By Mark Hansen
Planning for this event began in June 2009, so it was fitting that it should be held one year later, in June 2010. The basic idea was that, some of the people in the NW Fireballs were new to both building and competing with control line aircraft, so Jim Cameron and I came up with an event that promoted both. Beyond just holding a simple competition, for only one event, we wanted to fly our aircraft in as many actual "rule book" categories as possible. So a multi-event format was chosen, with six events: Beauty, Speed, High-Low (flying as slow as possible), Racing, Old Time Stunt, and Combat. Each event would be flown with the same plane and engine, but minor changes were allowed, such as changing wheels, venturi, fuel, glow plug, adding head shims, changing gas tanks, or moving the lead outs.
For this event around 12 people constructed clowns, but the day of the event there were only 5 actual entrants. My best guess is that some of the people had other commitments, because prior to the event, everyone was completely game to tell me how ready they were and how I was "going down", in every event. But then again, this event was about bragging rights, and a certain amount of good natured ribbing is to be expected-it just would have been nice to have more people fly.
So, here are the results for each event, with the type of plane and engine listed. (Northwest Standings Points in parentheses):
BEAUTY
1. Scott Riese,14
2. Mark Hansen, 12.5
3. Ron Anderson, 12
4. Richard Entwhistle, 10 (minimum as he was not builder of the model)
5. Doug Powers, 10 (non BOM)
SPEED:
1. Richard Entwhistle, 71.28 mph, Brodak Clown, OS .15
2. Scott Riese, 67.89 mph, Brodak Clown, Leo 15
3. Mark Hansen, 65.084 mph, PDQ Flying Clown, Scratch Built, Cox
TeeDee 15
4. Ron Anderson-44.67 mph, Funky "twin boom clown" Scratch
built, Fox 15
HIGH-LOW
1. Scott Riese, 26.3 9mph
2. Mark Hansen, 28.06 mph
3. Richard Entwhistle, 32.27 mph
4. Ron Anderson-37.74 mph
RACING (15 minutes Feature):
1. Scott Riese, 222 laps (3.5)
Richard Entwhistle, 222 Laps (3.5)
3. Doug Powers, 191 laps, Brodak Clown O.S. L.A. 15 (2)
4. Mark Hansen, 185 Laps (1)
OLD-TIME STUNT
1. Mark Hansen, 165 points (4)
2. Richard Entwhistle, 135 (3)
3. Scott Riese, No score sheet available (2)
4. Ron Anderson, 26 (1)
COMBAT
1. Mark Hansen--No other entrants and no matches flown
So, in the end the overall standings came out:
1. Scott Riese, 26.5 points
2. Richard Entwhistle, 22.5
Mark Hansen, 22.5pts
4. Ron Anderson, 15pts
5. Doug Powers, 2pts
We are talking of holding the same event next year, and hope to see more of you there, as this event was just good fun.
This page was upated June 30, 2010