Michigan CL Championships

Phil Spillman & I are in Detroit at the Michigan CL Championships stunt contest. What a day!
Today was Classic & Old Time day. Tomorrow PA with PAMPA class’.
Old Time Winners:
1st- Phil Spillman.
2nd- John Paris.
3rd- Dave Keats.

Classic winners:
1st- Phil Spillman.
2nd- Jim Morway.
3rd- Patrick Rowan

CD Randy Ryan did a fine job today as did the judges. (Free lunch).

The winds were reported to be 25 mph, gusting higher. Calmer tomorrow. Still a fun day.
You should have been here!

Phil's Brodak .40 impressed all that fondeled it.

One benefit of flying at an event like the one today, not having to fly through your own turbulence!!! Was a great day overall and I am looking forward to tomorrow. Phil did some great flying today, hope he keeps it up.
John

LAST EDITED ON Aug-19-02 AT 06:18 AM (CDT)

Today (Sunday) was much better with respect to the wind. While there was enough to blow turbulence away, there was not enough to knock you over when you were not paying attention. CD Randy Ryan, the Signal Seekers volunteers and all of the judges really did an outstanding job at putting on a great contest. I think that there were 6 entrants in Beginner with Curt Nixon taking top honors, 8 entrants in Intermediate with the lovely Pat Rowan leading the crowd and 7 entrants in Advanced with me squeaking in for the top spot. I am sure that a better list and possibly some pictures will be posted later.

Having made the trip southwest this morning to visit with Capt. Curt and his crew, I have the following to offer up. First, I enjoyed myself very much. Great meeting you Curt (Nixon) and your friendly group. Really enjoyed our chat between rounds and your duties as Pit Boss. I met "Big Art" for the first time and shared a laugh or two. Two thumbs way up for a great bunch of guys and some great flying. Here's are pictures of some of the contenders. Note: I did not fly, nothing ready as yet, ..but soon, god (and spray gun) willing.

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As seems to be the norm any more, my visit was cut short due to family pursuits at home. Afraid I do not have much in the way of details on the models either, but I'm sure one of the "Seekers" will fillin the blanks. Cheers gents.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-19-02 AT 07:29 PM (CDT)

On the last post some names to go with models.
Magnum Wayne Burans.
Cardinal Nick Erbs.
God Of The Winds Jim Morway.
Vegus Dave Heinzman.
Skylark Ron Lutz.
P-47 Bob Mcdonld.

Here are todays PA PAMPA boards. And 1 of John Paris (The control line groupies only wanted to talk to John). And advanced winner.

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I want to thank everyone that came out and made this meet a success. As said before, Saturday was not what you'd call "nice" The wind howled through nearing 30MPH at times. The scoreboards were blown over onto the heads of our tabulators not once but twice (but they wouldn't move). Barney Polzin, one of the tabulators, said it cleared his head. He pointed to the east and said "look at those 4 airplanes!" as 2 airliners made their final aproach to Detroit Metro. Just proves that you can't hurt Barney by hitting him on the head.

Sunday the weather was better and the flying was good. I saw flyers much improved over the last year like Jim Morway who flew a beautiful airplane he called Aeolus (God of the Wind), he's getting tough and will be in advanced soon I think.

We'll do it again next year if we still have a field, (yeah, we're in limbo right now and may lose the field we've used for better then 30 years). And if not, we'll start again when we get a new one.

Hope to see you all in Cleveland.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-19-02 AT 07:50 AM (CDT)

and "Impatient" (Purple) is mine.

Thanks Pat and Congrats!

Randy, had a great time regardless of the weather. The North Coast Controliners had a great turnout. See all you Signal Seekers at Cleveland. Saturday 9/21 is OT and Classic. Sunday 9/22 is PAMPA classes. We are looking forward to it. We will see what can be done about the weather.
Thanks again
Wayne Buran

You bet Wayne, it's fun where ever modelers get together. Modelers are the best!

I feel a little silly asking this since flyers were right there, but what are the dates for the Capital City Control Liners meet in Columbus?

Thanks,

Hi Randy,
Columbus is 9-28,9-29.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-19-02 AT 07:28 PM (CDT)

Detroit, Sunday, PA day.
This is the look of a stunt pilot ready to do battle in the stunt wars of Detroit. Ron Lutz 3rd place Int. PA. Also president of the North Coast CL club (Cleveland, OH). A fierce competator.

Man,

When Ron puts on this face...LOOK OUT!!!

Thanks Pat,

HMMM, Scheduling conflict, I'll work on that.

Randy, did you find a lawnchair with wooden arm rests looking for an ownor?
Thanks
Wayne

Pat Rowen and I have been to several stunt contests this year and enjoyed them all. However tossing in the wind for spice and the general all round good humor and easy nature of Randy and his team, this one must be ranked way high in value for hour and expense in attending! Special thanks to Randy for his management of this one but also to him or whomever supplied the water and sandwich mankings for us all. THANK YOU ever so MUCH! I also enjoyed chatting with the men at the tabulating table! The good times and associations were everywhere to be enjoyed. To all of you thanks for a fine two days! Hope we all can do it again in 2003. Phil Spillman

Sorry Wayne,

No homeless furniture of any kind.

Man, I was up in MI in June and was driving all over 15, 16, etc. mile road looking for the axel plant with my uncle. I just thought I'd look for you guys field one day. I didn't have a phone number and did not find the field. Where was the contest held? It sounds like you guys had a good contest. Will you be having one next year around the same time? Just an observation but, with the frenzy of active happening around up there, I am real supprised CL ani't really kicking it big time. Well, hope we hook up someday.

Meatballs,

You were about 25 miles too far north and about the same too far east.

We hope to have a contest next year, but our field situation is tenious. We had a great time as we always do.

CL is picking up steam, but like Free Flight, most of it is old guys coming back. Nothing wrong with that except there aren't many to carry on.

>Meatballs,
>
>You were about 25 miles too
>far north and about the
>same too far east.
>
>We hope to have a contest
>next year, but our field
>situation is tenious. We had
>a great time as we
>always do.
>
>CL is picking up steam, but
>like Free Flight, most of
>it is old guys coming
>back. Nothing wrong with that
>except there aren't many to
>carry on.
>
>Randy

Randy,
Now you know that is not true. There are some of us middle aged dudes that are in the circles. Give my boy and girl some time, maybe I can get them in to it as well.

There
>are some of us middle
>aged dudes that are in
>the circles.
>John

I suppose you plan to fly till you're 98!??

> There
>>are some of us middle
>>aged dudes that are in
>>the circles.
>>John
>
>
>I suppose you plan to fly
>till you're 98!??
>
>
>Curt

Gee Curt, you are making me feel bad now. I understand that the years in the service and being married have made me look older than my true age, but you just added 14 years to me!!!!! Better start looking for my AARP card.

I've got my AARP card, that's not a brag, just a fact.

John, the real fact is that people in your age range only lower the average age by a tiny fraction of a percentage. In reality, people MY age do the same thing.

Sad truth, how many youngsters do you see compared to the regulars you see at a meet? I can assure you this, they are NOT coming in as fast as "we" (older folks) are going out.

Hey John I think it's your shiny head that throws us off. LOL only kidding coach. We need all the guys we can get. Sure wish my kids would come unglued to the tv and come fly with me. Took a wrong turn somewhere and paying for it now.
Jay

Randy,
I hate to admit that you are exactly right in your observations and comment about the average age of the flyers in the CL community today. Most of the time, I feel like the youngster in the crowd, and most of the time I am and that is at the extremely young age of 35. Jay makes a comment about getting the kids unglued from the TV (or video games) to get them out to do something. This too is true. IMHO, I think that the glory and thrill associated with aviation is not what it used to be. The "quick fix" of the ARFs found in RC seem to appeal to about the same age group as we see in CL. The drawback I have seen there is that new pilots come and new pilots go. I did see, for the very first time, some kids trying their hand with a buddy box. Sure was a nice scene. I figure getting any kid into any decent hobby is a good thing.
Sorry I don't have an answer on how to resupply our ranks, but I will continue to try with anyone that wants to give it a shot.

>Hey John I think it's your
>shiny head that throws us
>off. LOL only kidding
>coach. We need all
>the guys we can get.
> Sure wish my kids
>would come unglued to the
>tv and come fly with
>me. Took a wrong
>turn somewhere and paying for
>it now.
>Jay

Jay,
My head is not that shiny. There are about 15-20 comb-overs that hide the scalp real good.
John

You guys are right about the thinning ranks.

My take on it is this: we cant attract just the kids--they cant do this hobby on their own--there must be (financial) support from the parent(s). I always try to explain the quality family time aspect of the hobby. I think the guys that do the scout troop and similar family group demos and presentations are exactly on the right track. We have an organizational structure like the Soap Box Derby, with regional and national/world level competition--but in our world, you can continue to compete as you age. There arent many hobbies/sports out there that have the same range of age available.

How do we tap into the Father/Mother =Child activity chain??

Improved visibility and "glamor" would help. And as John said, take every opportunity to explain and help the interested new/young folks.

Just some rambling from an "old fart"

Curt (another "AARPer")

Don't feel bad about your kids, its not all you. I have 6 grown kids and 13 grandkids. Of my 6 all tried modeling, one is still involved and that sporatically. I'm hoping that maybe I can get some interest from the grandkids, but to be totally honest, I'm not counting on it.

Most of us (older guys) grew up in an era when an airplane flying over was cause to stop and watch. There was a fastination and a romance. Today, aiplanes flying over are just sources of annoying noise. Some younger folks catch the bug, but for the most part the new "in" stuff is going to grab their attention. From the late 20's through the mid to late 50's airplanes and HAM radio were things that were really cool, now their both for nerds, weirdos and old people. I don't mind that, I love the physics of flight and the asthetics of a well designed model both from the perspective of art and function. Try to express that to a kid today and you'll get a blank stare.

Not uplifting, but true.