WCSC

I just returned from the Western Canadian Stunt Championships in Vancouver. Really enjoyed the great flying and seeing all the planes.
Thanks to Bruce who got us back to the ferry. P.S...we walked into the terminal and the boat was almost leaving so we made the 4PM!!
Great to put faces to the people who sometimes post here.
Terrific day. I took lots of pictures but as they are high pixel quality, there seems to be no way I can get them on here.
I spent 20 minutes trying to downsize a pic of Dirt's Impact. The pic started out at 600+KB and I did manage to get it down to 60KB but any more and there wouldn't be any airplane left.
I tried Paint....Adobe....JPG....emailing it downsized to myself...the best I could do was 60KB. I then quit.
Anyone has more suggestions other than taking the shots at lowest res. to start with, let me know.
Thanks for a great MEET!
Norm

LAST EDITED ON Aug-02-04 AT 02:31 PM (CDT)
 
Mine are usually that big untill I crop and resize. Send me the full size photo and I'll see what I can do with it.

VGMC Annual Western Canada Stunt Championships. July 31st, August 1st. Richmond, B.C., Rice Mill Road site.

Weather. We had some. No clouds. Full sun. Light breezes to keep us cool. The only issue was flying into sun early in the mornings. Fabulous conditions for CL Stunt.

Friday begin with usual suspects in a day early for some practice. Keith began having engine-run problems, Rob "Duck" Duckering, having *not* left his brain in his tool box, almost instantly diagnosed this as being related to a failing rear bearing. Chris and I, being too smart for this, persevered with fuel-feed theories. Rob was not only **exactly** correct, he was the only one who understood the problem.

Will Reeb has a very nice Olympic, but I thought Brodak 40 tended to give up on him right when he needed power. Always after a better setup, Will pulled off the APC 10-6, going with APC 10-5. A remarkable improvement.

Saturday began with kicked-back fun of OTS. This quickly turning ugly when Keith beat me back into 3rd place with a super landing as opposed to my usual frog-marching end to each flight. Congratulations to both Chris and Keith. (Baggers both...)

Classic was pretty much a triumph of experience, old age, treachery, a most unlikely model, an equally unlikely engine over a superior and very well-finished Olympic. While results were suspenseful and a little slow in coming, Will and I had a really good fight. I'm hoping most of 600-mile (Ooops, 960-klick) trip home saw him mumbling over and over, "Stupid 20FPs! An ancient *Combat* design! Da Dirt at the handle! I had a *real* Classic Stunt plane! Woe is me! Is there no justice in this world?"

Old Time Stunt
**Judges**: Will Reeb, Joan Cox
Chris Cox 270.50. Barnstormer, 25FP w/stock muffler
Keith Varley 256.75. Humongous, 40FP
Dan Rutherford 251.75. Zilch X, Fox 35
Bob Smiley 246.00. Ringmaster, Fox 35
Rob Duckering 232.50. Nobler, Brodak 40
Mike Haverly 225.00.___________
Mike Conner 219.25. Something weird, Fox 35
Bruce Duncan 50.00. Firecat, Fox 35
Notable moment: While it's nice to see Chris win in this event, this time he actually used his own equipment.

Classic Stunt
**Judges**: Joan Cox, Chris Cox
Dan Rutherford 473.5. Super Combat Streak, O.S. 20FP w/BB-TU
Will Reeb 466.0. Olympic, Brodak 40, 10-5 APC
Bob Smiley 456.0. Profile Oriental, Brodak 40
Keith Varley 454.0. Humongous, 40FP
Mike Haverly 442.5. Oriental, Magnum XL-36
Rob Duckering 424.0. Nobler, Brodak 40
Neil Rogers 385.0. Dirt's "demo" ARF FS, O.S. 20FP w/BB-TU
Notable moment: Neil, flying Da Dirt's demo model only three times total--no appearance points--comes within 40 points of his score in Advanced the next day, using his own model!

Advanced PA
**Judges**: Chris Cox, Alan Resinger
Will Reeb 453.0. Trivial Pursuit, PA 40, pipe
Bob Smiley 451.5. Profile Oriental, Brodak 40
Rob Duckering 438.0. Modified Twister, ___________
Neil Rogers 426.5. Yellow Jacket, Brodak 40
Mike Haverly 423.5. Oriental, Magnum XL-36
Mike Conner 391.5. Buccaneer, Tower 40
Notable moment: This time when Mr. Haverly smacked it in there was only light damage to an excellent model.

Expert PA
**Judges**: Mike Conner, Keith Varley
Chris Cox 547.0. Saturn, 40VF, pipe
Jack Pitcher 532.5.Centennial, PA 65 side exhaust
Dan Rutherford 507.0 Impact, Saito 56
Alan Resinger 494.0. Sukhoi, Saito 72
Notable moment: While Chris flew to a high standard as usual, Jack is really coming to grips with that new engine.

There are some blank spots in above. Help me out, guys, my notes are obviously less than complete.

Norm needn't be overly concerned when it comes to pictures of my used and abused Impact. While not near as photogenic as when new, nothing like my new red, white and blue Impact, it did come around quite nicely this past weekend. Very pleasant to fly even if I just barely got into the 500s.

It was a terrific contest in a very long string of equally terrific B.C. meets. What I did to deserve having that crazy chick sicced on me during Cox family-hosted fesitivities I will never know, but encounter was most entertaining...

Dan,
We'll keep the whole story under raps until the proper time.
Alan

>Dan,
>We'll keep the whole story under raps until the proper time.
>Alan

Somehow that doesn't make me feel any better. Nor is it supposed to, no doubt. Not all of what passes for humor from Canadians is of the self-deprecating sort.

I would like it to be known that in competing against Alan this past weekend, there is no "gotcha" notch on the grip of my pistol. His Sukhoi looks cool on the ground, but serious run issues with the Saito 72--documented on this forum--have prevented Alan from getting it much past the vigin-model stage in trimming. It truly can't dance well at all, plus during only official of the weekend it literally, and unannounced, flopped into the four-leaf clover. Too low, too tight, no way...

I don't know about this Dirt guy.

He asked me on Saturday morning if I'm flying in Classic to which I replied that I hadn't finished the plane I am building. So what does he do? Offers to let me use his Flite Streak with one of those unknown OS engines on it. He did make it clear that he wasn't sure how well the engine would run since he hadn't had a chance to send it off to a tuner yet.

Well I figure I can't say no to his offer so we go over to his van to get the plane. Then he pulls out a set of lines and handle set up just for that plane along with a jug of fuel that he knows works well in the engine. Heck I didn't even have to use my own electrons, he provided those too!

So what if I finished 8th out of 7 entrants. I had fun and didn't even have to risk my own airplane!

Thanks Dan. It was worth the trip just to be able to say I flew your airplane.

Neil Rogers
Edmonton, Alberta

PS Just so you don't get the wrong idea and start to think Dan might actually be a nice guy, he tells me later that he will do anything not to finish last, even if it means giving someone else one of his airplanes to fly!

How can you not like a guy like that?

Try this utility, I think it will do what ask.

http://www.irfanview.com/

>(snip) I spent 20 minutes trying to downsize a pic of Dirt's
>Impact. The pic started out at 600+KB and I did manage to
>get it down to 60KB but any more and there wouldn't be any
>airplane left.
>I tried Paint....Adobe....JPG....emailing it downsized to
>myself...the best I could do was 60KB. I then quit.
>Anyone has more suggestions other than taking the shots at
>lowest res. to start with, let me know.
>Thanks for a great MEET!
>Norm

Norm, it is OK to crop out the extra space, but it sounds like you need to resize, more than crop. Get it down to a maximum of 600 x 800. Then it is a simple matter of compressing if you have the right utility.

Let me e-mail LView Pro to you. It will do both jobs.

Thanks for the help everyone.
I did manage to get three under the 50KB size by useing Irfanview.
The trailing edges aren't really this wavy..it's the loss of quality. I'll keep working on them.
Anyways...Dirt did a fantastic job of detailing the results and sidestories. Canadians with a sense of humour??? Never heard of it.
Here's Dirt's plane and The Sukoi and the Firecracker. More later when I get more adept at downsizing.

All those blades of grass and the clutter of the pits is a killer when trying to meet the 50kb size limit. Crop as much as possible. If you rotate the camera or change the viewpoint to eliminate a lot of this clutter helps a ton. Crop first. Then resize. Then compress. If you can figure out how to blur the grass, that will help a lot. I use MS Photo Editor, which comes with MS Office. It's somewhat easier to use for me. The software that comes with your camera should do all this basic stuff, if you can figure it out.

The reason I wasn't there, was I'd promised Jeff Rein & Howard Rush help with the Bladder Grabber Fast Combat Extravaganza. There's about $10k worth of cash and prizes, so the matches are serious, and fun to watch. Nelson and Fora .36's are awesome! Steve

Five more pics from WCSC.
Jack Pitcher's nice landing with his Centennial
Centennial
Boys waiting for the prizes
Will Reeb accepting 1st in Advanced
Chris Cox accepting first in Expert

LAST EDITED ON Aug-03-04 AT 12:45 PM (CDT)
 
Here is a few shots I took. A great contest as usual. Thanks Chris, Joan and all......
1-Will Reeb and his Olympic
2-Mike Haverly's Oriental
3-Chris and Saturn
4-Dan "Dirt" Rutherford
5-Wills new Olympic
6-Keith Varleys Humongous
7-Will and the Olympic
8-Will with Rob launching the Trivial Pursuit

From Norm,

"Anyways...Dirt did a fantastic job of detailing the results and sidestories. Canadians with a sense of humour??? Never heard of it.
Here's Dirt's plane and The Sukoi and the Firecracker. More later when I get more adept at downsizing."

Comments: There is a lot more to tell, this was just "lite" version of contest report. Tell-all version going to Flying Lines newsletter. We in NW U.S. and Canada are *all* subscribing, are we not?

That particular Impact once had fuselage break off right in front of horizontal stabilizer while entering inside square loops. Motor (Saheeto 56) was not broken, but pulled a good bit of the maple mounts loose. Left wing panel broken clean off.

Thus the whack-job repair where finish on left wing does not match that on right wing.

Then a year or so ago I decided part of model's problems might be a less than galaxy-class job in setting neutral at bellcrank. So I cut into top of fuselage, the result being clear.

I did not intend to use this model for anything other than practice this year, but lately we've been going steady. The new Impact (less than 10 flights) has pretty much been ignored for almost a year now, although the red, white and blue MonoKote/Micafilm finish is killer...

Sure wish we'd gotten a picture of my Soup Combat Streaker alongside Will's Olympic.

Dan,

I really wanted to make this contest, but my re-education has totally destroyed my ability to either practice or travel.

As compensation, here is a picture of the most labor intensity ARF flight streak from the Seattle contest.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-04-04 AT 00:51 AM (CDT)
 
I had a great time, I too wanted to thank all the members of the VGMC including Chris and Joan for a great contest.

I was mumbling on the way home as Dan said, but more about the accident that made highway 1 a parking lot around Lake Louise!
Just for the sake of accuracy Rob Duckering's and Neil Roger's planes were powered by LA 46's not Brodak 40's.

I look forward to seeing Duck's new SV-22/Magnum this weekend in Edmonton,and look for another shoot out between myself and Bob Smiley who has come along way in a short time, a worthy opponent for sure.

I also wanted to give Keith Varley and his lovely wife Maureen thanks for letting me stay at their place, a classy couple for sure!

From Neil Rogers, and only repeated 'cos it makes me look good.

"I don't know about this Dirt guy.

He asked me on Saturday morning if I'm flying in Classic to which I replied that I hadn't finished the plane I am building. So what does he do? Offers to let me use his Flite Streak with one of those unknown OS engines on it. He did make it clear that he wasn't sure how well the engine would run since he hadn't had a chance to send it off to a tuner yet.

Well I figure I can't say no to his offer so we go over to his van to get the plane. Then he pulls out a set of lines and handle set up just for that plane along with a jug of fuel that he knows works well in the engine. Heck I didn't even have to use my own electrons, he provided those too!

So what if I finished 8th out of 7 entrants. I had fun and didn't even have to risk my own airplane!

Thanks Dan. It was worth the trip just to be able to say I flew your airplane.

Neil Rogers
Edmonton, Alberta

PS Just so you don't get the wrong idea and start to think Dan might actually be a nice guy, he tells me later that he will do anything not to finish last, even if it means giving someone else one of his airplanes to fly!

How can you not like a guy like that?"

Neil got the main story right, although what he may not know was that particular O.S. engine, something less than a 21, slightly more than a 19, had been rebuilt Thursday evening with a new piston/cylinder set. It had been the weak sister of three, pumped up with 15% and 20% fuel to get power levels up. However, some of the basic goodness of the engine was gone when doing so and for reasons I do not quite understand.

So on Friday the model got nailed to ground with a stooge, I ran five tanks (3-ounce Hayes units) through it using SIG's 10/25/65 all-castor fuel. Settled in very nicely and quite quickly. There were the expected comments from Alan and Chris about running a model in the pits (I was actually off to the side, close enough for snide remarks, however) but with stock muffler and that cone thingie installed the engine is so quiet there were no problems. Well, one problem in that I would have preferred *more* noise so whining from A. and C. would have been drowned out...

By the time Neil showed up Saturday morning I hadn't had a chance to fly model, but we went with SIG 10% Champion fuel and 11,200 on the ground for first (and only practice) flight. Very solid run, I told Neil to go in one click on O.S. remote NVA, we left it there for the duration.

What Neil did not tell you is that he completely fragged the spinner. As I rarely hand-flip these little dudes, each has a small nylon spinner. Neil does not appear to have much experience with electric starters as he spun the snot out of mine, leaving plastic hairs protruding from the cone. I didn't even know that sort of damage could be inflicted upon a spinner, although it is now known the tricks are to engage spinner at an angle, to flood engine such that it won't turn over, and to keep the starter motor spinning even as spinner begins to melt right in front of you.

It was very funny, and I don't believe Neil wishes to know the things Duck and I were saying as he walked out for an official.

Oh, yeah. Neil and I got the model out, went over all the stuff, it was laid down adjacent to my pit area. Where it stayed for *hours.* At one point I thought he had changed his mind, had to berate him thoroughly to put in a test flight.

It was fun...

Dan

You're right about the starter. I used one 30 years ago when I tried R/C and as I remember, that was the best part of R/C. Never could fly very well. The downside of using the starter was that it seemed to chew up spinners pretty regularly. Of course none of them looked as cool as yours did with the little spikey strands sticking out of it. I still have the starter, but never use it so my spinners stay looking nice. Besides that, I'm almost positive Bruce would make me fly on the unmowed circle if I even thought about using a starter.

Even though it may have looked like I changed my mind, I was really just savoring the anticipation of flying such a well known airplane.

As for practice flights at a contest, in theory they may help, but in reality they just tire you out.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-05-04 AT 03:45 PM (CDT)
 
Okay, trivia questions:

One of the contestants at this contest was flying a model which received generally quite positive comments as to the finish.

Said contestant, after landing this model upon completion of his last flight on it for the weekend, told me, "I hate this airplane."

Who uttered these blasphemous four words?

Bonus: Name the model.

On Friday I notified a good friend that Derek's engines had been refitted with new bearings and returned to him. The response was something very much like, "Why? He could just fly with stock bearings for 200 or so flights and then change the bearings, couldn't he?"

Who had these prescient (NOT!) thoughts?

Why did comment end up being quite funny?

(But only to those who subscribe to the Mel Brooks theory of comedy: A paper cut on your finger is tragedy. Someone else falling into a sewer and drowning is comedy.)

Trivia? What is the prize? I may know an answer here.....

I wasn't there, so I'll take a chance on #1 Al Resinger/Sukhoi, #2 Keith Varley. What is it that I win? Steve

It was Rob "Duck" Duckering who expressed a certain amount of displeasure with his model. A Nobler.

Yep, Keith was wondering why Derek chose to replace bearings in his Magnum XL-36s. Shortly thereafter burning down a fairly new motor. Bearing failure, a saga in which "Duck" also played a role. As in he was the only one who really knew what was happening.

I mean, Chris and I "fixed" the thing, I launched it, it pains me still to think of the sounds that engine made during its last moments of life.

No prizes. Fame, indeed...

DD: The Super Combat Streak was a good choice. Streak performance, but with an upright motor.

I totalled one two years ago. It is sleeping in the "attic" over the garage now. Currell

LAST EDITED ON Aug-08-04 AT 03:49 PM (CDT)
 
Any chance that someone who attended the Western Canada Stunt Champs or the Wright Bros. contest could e-mail me a few (only a few, please) photos of the activity along with caption info? Need a few for Flying Lines. Thanks! E-mail to [email protected].
--jt