MARVELOUS MASTERS

Guntersville, AL Sept. 18, 2005.......When a group of "great-to-be-with" RC Pattern Pilots convene for an SPA Precision Aerobatic Contest....it is more fun than eating Ice Cream (Homemade) on a 4th of July. Its' even greater than that when it is the SPA MASTERS contest!

Auburns RC Model Club, the PLANESMEN....stacked up the "goodies" this weekend for the annual SPA MASTERS there. Beginning with Friday afternoon's practice, the club members greeted early arrivals with host hospitality and it lasted til after the awards ceremony on Sunday with nary a cessation. Each was presented with a neat "schedule of events"....and this schedule was closely adhered to.

Business was kept to a minimum at our Saturday night MASTERS annual Banquet in favor of good food, fun and fellowship! Our CSP has some great ideas for
2006 scheduling of contest events. All of our officers who were present at the Banquet have agreed to run for reelection to their current offices and Board Positions. I will confer with the one who was unable to attend prior to the election ballot which will appear in the Nov/Dec SPA newsletter.

Glen, the chief Chef served up grilled hotdogs and hamburgers, cold soda pop, homemade desserts and even some Ice cold "bubbly" after flying ceased each day. The club provided and flew a Superstar 40 at which any and all visitors could fire "paintballs" at each low, slow pass. It met its' demise Saturday evening when some lucky contestant disabled its' control surfaces with some good shots.

Highlights of the MASTERS each year is the sudden-death "flyoff" for the honor of retaining the Memorial Trophy for one year. This year, as a result of our CSP Chairman Jamie and Webmaster Ed's BOARD motion back in January...a similar "sudden-death" fly off was conducted for each Class. The top two contestants going into the Masters flew a one-time flight before 5 judges to determine winners. Of the 5 score sheets, both the HIGH and the LOW was tossed out and the remaining three totaled for the determining score.

Can you believe the coincidence?? On Saturday afternoon, scores for the NOVICE class and the Senior Expert classes were exactly tied! What great flying..I had the pleasure of serving as one of the 5 judges on Saturday....all 5 of us agreed...these participants flew much better during the "shoot-out" than during regular competition. The two classes above had a "flyoff"-"flyoff" on Sunday to determine a winner! Man.....how is that, for close competition!

"Tongue-in-Cheek"...I urged each flier prior to the "fly-off" in a Coach Bear Bryant type pre-fly-off dissertation "not to screw up"....not even a "little-bitty bit". Several told me they enjoyed the feeling of flying without any pressure on them!

A terrific raffle saw a number of winners of prizes ranging from "trinkets" to the PRIMUS or modified TAURUS kit which went home with Randy Roberts of the Cullman, AL club.

I have a great photo of some of the Auburn Clubbers who "hoisted the hospitality" this week-end and will share maybe sometime tomorrow...getting late and gotta do some chores before an early Monday arising.

But Henry Helmke, Rick Helmke, Brian Diez, Julian Gomez,....others who hosted the Marvelous Masters this week-end.....we are extremely grateful, it couldn't have been better!

Stay tuned here for results....from Rick (CD) from all regular competition and Jamie and myself from the "fly offs".

Our special SPA "thanks" to all who participated you were all winners!

spa pio

The FLY-OFF in all classes was just the epitome...everyone was attentive and focused on the action in front of the 5 judges assembled at Flight line A on that beautifully manicured flying field. As stated before, both NOVICE and SENIOR EXPERT qualifiers exactly tied on Saturday afternoon (with the High and Low discarded and remaining 3 added).. adding to the excitement of Sunday and the necessity for the "fly-off-fly-off" in those two classes. Skip Getelman flew during a very brief shower on Sunday opting to continue his pattern during the lite shower. Results of the first-ever ALL CLASS Flyoff SHOOT-OUT are as follows: NOVICE: Dean Siems 259 Skip Getelman 252 SPORTSMAN: Scott Sappington 324.5 Bill Kite 318. EXPERT: Randy Roberts 344.5 Jamie Strong 335.5 The winners in the above catagories were presented HUGE gold VICTORY CUPS engraved with event, date, etc. Runners-up received engraved plaques. SENIOR EXPERT: Keith Watson 338 Jim Ivey 319.5 The above pair executed for inclusion and possession of the Prestigeous MEMORIAL TROPHY for the coming year. This same pair will repeat at the 2006 MASTERS, the location to be decided at the BOD meeting in January 2006. * A single maneuver (spin) was the deciding factor in the exciting MEMORIAL TROPHY fly-off! Both these pilots are to be commended on their excellent execution. All 5 of the judges had to seek diligently reasons for downgrades. Keith revealed to this reporter later on Sunday...he had obtained a copy of the fly-off score sheets from Brian Diez and determined " had Ivey's model incurred a "break" and a successful spin, he (Ivey) would have carried home that HUGE trophy for the year. What a great pair of competitors.....!!!!! Brian Diez, who judged next to me for the Saturday afternoon fly off....said, "just think there are folks attending college football games now, when they could be here enjoying this competition!" I called for a show-of-hands by the pilots at the awards ceremony asking how many enjoyed the first-ever "shootout" for all classes and felt we should continue. The response was a unanimous Y E S with ALL hands raised. What a great addition to SPA's resume of terrific competition events! Bruce Underwood