Well the first race of the year is in the books and if you were unable to make it you missed a great one! The gang at Horizon, JR & Zenoah put on a top notch event, we all need to thank Peter Bergstrom, Peter Goldsmith, Kathy Cushing, Jodi Knopic, Mike, Kim Rix and Steve Goodreau for all their hard work. With over 50 planes entered they were able to finish on Sunday by 1pm, which includes the awards ceremony! Rantoul is a great flying site that allows to use a runway exclusively the entire weekend which really helps the program run quickly. In addition, the entire staff was committed to reducing the delays between heats. The heat races went smoothly with two rounds on Friday and three on Saturday which meant Sunday was dedicated to the finals only.
The racing was intense and spectacular! Formula GT was as close as ever with 19 entrants battling for the top spot. After having some cutting issues in his early heats, Robert Vess proved to be the cream of the crop in GT, congratulations Robert! Formula 1 was the Kenny Mac show, not to say he did not work for it though, Formula 1 had some great competition but Kenny always seemed to be able to dig deep when it was needed and finished the weekend with a perfect score sheet, 5 heat wins, first place in the final and a new world record, congratulations Kenny! Unlimited was exciting with Fred French bringing out a fire-breathing NA-50 that was SCARY fast! Fred had other pilots turning inside of him making it look closer than it probably was but I dont really think Fred ever pushed as hard as he could. Dave Smith was giving Fred some trouble in the final until Dave experienced an elevator failure and lost the airplane. Congratulations Fred! This was one of those races that come along once in a while with an unusually high loss rate and I only hope that all the lost planes can be replaced soon and everyone is back out on the fight line in Ohio!
Steve Goodreau of Horizon Hobbies coordinated the media coverage and was able to have writers and photographers from Model Aviation, Model Airplane News and Fly R/C at the event all weekend so keep a look out for articles in the near future, Thanks Steve!
One of the changes made at this event to assist in speeding up the racing was having Barb Baker meet the racers after each heat with their score sheets as they left the flight line which meant the timing and scoring tent was completely relieved from that task and was able to concentrate on the next heat, it worked very well, Thanks Barb!
As the new president I spent a lot of time at the timing and scoring tent to get a feel for how that aspect works and I can tell you that Pete and those girls work VERY hard for all of us and they need to be congratulated on an effort well done! Thanks Caroline, Kim, Martha, Jodi, Joyce, Shawna, Ronda, Sharon and Barb. I also spent a lot of time assisting Mark Zeal with setting up and maintaining the timing and scoring equipment and I can tell you that Thursday night I was one tired puppy; that is one exhausting job! Without my team to assist with setting up my airplanes I would not have been ready to fly on Friday, Thanks Marty and Team Extra! I am currently working on making the setup and tear down of the equipment a little easier but it is still a time consuming effort with just two people. Any help at future events would be greatly appreciated!
Last year Tony used a video replay system at his race in Ohio to assist in calling start cuts and close finishes. I thought this was a great idea so I have been putting together equipment that could eventually be used universally at all events. I was unable to get the equipment setup until Sunday morning so Pete and I got to test it during the finals. Needless to say, it was used in three of the first five races with good but not prefect results which means I will be continuing to refine the hardware.
I would also like to thank all the pylon workers that spend hours in the blazing sun turning on the pylon lights for us. Besides Holly and Ralph on the line, this is a job that requires you be out in the sun continuously, thanks to all! Speaking of Holly and Ralph, there are two guys that give everything they have to make our events successful, so the next time you think you want to yell at them just remember they are volunteers doing a great job and besides helping run our races they are responsible for bring 25% of the airplanes to each and every race, thanks Holly and Ralph! Oh by the way, not one of their calls at the line were reversed by the video system, way to go guys!
The board was able to hold a meeting Wednesday night with all but Tony and Fred in attendance. My main goal was not to make decisions but to discuss issues that we will have to address in future meetings. Our meeting went very well with everyone providing positive input. The meeting lasted 1-1/2 hours with no yelling or blows thrown, which I believe is a record! Being that the USRA has a two year rules cycle which will be up at the end of this year it is time to start discussing any needed rules changes so if you have any concerns please contact your district rep so they can be put it on a future agenda for discussion.
Fly fast, turn left
Martin Treat
President