The 18th Annual Vintage Stunt Championships, 15-18 March, was a great success by anyone's standards. Weather in Tucson was perfect for all four days, with sunshine and warm temperatures. After a long and miserable winter here in Eugene, Ore., it was a real pleasure for me to see great weather and to finally remove my ever-present jacket and ear muffs!
My wife and I arrived in Tucson on Tuesday afternoon after suffering rain and cold along I-5 in California. We immediately headed for the flying field called Columbus Air Park (formerly called Silverbell Park). I was thinking of some practice flying, but all circles were already heavily in use. The field features two paved circles and three grass circles. All were much populated and the sign-up sheets for the circles indicated at least a 1-hour wait for a flight. Since the wind picks up in the afternoon, I decided to instead check in at the Rodeway Hotel and then come back to the field. By then, the wind had picked up and most flyers had given up.
Wednesday featured OTS glo and the OTS ignition event sponsored by De Hill. OTS means any model designed prior to 1953. The same events were flown on Thursday.
Friday and Saturday were devoted to Classic stunt, meaning any plane designed prior to1970.
Entries at VSC totalled 203. Of course, many flyers, like myself, entered more than one event. Of totals, there were 89 entries in OTS glo, 17 in OTS ignition, and 93 in Classic. The Cholla Choppers Club of Tucson deserves much credit in organizing such a large contest, and they managed to get all flights in before the wind came up at around 3 PM. After 3 PM, the die-hards continued to put in practice flights in the wind!
The Eugene Prop Spinners Club was represented, and I managed to once again take a trophy home to Eugene. Although my Palmer VENUS suffered from short engine runs, my WILDMAN 60 with Orwick 64 cooperated for me. Mike Keville flew my other WILDMAN 60 with the Anderson Spitfire spark engine.
Floyd
This page was upated April 13, 2006