As you’ll read below, the weather was perfect for the 2026 Jim Walker Memorial Spring Tune-Up. Additionally, we had the usual great support from our friends with the parks department and did not have to compete with softball players for our north end of the park.

A huge thanks to Jim Cameron, our contest director; Jess Walls, our assistant contest director; all the event directors; and all the many volunteers. We had 18 flyers joining us for 42 events.

As usual for us, coffee and sweets in the morning and a barbecue lunch both days.

As always, it takes a village. Or, in this case, a club. Field coordination with the Portland Parks and Recreation Department; equipment maintenance, storage and transportation; personnel training for judging and otherwise actually running each event; set-up and tear-down … great job by The Northwest Fireballs.
 
Sorry if you missed it. The weather conditions were the best that I've ever experienced at one of our contests. We've always seemed to have some kind of a glitch in the weather at our competitions over the years. Murphy's Law has always thrown us some kind of a curve ball, e.g., wind, heavy rain, thunderstorms, etc. Not so this time. Also, we had no conflicts with any softball players.

The City of Portland Parks and Recreation Department did a great job of manicuring all three areas that we get to use for flying our beloved model airplanes. The Forestry division trimmed back some limbs of trees that protruded into flying circles. Workers not
only mowed the grass, but used a roller to make the ground nice and flat.

Northwest Fireballs Club members and associate members pitched in to help with the planning, preparations and execution of the whole weekend. Much work goes on behind the scenes that may not always be noticed. All that went into this contest made
it a successful one. Thanks everybody.


Speaking specifically about Combat: We had three pilots who entered both the 1/2-A event on Saturday and then flew again on Sunday at the Northwest 80mph event. You Combat flyers reading this are encouraged to come to the upcoming combat contests held here in the northwest. We need you!

With only three competitors in the lineup, we didn't need to be worried about not having enough time in the day to get done. We Fireballs will listen to input from the control-line community. Next year maybe we ought to have two events on Saturday? Then on Sunday we could have one more Combat event, or?

The three entrants flew good, clean matches with very little carnage.

If you are not aware, there were new additions to the AMA Combat rules that went into effect in January 2026. This information is available on the AMA website. One new rule requires all persons close to the Combat action to wear a helmet.


On Sunday, the 19th, the same three intrepid combatants who duked it out on Saturday came back to have more fun chasing streamers before returning to their homes.

These three pilots are skilled and experienced at CL Combat and the matches were exciting to watch. Clean matches were flown with little or no carnage.

Much thanks goes out to those who helped officiate at the Combat circle: Will Naemura, Darrin Bishop and Niels Madsen helped both days. Mark Crouse joined us on Sunday and was in charge of pull-testing.

Navy Carrier

 
Carrier was flown on Saturday this year as opposed to the usual Sunday, and on a different grass circle. Weather cooperated beautifully with temps in the mid-60s to the low-70s and very light winds all day.

This was definitely a tune-up event. There were equipment issues with engines and control systems, plus a few “rusty” pilots who appreciated an extra flight or two.

Alan Stewart brought two new planes, an F4U Corsair and a scratch home-built Crusader with a huge wing, about 50% larger than any similar kit I’ve ever seen. It had working flaps and did well in low speed but he had trouble getting it to descend on final approach. We full-scale pilots call that “floating.” Alan managed to catch one of the last wires on his second approach for a 95-point landing.

I had a lot of bad luck this weekend, cutting my palm on a prop and crashing my ME 109 later in the day. Hopefully I’ll get the bugs worked out before the Northwest Regionals in Roseburg over the Memorial Day weekend.

The Northwest Fireballs put on a great contest, including a barbecue lunch with soft drinks. I hope to return for another contest next year.
The races were relatively well attended this year, with six entries in Dallas Sport Goodyear and four in Northwest Sport. There were three people who were designated as pilots (by their teams) for all the events, and they did all the flying. The other team member was the pit crew. By consensus, we ran each race two-up, meaning there were three heats of two planes each for Goodyear and two heats for Northwest Sport.

From the start, we proved the theme of this contest, Spring Tune-Up. Organization issues were discovered but quickly resolved. Every team also had issues from minor to major. Some quickly resolved, others needing practice or repairs before the next contest. A learning event to be sure.

Goodyear was first.

A take-off crash in the first heat eliminated one team immediately. Downwind take-offs can be tricky … The second heat was going well, but one team miscounted laps while in a comfortable lead and ended their race early. The error was discovered and the plane was relaunched but the "extra pit stop" cost them the race. The irony was that the team with the other, slower plane had a very slow pit stop and the finish actually ended up being very close! Slow and steady wins the race.

The third heat was uneventful by comparison.

The final was scheduled to be the two teams with the fastest heat race times. The team of Will Naemura and Alan Stewart had two entries and the two fastest heat times. This meant that Will would fly against himself in the final. The teams decided against flying a second time. Will and Al wound up first and second; the placing was determined by the RPS method (rock, paper, scissors).

NW Sport was next.

Of the four entries, only two ended up flying. Again, by consensus, the teams agreed to run the final only (we were all getting kind of tired by then). Both teams were very experienced, John Thompson and Mike Hazel vs. Doug Powers and Leighton Mangels.

The planes were close in speed. A pit stop launch error crippled Mike's plane and required an extra pit stop to fix it. Leighton's plane decided to slow down for some reason and that allowed Mike to catch up and made the end of the race much closer than expected.

Everyone had a good time while learning what needed improvement and what needed practice. All teams had plans on how to improve and were enthusiastic about the next event!

Don Curry, Mark Crouse and Darrin Bishop worked as timers and lap counters.

Thanks to all who helped and participated.

Speed

 
This contest is partially billed as the “Spring Tune-up,” and some tuning up we sorely needed.

A lot of successful Speed flying is accomplished by what is done on the workshop bench or engine test stand beforehand. This year it would seem we didn’t do enough of that beforehand work. Fuel feed problems, broken fuel bladders, getting the needle set right, and forgetting to bring needed equipment were some of the problems that plagued us this year.

We had a couple of successful flights, but only after a bit of work.

Now that the “tuning up” is behind us, we can look forward to Roseburg! 

Stunt

 
Judging was provided by:
Tim Wescott — all events
Jerry Eichten — Old Time, Classic
Mike Hazel – PA Classes