Written by Mike Riggs:

The second “Treasure Valley Pattern Contest” began with a roar Friday May 13th as contestants arrived at BARKS field to practice in strong Southeastern winds. By dinner time all known contestants where accounted for with the exception of the mystery pilots from Utah.

Saturday morning brought FAI mystery pilots Andrew Jesky and Darin Peirce to the BARKS field where four rounds where flown Saturday and none on a cold blown out Sunday morning.
Being a new CD I was very grateful to Gordon Anderson for filling in everything I had forgotten in the pilots meeting. After the pilots meeting, the group proceeded out onto the runway for a photo session with Zaq of Zuercher Photography.

 

Wayne Lovett took off into a stiff southeastern breeze. Me(Mike Riggs) and newcomer Tyler Kyle rounded out the sportsman class. Unfortunately, mechanical problems finished Wayne's contest in the second round. I finished first with BARKS member Tyler a close second.

 

Intermediate was flown by BARKS member Nathan Wingert and Craig Christensen. Craig in his second year of flying Intermediate bested Nathan in his first year.

 

Steve Sterling was the only Advanced participant flying his new (old) Focus.

 

Representing Masters class was pattern veterans Bill Bowen and Jim Hiller. Bill flew the fourth round in strong winds with lightening to the south. I didn't see it, but, was told Jim's fourth round flight probed the low cloud ceiling.

 

Andrew Jesky, Darin Peirce and Gordon Anderson flew FAI. The Utahan’s fantastic flying really inspired Gordon; he told me he flew one of his best ever FAI flights. With Andrews move to Utah last year Darin quickly flipped back into pattern from his IMAC pursuits. With some unbelievable flying by all, Darin finished second behind Andrew and ahead of Gordon.

 

I would like to thank BARKS Members: Robert Sox for handling the money, Lorin Finney for water and donuts, Lynn Street for lunch and a special thanks to Charlie Wingert for being a runner. Biggest thanks goes to Nathan and Tyler for their participation. Hint! Hint!

 

Most of all I'd like to thank the D8 support crew. Operationally, Gordon and Meri ran the contest. Gordon kept me on the straight and narrow while keeping judges in the chairs. Meri took care of all of the scorekeeping. Least I forget our D8 MVP Linda Sterling for her time in the judges chair.

 

As a first time CD I can not express enough how appreciative I am for everyone’s support. Every-bodies smiling face made it more than worth the effort.

 

Hope to see you next year,

 

Mike

PS Lets all wish Andrew the best of luck at the World Championship this year in Muncie.

 

 

Written by Rex Lesher:

 

This was the third year for this contest and it just gets better every time Pattern folks gather at this premier flying site. Most folks showed up on mid day Friday to fairly clear skys with temps in the lower to mid 60's and a constant breeze quartering down the runway. As the day of practice progressed, more attendees showed up to what looked like a very promising weekend of our kind of fun!

Saturday morning, we decided we better have two flight lines as the contestant list bulged up to 18 pilots. Even more promising was the fact that we had four members from the Wenatchee club entered... two in Sportsman and two in Advanced. Our buddy from up North, Hartley Hughson, was our only entrant from Canada.

Saturdays flying was challenging to say the least. We had a strong quartering wind that seemed to change by about 70 degrees about every half hour when local squalls passed through. In mid afternoon, we had to shut down for a while as one of the little storms started raining down on us for about an hour. After it passed, we resumed flights and finished the third round.

 

Sunday morning brought a little better weather. We still had some wind but it was more contstant and wasn't changing around like it did on Saturday. We flew through round five and called it quits as quite a few pilots had long driving distances.
We had some very close battles in a few classes as the rounds progressed. Less than two points separated the final scores for the two pilots in Intermediate!

 

This contest gets better every year. We had six pilots not show that had indicated they were coming. That would have given us 24 entrants! Three of the local club members that entered have indicated that we'll see them in a few more contests this year.... they apparently had a "good" time! That's what it's all about! It was a great time for all and if you missed it, plan on getting there next season and join the fun.

Redmond High Desert Pattern Classic, Pics

Written by Gordon Anderson:

The 5^th annual High Desert Pattern Classic was held in Redmond Oregon June 25 and 26^th. This is the 4^th contest in D8 in this 2011 pattern season and we had a fantastic turnout of 17 pilots. The weather was about as good as you could hope for, a few light winds and clear skies. We flew 4 rounds on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. To keep things moving and end the flying at a reasonable time we ran two flight lines, this worked very well and we finished flying on Saturday around 4PM and wrapped up the event Sunday around 2PM. Flying started after 10AM each morning due to the sun interfering with the box!

Wayne flew in the Sportsman class unopposed, he had to fly his backup plane and flew the first four rounds then concentrated on judging!

We had a big group of Intermediate fliers, 5 total. Art Kelly made the trip from Grants Pass OR, the Stebbins brothers (Tim and Scott) along with there dad attended and Tim moved up to Intermediate at this contest! Craig Christensen took top honors with Brad Burton in second. Both Craig and Brad were flying identical Integrals. Scott was right on Brads heals with only 39 points between them!

We had 4 pilots in Advanced with Alan Wellentin taking first place. Alan has return to pattern competition this season after a 12 year break. Its great to have him back! Second place went to Bill Carder, third to Ray Gauthier who just moved up to Advanced, and 4^th to Bob Walter. We had a great turnout from the Mololla pilots, 4 total!

Bill Bowen won Masters with Rick Bergeron second and Jim Hiller third. You guys better watch out, I expect you will see Alan soon!

Alexander Safarik won FAI! This was Alexander's first FAI win, pretty impressive considering he moved from Advanced to FAI this season. Pavel (Alexander's dad) took second place, I guess he is doing a pretty good job of coaching Alexander, maybe too good! Rex took third and Gordon fourth.

Saturday night's dinner at Sully's Italian restaurant was a lot of fun, we had 18 guests! We also held our traditional Friday night dinner at Pappy's.

Thanks to the Redmond club and all the people who helped make this contest a success! I can't wait for next year.

Molalla 8th Annual Oregon Pattern Classic, Pics

Written by Gordon Anderson:

The 8^th Annual Oregon Pattern Challenge was held in Molalla July 16^th and 17^th. We had a total of 14 pilots competing, sadly no Sportsman contestants. We managed to complete 4 rounds in very challenging weather. The weather was great for our Friday practice session and everyone enjoyed a great day of practice and pattern discussions. The forecast predicted rain on the weekend so we decided to run two flight lines even with the moderate size crowd so we could keep things moving.

Saturday morning the weather guessers were right, we had rain for a few hours but we were able to start around 10:30. All day long we were dodging the rain and stopping the contest while we waited for dry weather. Two flight lines really help us efficiently use the time we had, by about 4:30PM we had completed 4 rounds. Sunday was another story, while Sunday was predicted to be a better day that did not turn out to be true. We waited around for a few hours, even put our planes together, then called the contest and held the awards ceremony.

We had a couple of very close races in this contest. In Intermediate Brad Burden won with a less that 13 point lead over Craig Christensen. Both pilots won two rounds, too bad Sunday's weather did not permit a couple more rounds! In Advanced Alan Wellentin won with a 3 ½ point lead over Murray Johnson! Murray joined us from Canada and it was his first time flying at the Molalla field. Lots of great flying on Saturday and I am sure everyone had a great time.

I would like to thank all the pilots and helpers that keep this event moving, everyone did a great job and as a result we had a very smoothly run contest.

Ray Gauthier organized a Satureday evening dinner at the local country club, we had 16 people attend of a great dinner and a nice evening of discussions.

Thanks to Bill Carder and the whole Molalla gang for another great contest and I can't wait until next year!

Seaya in the pits!

Canadian American Pattern Challenge, Pics

Written by Gordon Anderson:

The 4^th annual CanAm was held August 13, and 14^th at the Cascade Flyers field in Snohomish Washington. We had a great turnout with 19 pilots total. Unfortunately we only had one pilot in Advanced but all other classes had several contestants. Sportsman had 5 pilots and several of the flyers were local club member’s getting there first taste of Pattern, in fact third place went to Don Latsha one of the first time pattern pilots.

The weather was very good with light winds and some clouds but overall you could not ask for better pattern weather. We ran two flight lines to keep things moving and completed 4 rounds on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. The Snohomish field is a great place to fly, a very long grass field with a beautiful background!

This was truly a Canadian American challenge with Dave Reaville and Hartley Hughson joining us from Canada. Both pilots and their wives were returning from the Worlds and the NATs in Muncie! Thanks for flying with us and making this an international contest!

After Saturday’s flying a bunch of the pilots congregated at Buzz Inn located in Monroe. We had a great dinner and enjoyed a lot of pattern discussion. We met at the same location last year and everyone wanted to return, lots of great food and a big menu!

Checkout all the scores on the NSRCA site and pay close attention to Alexandar Safarik, he took second place at this contest, not very far behind Dave Reaville. Alaxandar just moved up to FAI this season and he is already moving to the top! This is a kid to keep your eye on!

Thanks to John Fogelsong, our CD, and the Cascade Flyers for supporting this contest and making us all feel at home. As always thanks to all the other people who make this happen through their hard work, including all the judges!

See you in the pits…

Written by Gordon Anderson:

The Emerald Air Corps 25^th Annual Pattern Contest was held on the traditional Labor Day weekend, September 3^rd and 4^th. The weather was great, clear skies and a light breeze but overall great contest weather. It was warm, 91 on Saturday and 92 on Sunday! We started the contest as early as possible due to the sun entering the box in the early afternoon. We completed 3 ½ rounds on Saturday and 2 ½ on Sunday for a full 6 round contest.

We had a total of 20 contestants with FAI being the largest class and Sportsman being the only class with only one competitor.

Ron Swift and John Foglesong made the trip from Snohomish Wa with Ron flying in his second Pattern Contest. I think he was bit by the pattern bug at John's CanAm contest. Unfortunately John was not feeling well and was not able to fly. Thanks for making the trip and hope we see you both in the Tri-Cites.

Brad Burden, Mel Graham, and Art Kelly battled it out in Intermediate, at the end of the first three rounds each had won a round! Bran really pulled it together and won the last three round and took first place in Intermediate. Also thanks to Bran for all the time is spent in the judge's chair! Mel just came back to pattern after a break of many years, its great to have him back again along with his son JR and it seems he really enjoyed the fun.

JR Graham, Alan Wellentin, Bill Carder, and Bob Walker flew in the Advanced class. We had a very close fight for first and second place between JR and Alan with only a 4 point difference after the first four rounds, in the end JR took first place. The CanAm was JR's first contest after a long break in competition just like his dad. At the CanAm he did not have anyone flying with him in Advanced and this contest gave him the opportunity to really show his flying skills!

Bill Bowen, Roy Speights, Jim Hiller, and Rick Bergeron flew in Masters with Bill wining all 6 rounds! It was great to see Roy at the contest, he and Dorothy have never missed a EAC contest in its 25 year history.

FAI was our largest class with Craig Blodgett, Alexandar and Pavel Safarik, Gary McClellan, Rex Lesher, Freddy Hagens, and Gordon Anderson all competing. Alexandar, D8's new boy wonder, was knocking on Craig's door throughout the contest even winning a round! Craig won FAI with Alexandar only 55 points behind him.

Overall it was a great contest and everyone had a great time. Thanks to all the effort the McClellan's and all there helpers but in to the contest. Thanks to all the judges and helpers that made this contest a great memory for us all!

See you in the pits....