At last a contest, seems like we have been waiting forever for the first contest of the season.  The event that kicked off the season for a lot of the D8 Masters pilots was not a D8 event; it was the Canada West season opener, the David Armstrong Memorial contest. We had five of our Masters Pilots travel across the border to attend; Gary McClellan, Rex Lesher, Bill and Brett Bowen and my wife and I.  This is the third year my wife and I have attended and we have always had a great time.  The event was held May 20 and 21, Victoria Day in Canada.  This is a holiday weekend so you need to make room reservations in advance because the local hotels generally fill up.

The US gang invades Canada!

The weather guessers were threatening rain but it never really materialized.  We did have a bit of cross wind on Saturday but Sunday turned out to be a very nice day.  Twenty-five pilots attended, with pilots in ever class.  Amar Shan was again the CD’d for this contest, he runs a great event and always takes very good care of the pilots.  He arranged lunch both days and a BBQ on Saturday night.  I was unable to attend the BBQ; I caught a bad cold Saturday and fought it all weekend long.

Dave Reaville will report the details in his article so I will only touch on a couple of highlights from the event.  The first thing I would like to mention is the problem I had on Friday.  As is always our tradition we arrived at the field on Friday for a few practice flights. We setup in the pits and spend a few minutes meeting our friends and seeing all the new aircraft and then flew a practice flight.  Just as I was finishing my routine I heard the familiar sound of a pipe coupler breaking or a header failure.  After I landed I discovered the header had broken at the flange that bolted to the engine.  This setup is pretty new with only 5 or 6 gallons of fuel.  The bad new was I did not bring a spare; I had another header but left it in my shop 350 miles away!  I assumed it was over for me for the weekend and then Paul Dries offered to take me to his shop about 15 minutes away from the field.  It was late in the day and everyone was heading home for the long weekend so the roads were pretty clogged up, the welder at Paul’s shop (John, I thing) waited for us to arrive.  These guys really went out of there way to help me out.  The repair was a bit tricky because the break was pretty jagged and the tubing was very thin. He did an outstanding job welding the header together and I was able to fly the entire weekend.  The header is holding up very well and will likely last all season.  I can’t thank Paul enough for what he did for me and I hope I can do the same for him one day.

Paul Dries and Simon Durkin.

Gary McClellan had a mid-air and he did not even know it happened!  I was calling for him and, I guess, during one of his turnaround maneuvers he made contact with Phil Murray (I think).  Wayne Powell told us after the flight that he heard the planes hit but they just bumped each other.  Both planes kept flying and it did not even kill the motor! Gary flew the whole routine and landed completely unaware of what had happened.  After the flight Gary noticed a 7 inch long cut on the top right wing panel and a mar on the top of the fuselage.  Pretty amazing!  Both pilots were very lucky, one more inch closer and it would have been a very different story.

Gary McClellan’s wing panel after the mid-air.

Thanks to Amar and all our friends from Canada, we had a great time and we were made to feel very welcome.  I look forward to attending many more events in Canada this season.

Adam Glatt, Rex Lesher, Dave Reaville, and Chad Northeast fueling up!

Click here for a link to Dave Reaville's full report on this contest.

Click here to see more pictures!

See you in the pits...