Minnesota Scale Classic

[John Baligrodzki]

Minnesota Scale Classic

Start Date: 08/07/10 End Date: 08/07/10

Hosted By: SMMAC in Owatonna, Minnesota USA

Contact Info:
Contest Director: John Baligrodzki CD AMA # 226151
CD contact e-mail baligrodzki1@yahoo.com
CD Contact Phone # 651-955-2590

Web Link for more information www.mnbigbirds.com

USSMA Classes:
Expert Yes   Team Yes
Advanced No  Open No
Fun Scale Yes

Additional Information Given:

Information Submitted by: {user}

[John Baligrodzki]

The Minnesota Scale Classic was held on August 7th.  Rain in the morning delayed the first round until 11:30AM. Had 4 pilots in Fun Scale.  One in Expert and one entry in Team Scale.  I entered in Expert and had an excellent trim flight.  Then on the first round my Satio 180 would sag at anything above half throttle. As the CD I did not have time to pull the cowl on my Fokker D8 to resolve the problem and had to drop out. (Turned out the carb was lose.)  Meanwhile a nasty 15mph cross wind came up from directly behind the flight line to make things difficult.  Cliff and Jerry were my Team Scale entrants.  They drove all the way from the Milwaukee area.  They were flying a very nice Morane Sauliner and posted a 74 static score.  On there first flight the aircraft ground looped and then overturned damaging the rudder and its concealed linkage.  They were unable to repair and also dropped out.

Chuck in Fun Scale had brought his Cub but forgot his wing tube. Figuring he could not compete, his wife commented the lawn chairs they brought had tubing about the right size.  A hack saw was produced, a tube cut and it fit perfectly!  Due to the cross wind Chuck was able to complete only 1 round.   

Chris flew in Fun Scale with a nice Top Flite giant scale P-51.  On his last flight the cross wind forced him come in over the trees for landing.  Got too low and put aircraft right into them.  Plane was way up there and took over an hour to get it down.  Amazingly no damage to the fuse. The wing will take a few hours to repair. 

Of course by mid afternoon the temp was 90 and the dewpoint 70 degrees.  With everything that went wrong I was glad to wrap the contest up. Chuck was the winner of the Airtronics Radio from The Hobby People.

Tim Johnson the land owner would like to have the event again in 2011.  While a rather dissapointing day we will try again next year.

Regards,

John B.
CD Minnesota Scale Classic