Nice Mint Julep report from Johnson County member Mike Bealmear:
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Art Shelton and his 1/3 Eindecker, Billy Thompson and his 1/3 scale Pup and me with my 1/4 scale SSWD1 ventured down to the Mint Julep Scale Meet help at Rough River State Park, KY. Art has competed there for a number of years and moved up to Expert Div. 2 this year (he won Sportsman last year with the Eindecker), this was my second year and Billy's first to compete. Billy was in Sportsman, and I was in Fun Scale.
Beautiful weather both days. But it did get a bit windy at times. Of course that was usually just before you flew.
From my perspective......
My wife Kathy agreed to come down and be my caller. First time for her, and she did great!
I set up and got a test flight in Friday afternoon. It sucked! Terrible flight, even for me. Very nervous with the sun in my eyes . I just don't handle that well, but need to practice more in those lighting situations to get better, as they're always going to be there. My first flight (Saturday) wasn't so hot. Really blew the Split S and I spun it twice out of the recovery. Oops! I Scored a 64 ( I think that was my worst scale score ever). Second flight was a little better. Somehow I'd gotten the plane all out of trim and flew the flight in a cross controlled situation (I think it may have been partly that way on the first flight). Boinked the landing and damaged the rudder some. Even with the 5 on the landing, I scored a 73, so things were improving.
I fixed the rudder with some thin CA and duck tape, tightened the rudder cables, and got thing back to center.
Sunday (my birthday btw) dawned gorgeously. I was all ready to go for my third flight (on the line having already given my score sheets to the judges), when the engine refused to run past the prime. The fuel pick up line had come loose inside the tank, so I had to move to the end of that round and try to get it fixed before then (not a lot of time). I was able to fix the fuel line in time, and (wonder of wonders) the wind even behaved. Dave Johnson called it my "Birthday Wind". It was still a cross a bit, but I got smart (finally) and told the judges that I'd be taking off in to it "prototypically"rather than go parallel to the runway as I had twice before. That flight went great!! I finally felt comfortable, the plane flew well (in trim even). I think I scored an 83. My best flight ever in competition! Damn I felt good after that one! Made the whole weekend! By the time the fourth flight rolled around ( I was last because of the earlier round), the clouds had moved in some and the sun was back out in front. Didn't fly as well, but still did okay. Got disoriented a couple of times. Boinked the landing again and scored a 5 on it. I still don't know what that flight's over-all score was, but it was probably mid 70s. I did receive my first 10 in competition in that round and on my figure 8 (the other judge scored it an 8.5 though). I probably ended up around 13th out of 17. And do you know what? I wish that there was another contest this weekend!!
Billy did fantastic, especially for his first time out. He was getting 9s and 10s on many of his maneuvers. Unfortunately, he had two flights that ended in deadsticks only part way thru his program (fuel line issue too I think). Had it not happened on his last flight, he very likely could have won, instead, he placed 5th. And that wasn't in Fun Scale either, but Sportsman! He ended up with a 171.00. Second place was a 171.8750. First was a 176.125.
Art flew great (as usual).
He was real happy with 97.250 on his second flight (we were teasing him about having a halo).
As I said before, Art had moved up to Sport Scale Expert Div 2, and that's a lot tougher on the static portion. Alas, Sunday's flights were not scored as well (although they looked pretty darn good to us), and Art ended up in second place with a total score of 185.2500 (90.5 static). Mike Barbee won with a 195.000 (97.00 static)
There were two other WW1 birds in completion. Dave Johnson and his 1/3 scale Albatross DIII to first place in Designer Scale, and Gary Underhill came in 6th with his 1/4 scale Pup in Expert Div 2.
All in all a great outing. Always nice to get out and schmooze with the brethren.
Mike
