Grant Sharp's Green Acres Field, Molalla Oregon
Written by Gordon Anderson, NSRCA District 8 Vice President
The 4th annual Oregon Aerobatic Challenge was held in Molalla, OR on June 23rd and 24th at Grant Sharp’s field, Green Acres. A total of 13 contestants were present with at least 2 competitors in every AMA class and FAI. Turn out was pretty good considering we were missing a number of our “faithful” flyers; John Gaylord, Lyle Laughery, Dennis Cone, and Brett Bowen. Saturday we were able to complete 4 rounds with pretty good weather. Sunday was another story; we were only able to complete one more round due to rain. Bill Carder did a great job running this contest and kept everything moving smoothly. A special thanks to Grant, Ray Gauthier and Bob Walker for supplying the tasty doughnuts that helped get us started each morning and for providing two days of great lunches. Never a shortage of food at this contest!
The Molalla Pilots!
Seems like this contest saw a lot of engine problems with a number of rounds ending in dead stick landings. I think we might have set a record for the most dead sticks at a contest! It seems like Grant had the worse luck with his OS 1.40 EFI. Unfortunately engine problems ended the contest early for Pavel when a dead stick forced him to land in the unforgiving over-fly area. It is great to have Pavel Safarik back flying with us! Last year he was traveling for work and wasn’t able to attend many contests. Pretty soon we will have another Safarik flying with us, Pavel’s son Alexander has soloed and will be ready to start flying pattern.
Pavel Safarik and his son Alexander.
Friday night we all gathered at the local Mexican food restaurant for dinner. This has become a tradition that we look forward to at this contest. This year instead of the traditional BBQ on Saturday night at Grant’s house we all met Ricky Dee’s, the local pizza parlor. We had a great time with over 20 people attending the dinner.
Dinner at Ricky Dee’s.
Standings:
Sportsman
1st Rob Hoover 4000.00
2nd Carl Green 3146.66
Intermediate
1st Jerry Green 4000.00
2nd Ray Gauthier 3732.54
3rd Grant Sharp 3000.84
Advanced
1st Bob Walker 3953.87
2nd Bill Carder 2993.87
Masters
1st Bill Bowen 4000.00
2nd Ray McClellan 3477.14
FAI
1st Gary McClellan 4000.00
2nd Rex Lesher 3901.60
3rd Gordon Anderson 3848.97
4th Pavel Safarik 1345.02
Click here to see scores for all rounds.
The Molalla crowd has started their own team; they call themselves “Team Semi Precision”. I hear they are looking for worthy candidates to join them! I don’t know what it takes to join, who the leader is or what semi represents so this is something to keep an eye on!
“Team Semi Precision”
Coyote Hobby (http://h1072938.hobbyshopnow.com/) provided shirts and gift certificates that were awarded to the 1st and 2nd place winners in each class! Make sure and visit them at 1128 Main Street in Oregon City and tell them thanks for supporting pattern! This was a very nice touch to this great contest.
See you in the pits…
Bill Carder helping Ray Gauthier in the ready box.
Bill Bowen and Carl Green talking Pattern!
Click here to see more pictures!