NERCCA newsletter Issue 13 - 5/24/1995 available from http://world.std.com/~racores/newsletter_index.html The following is the current list of Gremlin contest dates I have. When Where CD/contact ==== ===== ========== Sunday July 23rd North Dartmouth, Ma. Stewart Russell-CD (508) 636-6450 Sunday August 20th Beattie Field, RI Charlie Hochstrasser-CD (401) 463-7076 or XBronx@aol.com Saturday Oct 28th New Boston NH Joe Marrone-CD (603) 429-0914 or marrone@mkots3.enet.dec.com Sunday Nov 5th CMRCM Westboro MA Charlie Watt-CD (508) 842-0976 or watt@leds.enet.qntm.com R/C Combat Lovers - electronic discussion group You can join or leave this group by sending email to rc-combat-lovers-request@world.std.com with the word (UN)SUBSCRIBE in the BODY (not the subject line) of the message. If you want to receive this newsletter ONLY (and I've subscribed you initially), please send email to racores@world.std.com with a message stating that you just want the NERCCA newsletter. Contest Announcements Heli's Angels of North Dartmouth, Ma. will be holding a Combat Gremlin Competition on Sunday, July 23rd. CD Stewart Russell, 508-636-6450 Times and rules will be announced at a later date. Directions to Heli's Angels field in North Dartmouth, Ma. From Rt. 195 in No. Dartmouth take Exit 11, Reed Rd. north, 1.7 mi. to Hixville Rd. Go right on Hixville .7 mi.(7/10). Take right on dirt road just after stone wall. CMRCM contest on April 30th by Dan Snow. The weather was iffy, which is typical for Gremlin contests in New England. Seems we always have either rain, cold, high winds, or any and all of them at the same time!! I knew that a couple of pilots were planning to show based on the phone calls I had received the day before, but there was also some confusion about the date because another contest had been cancelled from the weekend before. It turns out I needn't have worried!! 19 pilots showed up to battle for the cash prizes, 18 registering for the stock class, and 10 registering for the open class. With this large a turnout we were not able to have the four rounds I had planned, settling for 3 instead. We almost had a mutiny and stopped at 2, but more on that later. I was trying out a new scoring system that I had borrowed from Eric Henderson and modified slightly. I used a glider landing ribbon to award landing points from 100 to zero points. A cut was scored at 200 points, the amount was arbitrary, and could be adjusted either way. Both pilots were eligible for landing points even if a cut HAD been scored. The biggest difference was that cut points out weighed landing points. One 200 point cut beat 300 landing points!! The idea was to stress cuts rather than landing expertise! If more than one pilot scored a cut, then the landing points were used as a tie-breaker. It seemed to be pretty well received, and actually worked as intended. For the first time in the 4+ years I've done gremlin combat the first three places in both classes all had at least 1 cut, with the landing points being the tie-breaker between 2nd and 3rd in open and 2nd and 3rd in stock. The first round went pretty smoothly with John Yassemedis scoring the only cut flying in the open class. Jim Reith was doing his best to win the "We try harder". He ripped out an elevon and was moved to the end of the first stock round while he did repairs. No cuts were scored in the stock class, and less than 1/2 the pilots scored any landing points! After the first round we took what was supposed to be a short lunch break, but got rather interesting when we were ready to start and over half the pilots were still "out to lunch"!! But we got them in the air as they wandered back to the field. Kay Fisher scored the first stock class cut by clipping Charlie Hochstrasser in the first flight of the second round. Stewart Russell scored a cut in the open class, putting him temporarily ahead of John Y. by virtue of his landing points. After the second round a vote was taken on whether or not to continue. It was cloudy, windy, and COLD, and the contest was going to run till well after 3:00p.m. if we had a third round. The vote was 8 to 8 with three not voting. A coin toss was used to break the tie, with the winners being those that wanted to continue. After the vote was over we got into the third and final round, and things quickly got interesting in the stock class. John Y. scored a cut against Rene Rusche, and was tied with Kay F. on landing points. Ray M. also scored a cut to throw his hat in the ring, and was as short lived leader in landing points. However Kay put 'em all away by scoring his second cut, and picking up 92 out of a possible 100 points on the landing. The final scores in stock were: Kay Fisher - 400 Cut points - 204 Landing points Ray Mierzejewski - 200 Cut points - 244 Landing points John Yassemedis - 200 Cut points - 204 Landing points In the Open class, Rene made the game interesting by scoring a cut against David Comeau, making it a three way race. But John was not to be denied, scoring a cut against Ray Smith to lock up first place. The final scores for the open class were: John Yassemedis - 400 Cut points - 120 Landing points Stewart Russell - 200 Cut points - 156 Landing points Rene Rusche - 200 Cut points - 148 Landing points I want to thank all that attended either as pilots or spectators. I felt that the contest went smoothly, there were some incredible battles fought in the air, and there were NO MID-AIRS!! But then I was CD-ing, not flying! Lazy Loopers Gremlin Contest by Jim Reith - Acting CD The Lazy Loopers Gremlin contest on May 13th was rained out. 6-7 people showed up but the drizzle and rain persisted and the temperature was dropping. George Dainis and Kay Fisher insisted that it was flyable but after George launched, his streamer dissolved in mid-air before Kay was adjusted and launched. 30 seconds later, Kay's streamer departed as well. After proving that the cloud base was about 200' up and the rain on their glasses wasn't helping matters, they both landed and packed up to fight another day. The prizes and streamers will be carried over to the contest in Oxford on the 20th. Rocky Hill Flyers Contest Report by Jim Reith The Rocky Hill Flyers sponsored a Gremlin contest on May 20th. 6 fliers attended and 6 rounds of stock class were flown. The weather cooperated and we had a great time. The format was similar to previous contests with a closest to the mark landing task and three minute rounds. Ray Mierzejewski had the only cut of the day in the very first pairing. Lawson Gunn flat spun his Gremlin in in the first round and continued with his Open class ship due to a broken fuselage. In the second round Lawson was involved in a mid-air with Finn Arnold between their open class ships which took both planes out of the competition. Finn then continued using his Stock plane against the other competitors and at one point had to swap a fin (no pun intended) to continue. Ray Mierzejewski and Joe Lemanski also mid-aired in the 4th round. Joe was able to repair his plane with a borrowed needle valve assembly from Ray and Ray flew his open class ship at half throttle in the last two rounds. Kay Fisher and Rene Rusche rounded out the field. The top three received cash prizes of $15, $10, and $5 and the final placement was: 1st - Ray Mierzejewski - 1 cut, 2 landings and 1 last down 2nd - Joe Lemanski - 3 landings and 2 last downs 3rd - Kay Fisher - 2 landings and 1 last down