2019 Cass Underwood Memorial Fountain City Flyers
SPA/Vintage Pattern
Contest
Prattville, AL

April 6-7, 2019


Scores                                               Photos



2019 Prattville Pilots
L-R: Bill Dodge, Frank Wercinski, Chris Tomberlin, Terry Boston, Ken VandenBosch, Jerry Black,
Jamie Strong, Jim Strong, Jeff Owens, Dave Phillips, Bruce Underwood and Dan Jackson


The 2019 Cass Underwood Fountain City Flyers SPA/VINTAGE Pattern Contest is now in the books!!!

The contest started off with Friday being as close to a picture perfect flying day as possible with 8 of us out steadily knocking off the winter rust from our Transmitter sticks and thumbs as well as catching up on each other’s wintertime, family and holidays. In all honesty I think the visiting part of contesting stuff is as much fun, if not more fun, as the flying. No kidding.

Before I even get started on detailing our weekend event, I must extend my Gratitude to All the folks that made the trip to Prattville, some as far as 400 miles away to attend. The weather forecast was changing from bad to worse by the hour, but we were determined to get this contest in.

Saturday morning we started off with a brief pilot meeting and the welcoming of newcomers Sam Jackson from Kingsport TN and Chris Tomberlin from Montgomery Al. New Growth for SPA!

We had 13 registered pilots consisting of 2 Novice, 3 Sportsman, 2 Advanced, 2 Expert and 4 Senior Experts. Even with the cloud cover we were able to get the event kicked off and underway just after 10Am. Unlike AMA pattern, its was nice to smell the glow fuel in the air once again:).

We were going to be busy running of two flight lines because 8 of our 13 contestants were going to be out on the flight lines at one time throughout the day. It became abundantly clear quickly that EVERY class was going to be competitive the entire 6 rounds of the contest.

Novice had Dan Jackson out of Kingsport TN flying his very first contest and Frank Wercinski from Montgomery Al. Frank had not flown a pattern contest in 10 years or more. Dan took the 1st place in Novice this weekend. Congratulation Dan!!

Sportsman had three contestants, Ken VandenBosch, Terry Boston and Chris Tomberlin and all were neck and neck till the finish. Ken ending up walking away with the number one spot in Sportsman, followed by Terry and Chris.

Advanced Class had Bill Dodge and Jim Strong as competitors. Bill’s OS engine wasn’t quite up to the task of pulling his Daddy Rabbit, but Bill still kept Jim within his reach. Jim continues to climb the links of the chain of the SPA classes and only needs one more link to complete the quest to the Expert Class. It does appear that all of Jims practice is paying dividends as he won Advanced.

Jerry Black and Jamie Strong competed in the Expert Class. Flying against Jerry, I might as well been paddling a jon boat upstream at Niagara Falls. Jerry easily took first place in the Expert class which is no new news whatsoever. 😊 We offered the Expert Unlimited Class to several of our contests this year, that expands the limits of the planes used to ALL Pre Turnaround planes as long as they fly with the SPA’s engine and motor guidelines of 95 four stroke, 65 two stroke or 1400 watts. Unfortunately, we had no takers in this class for this contest.

Senior Expert contestants included Bruce Underwood, Dave Phillips, Jim Johns and Jeff Owens. I attempted to name these fellows by age from youngest to oldest, he he he. Folks, I can only say one thing about these 4 folks, they are True Ambassadors of the SPA, our hobby, and our sport. You will not find more genuine folks as these gents!! Jeff narrowly edged out our Past President Bruce for the contest and Dave wasn’t that far behind flying his lead sled Dirty Birdy. You guys just wait, Dave’s got several secret weapons on the bench and should be seeing them soon.

Jim Johns, after discovering a really bad knock in his OS engine on Friday decided to receive all 10’s while mentoring Gary Arthurs (FCF member) with scoring all day Saturday. Garry Singleton planned to take over on the computer Sunday, but Jim stepped in on Sunday so Garry S could take pictures. I must say, Garry got some really good shots!!

Also helping for the weekend from the club was Ray Kunert (all weekend) with others coming out for shorter stints helping out as well, thanks guys, couldn’t do this without ya !!!!

I continue to be humbled by the folks that come in support of me and my quest to continue pattern in its past as well as its current stage of being. It’s all Toy Plane Flying and its always a pleasure for me to be around these wonderful folks that are associated with the hobby. I also appreciate the tolerance the competitors and their better halves make that indulges me on some of my whims that O can get on my mind from time to time, he he he.

Want to close with a BIG Get Well Soon to Shirley Oberg with the continuing cancer treatments she is incurring at the moment and her recovery from that terrible disease that affects 1 in 10 people now. ☹ Curt & Shirley go back with me to 1975 pattern flying. As teamwork goes, Curt and Shirley are inseparable when it comes to Curt’s flying pattern. As many of us had wives, dads & brothers as teammates, so it was Curt and Shirley!!! These two are some Great people and are like a second Mom and Dad to me. Both Curt and I took a modeling break in the 80’s only find ourselves back at the hobby in the early 2000’s and both picking up where we left off, just all of us getting a little younger looking - he he he.

Thanks to all my competitors, Wife's and Family's for allowing me to be a part of your life, if even just for the weekends!!

Love You All,

Jamie Strong, CD
Prattville, Alabama
Here in the Heart of Dixie !!


Final Scores
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