyone had a great time. Our Dirty Birdy winner was Frank Halpin, the NovaRossi 60CR was won by Mark Ehlers and the NovaRossi 60F was won by Greg Fierst.

The attached photo shows the participants in the following order from 1st place on.
Click the .pdf link below to see pictures of the winners in each category. (courtesy of Ken Knotts).


B-Novice
Frank Reed
Greg Fierst
Charles Dixon


Novice
Gary Nelson
Tony Stelly
Tim Reed
Steve Ehlers


Sportsman
Gary Alphin
Mark Ehlers
Johathan Efinger


Advanced
Ken Knotts
Michael Clements
Chris Berardi


Expert
Dave Dingman
Blake Arnold (not shown)

Here's the scores from the event held on Oct. 12 & 13. Congratulations to all of the winners and to all who attended. It was a super event and a great pleasure to host our SPA East brethren.
Thanks Woody and Ken for the great photos.

Here they are (29 total contestants) in order of finish:

SPA Expert

1 Jamie Strong 4000
2 Ellis Newkirk 3864
3 David Dingman 3814
4 Lindy Quinten 3576

Advanced

1 Chuck Lee 4000
2 Ken Knotts 3979
3 Michael Clements 3829
4 Chris Berardi 3773
5 Ken Blackwell 3769

Sportsman

1 Mark Ehlers 3959
2 Jonathan Efinger 3945
3 Gary Alphin 3902
4 Murray Adams 3800
5 Doug Harvel 3681
6 William Vogeley 3537
7 Thomas Stennis 835
8 Jerry Joyner 525

Novice

1 Gary Nelson 3969
2 Tim Reed 3951
3 Anthony Stelly 3822
4 Steve Ehlers 3622
5 Frank Halpin 3240
6 Kip Niles 3030

B-Novice

1 Greg Rierst 3959
2 Scott Murry 3915
3 Frank Reed 3903
4 Dennis Niles 3353
5 Frank Cox 814

More great pictures ....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfly/...7636577845044/

Garry

Joe, hope you're not the only one viewing this thread. I know we've done some talking about this at the field the last couple of days.

SPA/pattern guys, what do you know about this engine? At .91 cu. in. it appears that it would be SPA legal. I'd probably jump into SPA if I can put together a gasoline powered ship.

http://www.horizonhobby.com/products...ne-EVOE15GX#t2

Never mind........since the 15gx is two stroke it would not be legal. From what I can tell .91 cu. in. must be a 4 stroke.

The 10cc EVO would qualify but would be under powered for a 60-70" wingspan plane.

Rex,
I wrestled with this same issue and that's why I'm flying a 4 stroke nitro .91 CU engine.
I think the Evo 10cc would be good on a .40 sized airframe weighing less than 6 lbs but, it's too weak to handle a .60 sized bird. In fact, if you check the SPA email list you will find that at least one guy has tried it. I haven't heard much discussion on it since last fall but, post a question and you'll get a response.

Just bite the bullet and go nitro 4 stroke. It's not as bad as you might think. They have good power and sound great.

Garry

What kind of differences in SPA type flying can one expect going from 2 to 4 stroke? I'm guessing vertical performance improves since you're tuning a bigger prop? Does it get easier to maintain a constant speed? Any drawbacks?

Jester,

What we've found is that the 4 strokes can lug around 7 lbs 10 oz fine (not including fuel). If you're using a 2 stroke .61 you can do ok with 7 lbs 4 oz. However, when you go to Advanced or Expert you tend to run out of speed on maneuvers like the top hat.
The OS 95 will pull it around pretty good though in all the classes around the 7 lb 8 oz range.

Some have said the 2 strokes fly faster but with less pulling power for up lines. I've seen the modified 4 stroke 91 and OS 95 out fly my OS 55 with the Jett 'pipe' so the advantage is small but it is there.

Gary Alphin and Dave Dingman have flown both 2 stroke and 4 stroke back and forth. I usually fly 2 stroke but have some 4 stokes on the way.

2 strokes on the Jett exhaust burn a lot of fuel but if you have a heavy plane it's the only way to go if you have a 2 stroke.

4S seems to allow a more constant speed maneuver.

My newest plane was 7 lbs 10 oz and was too heavy for the 2S so I'm building a new wing to loose a pound and it should be fine. An OS 95 would probably be ok on it.

The best advise IMO is to keep the plane around 7.0 lbs and you can use what you want.

Most ARFs will be in the 7 lb 6-10 oz range without fuel. The OS 65 2s or OS 95 fs would be fine...Dave Dingman, Gary Nelson are using the OS 65. Mark Ehlers might have one too.

Tim

Thanks Tim. That's what I figured the difference would be. I'm thinking torque and P factor effects will be bigger with a 4 stroke too.

Ya, I would think so too.

I know if you trim your plane and change engines or props it messes everything up and you have to start over...ask me how I know..lol!
And trimming may take months of work to get it just right.

Another thing to remember ....we are limited in prop size. I think the rules allow for a max. 13.5 inch prop. I couldn't find anything limiting pitch. It may be there but, didn't find it on the SPA site. Anyway, that's another factor to consider when selecting an engine.
I've seen both 2 and 4 strokes do well in SPA and Tim is doing the right thing by reducing weight. The lighter airplanes obviously do better going up. However, in our Texas contest conditions (usually windy) the heavier planes seem to hold their lines a bit better.
As I recall, my WM Intruder 90 weighed 7lbs even with a Saito .91 mounted and it had plenty of power. I don't own any nitro 2 strokes so, I can't make a personal comparison.
I've just acquired a used Big Stick .60 airframe and it's complete and ready for engine testing. I hope to do that tomorrow and fly it sometime this week weather permitting. My Saito .91 is on the nose and I'll fly this one until I complete the recover job on my Intruder and put her back together.
See you at the field.

Garry