District 8 consists of the states of: 

D8's Vice President (VP) is: Monroe Michaelis, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

2019 Mini-judging seminairs

The following links download the 14 mini-judging seminairs we plan to use for judging moments at contest throughout the district in 2018. One segment discussed at each district contest, with a different segment at each contest throughout the season. Each seminair can be split in two parts with one part presented at the Saturday pilots meeting and the second part at the Sunday pilots meeting at the desgression of the CD to fit the time alloted if necessary.

They are intended to create discussions in order to eliminate misconceptions and align all judges in grey or questionable areas. You don't need to cover all the data in a segment, use them as a guide to start the seminair and wrap up as time allows. Information in the segments are taken directly from the current rules and judging guidelines.

 Segment 1; Segment 2; Segment 3; Segment 4; Segment 5; Segment 6; Segment 7; Segment 8; Segment 9; Segment 10; Segment 11; Segment 12; Segment 13; Segment 14

2019 D6 District Champions

 Sportsman: William Bancroft

Intermediate: Todd Nolte

Advanced: Gary Kropat

Masters: Clifton Bradford

FAI: Mark Hunt

Congradulations to these new District 6 Champions.

Congradulations to the new 2018 D6 District Champions:

Sportsman - Justin Wells

Intermediate - Heedo Yun

Advanced - Luis Meza

Masters - Clifton Bradford

FAI - Mark Hunt

2018 Cajun Nats

The 2018 Cajun nats was held Oct 12, 13, & 14th in Crowley LA. What a beautiful 3 day weekend. The weather was clear with lows in the high 50's and low 60's and the highs about 80 degrees. A perfect weekend for the 15 or so campers at the field. 30 pilots competed with some really close very competitive flying all the way to the very last flight. The results are posted on Don Ramsey's web site at http://pages.suddenlink.net/donramsey/2018CajunNATS_R.pdf 

We were honored this year as both Joseph Szczur, the reigning Jr. World Champion, and his dad Don Szczur where there to compete. All the classes sported some hot very close compettion throughout the entire event. The pilots who showed up Thursday for the warm up were rewarded with our traditional wood fire Pizza night and some relaxing around the fire pit, with Wayne Galligan doing a little picking on his 12 string guitar. Friday we flew 2 relaxed rounds of competition and everyone went out and enjoyed the local restaurants in the area. On Saturday we worked in 3 rounds just in time to head to Jon's for the Banquet.

Cajun Chicken & Sausage Gummbo with potato salad sure went down good after enjoying a few premium 10 cent beers or a couple of Margarita Mai Tai's. Followed up by Kris's awesome Bananna pudding for dessert. The final round on Sunday decided most of the classes as they came to the final flight. Really tight competition, made for an exciting event.

We had one near miss as a plane got a little slow for landing wend the strong cross wind wind got under the wing lifting it knife edge over the pilot and caller on the other line, over the judges tent, narrowly missing John Fuqua. Who was putting batteries in his plane, and then hit the flag pole shearing one wing panel in half, then bounced off the safety fence protecting the spectator area right in front of the concession area.

Man did we have a Bon Temps.

Say so long to 2 long time D6 pilots

Luis Meza and Guillermo Meza are moving to Chille for a great work opportunity. They were a pleasant pair to compete against. Always great sportsmen and cheery. They will be missed in District 6 next year. Both will be moving up to FAI as that is all they fly in Chille. Luis tells me they are planning to come fly in the US at the Nationals.

College Station Brazos Valley Contest

Despite the forcast of 60% chance of rain for the whole weekend, 25 pilots showed up and competited. There was only one short rain delay Saturday morning, and a couple of short low ceiling moments. However we managed to get in 6 rounds of competition and had a very good time. Gloomy could cover hid the Sun all day Saturday and we were able to start early to get through 3 rounds in all classes except Advanced. Sunday Advanced started early to fly round 3 with the Sun often peeking thru the cloud cover. Thanks to those who brought Sun dots.

Then the final two rounds for all the classes were completed. By 1:30 all the flying was done and the trophies were presented. Masters was the class to follow closely as in the end the top 3 pilots were only seperated by 1.24 Normalized points (from 1st to 3rd). Thanks to Scott and the club members who helped put this contest on, we really appreciated your hard work.

Thirteen pilots practiced on Friday. Below is the Friday practice line and the Saturday pisture of the pit area.

  .

Note the similiar plane with different hair cuts. Two EVO's with a different flare to the shark fins.

Fort Bend 2018 Contest report

The Fort Bend RC Club held it's first Pattern Contest Sept 15&16th, thanks to the efforts of Heedo Yun, Sheldon Reyher, and Earl Haury. These guys took to championing the effort and raised the support of their club to host a great event. Several of their members worked the concession stand and a couple even flew in the contest. They enlisted the local Air Force ROTC to help out running scores. Thanks to all the club members and ROTC members who worked hard to see to it that we had a wonderful time.

Fort Bend has an excellent facility with 2 paved runways, a 10 bay pavillion with electricity, lights, and fans in every bay, a hard pack parking lot, really nice air conditioned club house and his & hers flush toilet facilities. The runway is wide and long and worked out well for the event.

Despite the glum weather forecast of a tropical storm hitting the Texas Gulf Coast on Friday, 22 die hard pilots showed up to compete. Friday saw rain until about 2:00 pm then a break allowed practice flights till dark. The winds were fairly strong and a direct crosswing to the runway. Saturday morning opened with overcast skies and the same crosswind, two short rain showers caused a pause in the event, but by the third round the wind changed to a quartering cross wind and the skies cleared up. We completed the first 3 rounds of competition.

Sunday dawned with clear blue skies and zero wind, the puffy white clouds eventually scattered around but the wind remained calm and the heat and humidity reminded us it was still summer in Texas. Thanks to the fans in every bay under the pavilion we were able to get relief from the heat. As we have always said, you don't need a 2 meter plane to start flying pattern two of the competitors were flying sport planes and did well with them.

I predict this will be a large contest in the D6 circuit next year as I'm sure the weather forecast detured some from making the trip to Rosenberg.

Hotels were close by and we found both a great BBQ restaurant and Mexican restaurant to invade.

The end of the season is getting near, get out and compete before it ends.

Contest Etiquette

The following link will bring you to an article Jeff Worsham wrote on Contest Etiquette. This is excellent reading, and exeryone should review it once in awhile to remind us all of the improtance this behavoir brings to the sport of precission pattern. Contest Etiquette article 

2018 Nationals

The nationals presented some great competition this year. The 2018 National champions are:

FAI – Andrew Jesky

Masters – Joe Walker

Advanced – Forest Pilkenton

Intermediate – Brady Ornat

The new USA team for the World championships were selected, the team will be:

Andrew Jesky

Jason Shulman

Brett Wickizer

Kal Reifsnyder.

D6 was presented with our trophy for winning the District Series Championship last year at the Nats. We got to show it off and brag for 4 days until we had to present it to this years winners D4.

 Georgetown Contest

The Georgetown contest was rescheduled and held on August 25th & 26th. Chuck Hochhalter CD'ed the event with Leslie managing the scoring. 17 pilots competed in the extreme heat, flying a single flight line. The contest was eventful with Gary Kropat's plane breaking a wing on his first round, and Don Ramsey's plane throwing a prop blade just as he started his first maneuver. All in all, it was an excellent event. More of the story to come in the K-Factor.

New Contest this season 2018

The Fort Bend RC Club has announced that it will host a pattern contest Sept 15th & 16th. The event flyer is available on Don Ramsey's pattern page. Earl Haury will be the CD, and Heedo Yun is putting in alot of leg work to coordinate the event. The Fort Bend club flying site is located in Rosenberg TX just Southwest of Houston.

Let's welcome them to the circuit with good attendence for their event.

French Itallian tems trials contest

AC Glenn and Mark Hunt were invited to compete in the France and Itallian team trials contest held in France. AC was unable to make it due to some airline issues, but Mark Hunt with Chuck Hochhalter as his caller and Leslie Hochhalter as their team manager were able to attend. After touring many of France's many attractions and roaming the streets of France during the week prior to the contest the three saw some beautiful French countryside to attend the contest.

Mark place 7th overall, competiting against some of the best fliers from those two countries. Quite an accomplishment, and he gets to talk about how he flew against the French multiple world champion. What an experience.

LARKS Clinic 2018

The LARKS club in Sulphur LA hosted a very informative pattern clinic. This was a new format clinic as it addressed both flying and judging training. The clinic started off with 6 pilots in attendence and ended with 7. Don presented some eye opening information throughout the event. We started off under the pavillion as it was comfortable with a very light breeze, then moved into the air conditioned club house as the morning progressed.

Don went over maneuvers in all classes, discussing the proper way to fly them and what to look for as a judge. He also went over common misconceptions and improper techniques along with how to identify them.

Denise Michaels served up a sandwich buffet and passed out the chips and cookies for lunch. After lunch we all assemblied at the flight line as Don started off with several flights demonstrating both the correct way to fly certain maneuvers but also demonstrated the most common mistakes and how to catch them as a judge.

Then participants flew while Don helped critique their flight and the rest of the pilots practiced a little judging with some comparison critiqueing by Don as well. All in all a very relaxed day with some excellent information and guidence.

Jetero Contest 2018

Hot was the theme for this year's Jetro pattern contest. With temperatures at 99 degrees and a heat index of around 105 to 109, the saving grace was the fairly stiff breeze and plenty of water to stay hydrated. Friday wasn't so bad and about 12 to 14 pilots braved the heat to practice.

Saturday the judging seminar started off the day lasting about 40 minutes including all the questions and discussions, bring a lot of valuable information to light. The Air Conditioned dinning room made this a relaxing time. The pilots meeting came next with 31 pilots in attendence. 

The flight lines looked diserted at time as any pilot not getting ready to fly attempted to keep his plane in the shade.

Flying started about 11:00am, and 4 rounds were flown on Saturday, we finished up around 7:30 pm. Sunday's start was delayed a little due a crop duster working the nearby fields and overflying the site. We flew one round on Sunday and finished up the contest, and presented plaques.

The club were great hosts and put on a well run contest. The food was good and they even broke out some cold watermelon, which was a welcome treat both Saturday and Sunday in all the heat. Results are available on Don Ramsey's web site.

Atchafalaya Basin Pattern Contest 2018

The Atchafalaye Basin contest was held last weekend May 19th & 20th. The club has only 8 members but has hosted the longest continously running pattern contest still running in the State of Louisiana, since 1986. There were only 13 entries, 3 of which came from District 3. But dispite the modest turn out the club put on a top notch contest with some good competition.

The Master class was the one to watch. John Fuqua won the first round, Cliff Bradford won the second round, then Don Ramsey won the thrid round. It was all real close at this point then Don won the fourth an pulled ahead. which put Don in first place, Cliff in second and John in third at the end of the first day.

But Sunday John Fuqua won the fifth round then Don came back and won the sixth, putting Don in First, John Fuqua in Second, and Cliff Bradford in Third. Man, talk about dukeing it out all the way to the end.

Friday night the club served Fried Fish with trimmings at the field, Saturday lunch was Bar-B-Qued hamburgers and sasuage, then Saturday night, the Boiled Crawfish feast. With the low turnout we all were able to get our fill on the boiled crawfish.

With all the free food and the nice trophies given away, the club managed to put on this contest without loosing any money, thanks to the generous donations of some really great people. A big thanks to those who attended and to those who helped support this event.

Space City pattern contest in Katy TX 2018

The rain had ended and Saturday morning started off really nice with the pilots meeting and then the judging seminar. The pilots set up under the morning shade of the trees while Don Ramsey presented the judging seminar.

There were 32 pilots competing, the winds were light with a slight crosswind component blowing out. The first day of competition was especially interesting in the Advance and Master classes, in both of these classes the first 3 rounds were each won by a different person.

Saturday for lunch the club served their customary BBQ’ed half chicken dinners, always a real treat.

Sunday dawned with beautiful weather and the competition started again in earnest. Flying two rounds on Sunday, in almost perfect weather, wrapped up the event.

Results are available on Don Ramsey's web site under contest results.

District Champion award

Mark Hunt was presented his 2017 D6 District Champion FAI class award at the LARKS contest. He was the only District Champion able to make the LARKS contest.

Atchafalaya RC Club improvements

The club formed up and poured over 12 cubic yards of concrete under the pavillion. No more tromping in the mud under the pavillion. This will be a nice improvement come contest time. The Atchafalaya contest is coming up on May 19th and 20th.

LARKS Pattern contest Sulphur LA 2018

 Look mom it's a contest.  

The LARKS club hosted the season opener with 27 entries. Monroe Michaels along with his family, wife, daughter, and son, worked endlessly to put on this wonderful event. It opened friday evening with an awesome Bar-B-Que dinner of brisket, ribs, and chicken with beans and potato salad.

It was breezy with a cross wind favoring the south blowing in on saturday which turned to a cross wind favoring the North blowing out on Sunday due to a front passing thru during the night Saturday. Results are posted on Don Ramsey's Pattern page. Really nice trophies were presented, and the competition was very close.

Georgetown Sportsman & Intermediate clinic 2018

The Clinic was held March 24 with 6 Sportsman and 2 Intermediate entries. Hosted by GAMA with CD Rene Grebe, the presentations were done by Chuck Hochhalter and AC Glenn. Well presented with lots of valuable information and coaching. The contest portion scoring compilitation was done by Leslie Hochhalter.

A well planned and executed clinic.

D6 Point Series Champions for 2017

Intermediate: Dave Schaefer

Advance: Nick Marson

Masters: Clifton Bradford

FAI: Mark Hunt

2018 Contest Schedule update 1/24/18

Chuck has elected to forgo his March contest and schedule one in the fall instead.

The Austin club has also elected to have their contest in the fall instead of in April.

The AMA Nationals are scheduled for July 15th thru the 19th, in Muncie , IN.

2018 Revised District Point Rules have been posted on the Home page.

LARKS has puiblished the flyer for their 2018 pattern contest to be held April 21st & 22nd; LARKS Flyer

Winter Contests in Phoenix 2018

Feb 24-25: Arizona Model Aviators, CD Gary Switala

Mar 3-4: East Valley Aviators, CD John Bentley

Saturday Nov 11th 2017

Sheldon Reyher test flew his new Caressa (first Caressa to fly in the USA) at the Dixie field with Bryan Hebert. Bryan also flew the maiden flight of his new Alchemy with the YS 200 in it. More info coming on this in my article in the december K-Factor, along with pictures.

D6 season has ended for 2017

2017 Cajun Nats

An excellent 3 day contest with 35 entries this year. Weather was beautiful but rather warm. the competition was really close and we managed 6 rounds of competition. Pizza night was great with Bryan Hebert playing guitar and singing. The gumbo hit the spot friday night even though it was in th 80's. Mark Hunt put on an excellent talk about light weight building materis and their strength components. Saturday night banquet was really nice with plenty of Catfish Coubillion and fried catfish.

Flying was awesome with some great competition in all classes. We presented trophies thru 4th place this year.

Results; Masters & FAI results;

Advertisers support

When you buy from the companies that advertise in the K-Factor or on the NSRCA web site, please be sure to let them know you see their advertising here and appreciate their support of our organization. Let them also know if you have recommended them to other pilots in your aera of influence. We need all the advertising support we can get, and they need to know their advertising is getting reconition and paying off in sales.

Purposed New Sequences for 2018-19

The new sequences for 2018 and 2019 have been approved and published on the NSRCA web site and in the K-Factor.

College Station Contest

College Station hosted their annual contest with 29 entries. Scott McCarg did an excellent job as CD, and the club members were awesome hosts. The BBQ Saturday evening was excellent, and the band did an excellent job of entertaining. The flying was great as the weather was good throughout the event.

The cool breeze helped control the heat and even presented a challenge at times but overall a great experience.

Steve Kessler lost his plane on the 4th round Sunday morning and it took a lot of searching to locate it. Luis Meza had a wiring issue when the wires to his ESC rubbed on some carbon fiber and shorted out, but the ESC shut down and didn't cause any furthur damage. Mark Hunt appeared to have dropped a magnet in his motor after the 3rd round. He flew the 4th round with Don Ramsey's plane and still took first place in FAI.

Many of the results were closse in the end and made for a really great contest.

Alamogordo, NM 

Just heard from Jeff Carder that the Alamogordo contest is back on for Sept 30-Oct1. Alamogordo is less than an hour north of El Paso just off I-10. Come on out! 

5th Prairie Dog Pattern Classic

Brighton, CO - August 19th & 20th.  Update 8/15:  Anticipate a Saturday only contest due to light participation.  Contact George Kerr Kerr 303-886-9843  or Joe Pirozzoli 303-906-2600 for details.  East facing field so plenty of time for judging clinic while waiting for the sun. 

32 Annual Roadrunner Classic 

Albuquerque- September 16-17. Host Club: Rocky Mountain Flying Machine at club field out near the Route 66 Casino. Gathering at John Gayer's house on Saturday after flying.

Flying all classes from Sportsman through F3A. The plan is to fly P19 for the entire contest. There will not be a Finals sequence flown, just six rounds of P19. If there is anyone planning to come that objects to flying next years’ sequence, please let me know soon. This notice supersedes the flyer which still shows P17. As we have for the past six years, we will be flying an unknown on Sunday morning. The sequence will be between Advanced and Masters in difficulty and there is handicapping for classes below masters. There is no separate entry fee and the only prize is you get your name added to the permanent trophy and bragging rights, such as they are, for the next year.

The Nationals

 The site opened for practice starting Friday July 22nd. There was an NSRCA general membership meeting on the Thursday evening of the Nationals. The meeting was well attended with a cash bar and free snacks. The district VP's gave their district reports, the new sequences were discussed, and the floor was opened to input from the general membership.

The B-52 was very impressive. Man that is a really large airplane. We were able to get up close to it and watching it start up and take off was awesome.

The competition went really well, and the Banquet was very enjoyable. Ron Chidgey was honored for all his accompliahments and efforts he put into the sport. The food was really good, with a nice variety in the buffet. The auction went over well and generated over $2,000 going toward the cost of the Nationals. Awards for Sportsman, Intermediate, and Advanced were presented. The finalist in Masters and FAI were announced and the Unknowns for the FAI finals were generated at the banquet.

The Masters and the first half of the FAI finals went off smothly on Saturday morning. The second half of the FAI finals was moved to show center with demonstrations for the spectators. Quite a presentation. Mike Harrison and Al Glenn did an excellent job preparing for this event. All the site directors, line chiefs, and volunteers for the weigh ins and sound test helped pull it all together and made for a wonderful event.

Georgetown Contest

Georgetown had an excellent turnout for their local contest. Twenty entries with Intermediate being the largest class with 8 pilots. The competition was close and hotly contested in each class. Flying started off a little late due to rain showers, but they keep the temperature down to a cool 85ish instead of the normal 100 degree tempoerature usually experienced.Winds shiffted througout the contest but most rounds were flown right to left as the winds mostly favored the North.

Then there is Sheldon's plane, note the grass in the rudder hinge line at the top of the rudder. Could this possibly be a sign of excessively low inverted flight?

Colorado Pattern Challenge 

Report by Joe Pirozzoli:  On June 24 – 25, 2017, the Arvada Associated Modelers hosted their 8^th annual 2-day, pattern contest. There was a record-setting 19 competitors, in 6 classes.  It was a great group of competitors including 10 from the local Denver area and 9 far and wide:  2 from Utah (Salt Lake area), 3 from Albuquerque, NM, 1 from Alamogordo, NM, 2 from Pueblo, CO and 1 from Grand Junction, CO.  The weather was a bit uncharacteristic for this time-of-year.  After a week of 90+ degree temps and sunny skies, the weekend was unseasonably cool and cloudy.  High temps only reached the low 70’s and, for the most part, the skies were overcast.  Early mornings were a chilly 50 degrees.  Fortunately, the wind stayed lightly variable at 10 mph or less but provided challenge by being direct crosswind most of the contest.  Photo below:  Lee Jay Fingersh, club photographer.

Event Flyer

Contest Results    Directions to the field: http://www.arvadamodelers.com/location/

Arvada Aassociated Modelers continue to bring in great sponsorship from local and global suppliers.  Our sponsorship, once again, was nearly $2,000 in prizes and merchandise.  No one walked away empty-handed!   Partial list of sponsors:

Get-together on Saturday evening

Grand Junction Colorado Contest

On the western end of the district, the Grand Junction Colorado contest is scheduled for June 3rd & 4th. Cliff Bradford is the CD.  Contestants are confirmed from all around Colorado, Albuquerque NM, and Salt Lake City, UT.  Come join us!

Contact information for Cliff is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.   Tel:  970 434 2958 

Grand Junction Modeleers Website: http://gjmodeleers.com/rcclub/

Info on Field Location and Contest Flyer is HERE

Grand Junction Modeleers Results