Stunt clinic, Arlington

A few snapshots from the "stunt clinic" in Arlington WA.

It was swell. Except for a 5-minute burger break, I think Paul flew continuously all day. Many thanks to Steve and the other Skyraiders for organizing this.

Yeah, wow. Paul Walker worked like a trooper all weekend. Paul flew most the models and worked with each flier to get them tweeked and working better. Everybody was pretty thrilled with the improvements. Howard also worked hard with his electric tea kettle, steaming and bending models into submission. Unfortunately, he could not attend on Sunday.

Big thanks to the Judges, Paul W., Mike Conner, Randy Powell and D.Dirt. I've not seen Dirt being pushed into judging before, but I think he did a wonderful job and some of the comments on the score sheets were informative and/or hilarious. Chris Gomez provided burgers Saturday and tube steaks Sunday, and hauled a lot of the equipment to/from the contest site. Thadd Faussett ran score sheets, while I tallied scores. Gary Letsinger helped me Thursday with mowing the three circles. Numerous others helped with various chores, setting up and taking down sun shades, etc. Thanks, everybody! At one time, we had 4 circles going, with models in the air at all at one time. Pretty cool!

I wish Dave Gardner had been there to help with the administration table just a little bit. It would also have been great to have more Oregonites and BC Hosers. Keith Varley went home to BC Saturday night and was there early Sunday AM...not a bad drive from BC, except for the border crossing. The folks who had not seen this site previously were quite impressed and amazed. Yes, the grass is dry and crunchy now, but the field is still pretty amazing. The green patches are Scotch Broom that is mowed frequently. I dug out several of these, but should hit them with Agent Orange next trip up.

The proposed Judging Clinic didn't happen. Don McClave had to return to Portland early, but helped a lot with test flying and advising Saturday. It was probably ill-conceived, at least due to the current heat wave, nobody seemed to have the energy to do much more than what was really mandatory. Maybe Don will give us another shot at a simple Judging Clinic?

Traffic was lousy southbound both evenings, but I hope everybody got home safely. Steve

WOW. You guys are terrific! You wouldn't think of taking the clinic on the road would ya? Sounds like a real good weekend. Paul, Howard and others are very unselfish with their talents to help others. Hats off to all. Sure could use a clinic here in the Midwest.

Didn't get any of D.Dirt's marinated-on WallyWally Sweet Onions. I am, on the other hand, very pleased with the favorable reports. When we could fit this into the schedule next year would be worthy of some comments. April/May are doubtful weather. So is June. And early July. But when the airplanes are fairly fresh from the shop is most logical. Thanks to everybody for the kind words, encouragement and support. Steve

YES I would love to see another one. GREAT Job GUY'S.

Scott(dollar short)Riese:9

John: Chuck Matheny got married last August or so, and has been seldom seen since. He is a good guy, and hope he can get a "weekend pass" for a few contests, at least.

Dirt: If you want to insist that we (NW Skyraiders) do this again, you have to submit a membership application with $25/year. There has been some talk about a Northern Chapter, to cut down the amount of drudgery required. Support it if you can.

One thing that concerns me is that Arlington is the only site we currently have that could provide 3 circles in close proximity to a single pit area. We really need that Regional Valley Model Air Park in the near future. The more members and documented CL fliers we have, the more leverage we get. Meanwhile, the website is still down, and I'm not too happy about it. Steve

Dave,

Could you make the sky a bit more gray? Maybe include a light water cover over the grass?

Gotta love color saturation.

OS, the week prior to C.O.L.D. is kinda occupied with the NATS, and the weekend after is the traditional PAC Contest in Richmond, BC. The last weekend in July is the fab Bladder Grabber (as they swapped dates with the Riverside Kombat Klash), the weekend after that is the Prairie Fire Stunt Contest in Edmonton, Alberta. I would be at the Bladder Grabber, except for my 40th HS Reunion, and would very much like to go to both Canadian contests, but I'm only working 24 hr weeks.

I just weighed the Mutant Magnum (aka Magnum Plus from Tom Dixon's plans list) at 62 oz. It must have been the 4.6 sec. laps on 65' eye/eye lines that had Paul off balance. I think I would really like this airplane better with the 2Star .60bb or a Saito .56. It has a Dirt-tuned ST G.51 (GMA cylinder timing, but higher compression than GMA, .285" venturi/.156" spraybar). Next time out, I'm trying a 12-4 APC and letting it buzz up more. Yeah, I need to open up my tricks. Steve