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Before we get to the weekends events I want to preface my remarks by noting the remarkable job that Steve Pennypacker has done in organizing and running this contest for the last three years. Steve and his amazing assistant Rob Petit make things flow. From this font of careful planning and management comes a contest that seems effortless.
The weather looked dodgy all week, but Thursday the sixteenth dawned bright and became windy. Upon arriving at the airfield at eight in the morning the first evidence of a contest was Aviat's Danny Adams full of good will and wild tales after having dodged Boston traffic during rush hour. Danny is just plain nice, and combined with his encyclopedic knowledge of the Pitts line, he is hard to beat as a companion at a contest. Of course, we immediately put him to work doing tech inspections on Decathlons. The box was laid out by the stalwart box markers and opened around nine in the morning for practice. Twelve airplanes and twenty pilots crowded in for a windy practice session, suggesting an "enormous" turnout, which alas, the weather was to degrade to "healthy".
Friday the seventeenth started with dark layers of clouds, which threatened to deny us the air. However we opened the box around eight thirty and practice went on as more craft arrived. We were blessed with the arrival of four Russian round-motored airplanes. Chapter 35 President Hans Bok had somehow traded in his [steve- I suggest removing "bent" because he's trying to sell the Laser, which is actually a terrific airplane and in better condition now than before the mishap- though accurate, might give people the wrong impression of the plane -ssp] Laser for a pristine Shukoi 29. The titanium landing gear legs on this highly engineered craft are worth more than many aerobatic airplanes. Craig Lesinski drove in his and Dave Watson's trusty tractor- theYak 55. And a clean Yak 52 arrived with Sergey Prolagayev, a Ukrainian Unlimited World team pilot who aimed his skills and the Yak 52 at the Intermediate category. Now things were really getting interesting! As if this were not enough, another 52 arrived with a visitor just checking out the contest. We should have known from all this Russian metal that snow was not far behind.
After a nice hanger lunch buffet laid on by dedicated volunteer coordinator Bill McGoldrick, we held the pilot's briefing at two o'clock and were soon flying. The well-oiled judging machinery under the expert management of Jim Ward was quickly in place and ready to roll. Roll we did on that breezy afternoon and the weather just got better. We rolled through the Intermediate known, the Advanced known, the Unlimited known and the Intermediate free. We did have some trouble with communicating with some of the planes in the box hold due to a frequency mixup, but through the use of the pony express and semaphore flags we got Hans back from New Hampshire. The end of day found us tired but satisfied with a good days flying.
Chapter 35 claims the unique position of being the only chapter to have a snow delay in their contest. Saturday was a perfect day for flying if you were prepared to fly the flat sequence at 500 ft. in the white stuff. The ramp looked like the training camp for the Soviet aerobatic team: full of snow covered Russian airplanes.
Many of us sat around the small airport lounge swapping tales and then sat around the 202 Restaurant and then sat around the lounge some more and then sat around the restaurant some more. Mike Goulian led an overland expedition to see Star Wars in Worcester. Some never made it back.
The best part of Saturday was the banquet. The food was good and the crowd was boisterous. At the close of the meal we held a raffle of items generously donated by the aerobatic community. Michael Goulian, Patty Wagstaff, Craig Lesinski, Gene Beggs, Alan Cassidy, Hans Bok, Aeroshell, the EAA, ASA Books and the Old Mill (our banquet location) all donated items ranging from autographed books to a case of oil to a ride in that spectacular Shukhoi. The proceeds help keep our contest afloat. Both the financial and spiritual support from these people and organizations is highly appreciated by Chapter 35.
Sunday arrived with crisp air, clear skies, and a roaring breeze from the west. We all hustled the aircraft out from the hangers and were ready to fly by the pilot's briefing. The plan was to fly the combined Primary and Sportsman categories twice back to back and then see what other categories time would allow. As the judges huddled in the wind, Jim masterfully ran two holding patterns and kept moving aircraft through the box. A wide range of aircraft, from Extras to Yaks to Pitts to Decathlons a plenty took to the blustery skies. Much flying there was.
There were eight first timers in this lot. A number of pilots in Primary/Sportsman flew rented aircraft. These included the second and third place finishers in Sportsman and all of the Primary winners. Those of us bit by the aerobatic bug but without a bankroll big enough to buy a plane should take note.
Among this group there was a remarkable woman El Hilliard, who had decided as a child that she wanted to fly aerobatics. El, after years of hard work and personal struggle made her way into the company of Mike Goulian and the folks at Executive Flyers (where she now works). With help and coaching from Mike and her buddy Ford Rackemann and much support from the Northeast acro community, El flew the Primary sequence after only ten hours in the EFA's Decathlon. The ramp was full of El's supporters, faces and hearts turned up to her as she flew her sequence. She did well and medalled in her category. The crowd roared. Great work El, we hope to see you at many more contests.
By the time we had worked through the seventeen Primary/Sportsman competitors twice over, and flown the Advanced freestyle and the Unlimited Unknowns our time was growing short. There was concern that we not fly so late that people would have a hard time making it home before dark. The Contest Director wisely decided that we would have the medal ceremony followed by Craig Lesinski and Michael Goulian flying the unlimited four-minute free style.
The Awards ceremony was not ceremonious. We were shocked to learn that the scurvy knaves of Chapter 52 had won the trophy for the highest combined score. Fearless leader-Alex Belov, and his Weather Channel connections may have played a strategic part in ordering up weather that favored his chapter's pilots, including the Ukrainian ringer-Sergei. A congressional investigation is underway.
Though he didn't bring home any wood, one other pilot deserves special mention. "Barefoot" Johnny Hutchison flew his first contest ever at Orange one year ago, flying Sportsman in an S2B and placing 4th of 17 pilots. This year he was back flying Intermediate in a new Giles G-202. After placing 2nd in the Known with a strong flight, Johnny dropped a few places after the Free. But don't let the placing fool you. With only 40 hours in the airplane, he flew an Advanced level Free, in preparation for his next contest, which will be in that category. Johnny is flying the airplane very cleanly and crisply. Here's a guy to watch in the future.
After the merriment had died down and the various trophies had been awarded, we again turned our attention to the skies to be dazzled by first Mike and then Craig flying 4-minute freestyles that had us laughing in wonderment.
After that there was nothing to do but pick up the box and fly home.
Here are some Pictures from the contest.
Following are the results:
Category - Primary
(Results calculated using TBLP w/ min.weight threshold at 1.2 std.deviation) Rank Pilot Chapter Knwn 1 Knwn 2 TBLP Tot %pp 1st Janusz Becla 376.8956 365.1877 742.0833 75.72 2nd Mark Lander 353.3126 252.6960 606.0086 61.84 3rd El Hilliard 335.6532 257.4681 593.1213 60.52 4th Alex Baranov 282.8008 286.9730 569.7738 58.14Category - Sportsman
(Results calculated using TBLP w/ min.weight threshold at 1.2 std.deviation) Rank Pilot Chapter Known Free TBLP Tot %pp 1st Sheldon Apsell 934.7061 1042.2958 1977.0019 73.22 2nd Greg Dinning 980.3115 984.7214 1965.0329 72.78 3rd David Smith 915.0180 960.9989 1876.0169 69.48 4th Bruce Green 914.1201 945.6724 1859.7925 68.88 5th Ryan Retelle 827.6892 972.0222 1799.7114 66.66 6th Mike Ganor 606.8045 1027.9107 1634.7152 60.55 7th Rolfe Tessem 852.6878 711.6921 1564.3799 57.94 8th Wes Liu 726.8559 800.5938 1527.4497 56.57 9th Greg Mirkin 1046.9670 335.6028 1382.5698 51.21 10th Alex Brulin 352.7739 1012.2662 1365.0401 50.56 11th Chip Drapeau 704.7621 400.4735 1105.2356 40.93 12th Bill Gordon 0.0000 691.0740 691.0740 25.60 13th Stephen Till 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 00.00Category - Intermediate
(Results calculated using TBLP w/ min.weight threshold at 1.2 std.deviation) Rank Pilot Chapter Known Free TBLP Tot %pp 1st Alex Belov 1742.1410 1575.8158 3317.9568 82.95 2nd Steve McCalmont 1478.4831 1560.4383 3038.9214 75.97 3rd Sergey Prolagayev 1571.0467 1464.8926 3035.9393 75.90 4th Dennis Thompson 1481.5272 1464.0169 2945.5441 73.64 5th Neville Hogan 1544.8901 1365.2720 2910.1621 72.75 6th Johnny Hutchison 1714.1603 1167.7533 2881.9136 72.05 7th Ray Moorman 1494.0228 1379.2898 2873.3126 71.83 8th David Watson 1463.8715 1365.1234 2828.9949 70.72 9th Peter E Bocon 1548.1690 1187.3003 2735.4693 68.39 10th Ronald Burns 1230.3261 1451.8559 2682.1820 67.05 11th Sigrid Baumann 1256.5862 1320.6603 2577.2465 64.43 12th Scott Higgins 1082.6264 0.0000 1082.6264 27.07Category - Advanced
(Results calculated using TBLP w/ min.weight threshold at 1.2 std.deviation) Rank Pilot Chapter Known Free TBLP Tot %pp 1st Guenther Eichhorn 1970.1250 2366.7500 4336.8750 70.29 2nd Hans Bok 1762.2500 2366.6250 4128.8750 66.92Category - Unlimited
(Results calculated using TBLP w/ min.weight threshold at 1.2 std.deviation) Rank Pilot Chapter Known Free TBLP Tot %pp 1st Mike Goulian 35 2718.1250 2996.0250 5714.1500 73.35 2nd Craig Lesinski 35 2273.2500 2564.3438 4837.5938 62.10Category - Unlimited 4 min Free
(Results calculated using TBLP w/ min.weight threshold at 1.2 std.deviation) Rank Pilot Chapter Prog 4 TBLP Tot %pp 1st Mike Goulian 35 3492.000 3492.0000 87.30 2nd Craig Lesinski 35 3216.000 3216.0000 80.40
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