Current distribution - 23

Halloween Gremlin Contest

A perfect autumn morning  clear sky, still air, and a comfortable temperature. 
John Nataloni was at the field early to handle registration and impound. Soon 
after Dick Easton volunteered to help and became the cut judge. Kay Fisher had 
already made the long drive from Orange to compete, and his wife, Pat, agreed 
to be the timer. Within an hour there would be a lot more pilots. Later we 
would have 16 pilots and a gaggle of spectators for a perfect day of combat.

With twelve contestants in Open and eight in Stock, we had three complete 
rounds of each before the elimination flights to rank the top pilots. Jim Reith 
won Stock; Yassemedis and Christiansen took second and third. Open was won by 
Yassemedis followed by Christiansen and Friedrichs. With a first place and a 
second, Yassemedis was declared the Grand Champion Gremlin and awarded a 
special mug.

There wasn't much in the trash barrel at the end of the day. Ray Mierzejewski 
demolished a wing in the trees. Someone elses wing suffered from a mid-air. [Ed 
note: This was Yaz's wing from the final flyoff mid-air with yours truely, Jim 
R.] All the rest of the carnage went home for repair. Not bad for a day of 
combat.

We had two mishaps that could have been nasty. Ray lost control on a take-off 
and consequently flew over the pits; not nice! His later launches were watched 
attentively. [Ed note: In all fairness for Ray, this was the initial flight of 
his backup plane after going into the trees and his rates and trims were off. 
Note for CDs... allow a "trim flight" whenever substituting planes during a 
contest]

John Robinson had a fly-away. At New Boston that would ordinarily mean a plane 
down somewhere in the woods for a long time. John was lucky; the plane landed 
a half mile away near a house on the highway. It was good news that the plane 
was found and only the plane suffered damage; it was humorous news that the 
German Shepherd that lived there had declared finders keepers and was guarding 
it.

Rhode Island contest 11/13/94

This is just a teaser for the moment. I've been promised an official report in 
the near future. The contest was held as a standard format contest for several 
reasons. Barry was absent due to a death int he family, attendance was light 
(just 8 in each class), and nobody had strong feelings about how to run it. The 
standard format was held with no entry fee and it was a smash hit! There were 
several cuts as well as a couple of spectacular mid-airs with "wing snow" 
flying everywhere. We took a break after each one to look for engines which 
were tossed 100+' from the site. The flyoff in each class was between the only 
4 flyable entrants. Yes, 50% attrition. I think that's the highest to date. 
More in a week or so when I get the official report.