Garry, pm sent.

Senior Pattern April 26, 2014

The Thunderbird Senior Pattern contest blew in on the back of winds gusting and 23 brave pilots showing their skills. It was a great turnout and a lot of good flying despite the strong winds. We had visions of getting in 6 rounds, but Mother Nature talked us into having 4 good rounds. Winds were clocked at 20 mph with gust to 29. Sometimes it was hard to stand-up!

We had three first time SPA flyers and Scott Murry again made the trip from Kansas to join the fun in Ft. Worth. Scott also walked away with second place in B-Novice.

We had only one airplane lost and it wasn’t because of the wind. Tim Reed’s custom Dirty Birdy is one of the prettiest airplanes to ever grace our event. He got disoriented doing downwind inverted flight and it went in at full power.

It was really good to see the novice and b-novice flyers handle the wind and land safely on the concrete. We even saw a graceful helicopter landing by a Kaos right in the middle of the runway.


Tradition holds strong and once again we made a group picture of all the pilots.

First time SPA pilot Logan Rigby took first place in B-Novice ahead of 4 other pilots. It is really neat to see young pilots join in the fun and they are usually very good pilots.

Woody Lake won the Novice and he said he benefited from some of his fiercest competition moving up to a higher class. It will not be long before his competitors are telling him to move up also.

Jonathan Efinger beat out five other pilots to win the sportsman event. This was Jonathan’s first time to compete in sportsman and it didn’t bother him a bit as he flew very well against some seasoned competition.

Ken Knotts won the advanced division after beating long time nemesis and very good pilot Chuck Lee. And again the points were very close as Ken won by a margin of only 20 points.

First time SPA flyer Pat Ensia won the expert division beating Dave Dingman who is a very good expert pilot. The scores would have been closer if Dave could have made his Dirty Birdy do the inverted spin!

Despite the winds, there was good competition in all classes. While the wind blew hard all day, there was a lot of good maneuvers performed and a lot of good fellowship. Everyone worked to keep the contest running and the airplanes in the air most all the time.

Every good event has hard workers in the background and a special thanks to everyone who helped including field maintenance, registration, scoring, running score sheets, getting the pilots in queue and getting drinks, water and lunch and all others who helped including the Thunderbird members who loaned us the field for a great day of flying.

Click the link below for photos of the winners.

Ken Knotts

Wow, it's been almost a year since we had a post in this thread. It won't be much longer though until we can post the results of our first contest of 2015. I'm really looking forward to participating this year.

PS. I have a "secret weapon" I plan to unleash on the unsuspecting Novice contestants this year. It probably won't help me place any higher than last but, the "intimidation factor" should put a little shake in their knees.

Garry

Would someone please push the "Calm" button on the weather controller? I need to fly a new airplane and get some practice before Apr. 25.

Garry

Ha...good luck on that Garry.

Hey, I'm looking for positive thinking here. Let's have none of that negativity. Friday doesn't look too bad ...except for the crosswind. I may try it anyway ...even if I have to fly the 50cc bird for practice. Some is better than none. I'll take the new bird just in case the winds decide to straighten up and fly right.

Hey, Eric sent me a reminder of my SPA no. I wrote it down this time.

The weather looked great today but, I chose to stay home and put the finishing touches on the new plane. I had to add a bit of weight up front to get it to balance at the factory CG but, it's done and ready for first flight. (besides, allergies having been kicking my tail lately).
Doesn't look like I'll have much opportunity to fly the new one unless this screwy spring weather decides to give us a break. I may have to pick a day and go for it but, first flights are nerve wracking enough without goofy winds.

I haven't heard anything from the group. I just finished the job that kept me from going but I have a small one to complete tomorrow.
Hope they have clear skies and no ticks!

Ticks? We have Ticks? I'm buying bug spray first thing tomorrow ! Oh, you must be talking about the Arkansas trip. I've heard they are a bit "tickey" up there.
Hope they have a safe round trip and all goes well and the weather cooperates.
Go team Thunderbird !

All, Now that winter is about over and Spring is near its time to think about our SPA contest. Hope all is well with each of you and I look forward to flying with you hopefully again this year, and having and enjoying a little competition but also enjoying the comradery and friendships we all are making. Below is the contest that are scheduled for the West of the Mississippi (or SPA West as we know it) so far this year that I know of.

Attached is three Event Flyers for contest this year in the Fort Worth Area. Please go to the SPA site and Pre-register for the contest it really helps in the planning of the events. The link to get to the contest calendar to click on the events you are attending is: http://seniorpattern.com/contest_calendar.html

April 23’rd – Thunderbird Field 1 day event

September 10’th – Texas Wings 1 day event

May 21’st – Golden Triangle Club (Flyer does not have the date on it but it is listed on SPA site as May 21’st 1 day event)

Oct 15’th & 16’th – Thunderbird Field 2 day event (Flyer to come)

Gary

Rec'd today via Gary Alphin ....

All, just a friendly reminder the next upcoming SPA event which is this Saturday September 10’th @ Texas Wings.

If you haven’t signed up please go to the link below and register it really helps with the planning of the event with food and raffle prizes so it is really appreciated so please register for the event @:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...fzqsg/viewform

Currently we have 17 people registered. Don’t forget the sunscreen, water & hats!!!!!
See who has registered for this event @:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...gid=1544451603

Here are the scores ....

All just a friendly reminder that our 2’nd SPA of the 2017 season is almost here, May 20’th please if you are coming to the event please preregister at the link below so Frank can determine the food to buy and other things to set up. So far there are 13 registrants.

If you haven’s registered yet you can click on the link below to register.

Hope to see everyone there on May 20’th

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...ewform?c=0&w=1