By Don DeLoach
Day Four at Round Valley Dome … more terrific flying by the best Indoor fliers in the US and beyond.
Mass launches were the major highlight in the afternoon on Friday, May 27. Winners were the following: World War II, David Aronstein with Fiat G.55; WW II No-Cal, Mike Fedor with a Spitfire; and P-18, John McGrath. The latter featured 21 contestants in an epic single round. Well over half the field was youth including the Albuquerque homeschool team and a Civil Air Patrol unit from Phoenix.
Big news of the day in the glider events is that Tim Batiuk found a strong piece of lift and paired it with a perfect launch to post a monster HLG flight of 1:17.9. This puts him about 8 seconds ahead of second place going into the final day of competition.
In Unlimited Catapult, Stan Buddenbohm still has a comfortable lead. In Standard Catapult, Stan is also leading but just barely. Tim Batiuk is an agonizing 0.1 second behind.
Competition is extremely tight in FAC Peanut Scale and FAC Jet Cat with one day to go. In Peanut, George’s SE-5 is doing about 90 seconds with higher bonus points than Dave Aronstein’s Boeing, which has a best time of about 15 seconds higher. In Jet Cat both Stan Buddenbohm and Jonathan Nunez have their models doing around 50 seconds consistently. Amazing performance for these little marvels.
Four more national records fell on Friday! Guha Ekambaran did 14:57 in F1D Junior. Caleb Finn did 9-plus minutes in F1L Junior, plus he upped his F1R record to 10:37. And lest we forget about little 3-year-old Paul Finn who did a record flight of 3:55 In Electric Junior.
Mass launches for Saturday are: Greve/Thompson, Flying Horde, Greve/Thompson No-Cal and Phantom Flash.
Stay tuned here for the final report following Saturday’s flying and prizegiving. It’s been an awesome week at the Round Valley Dome in Eagar, Arizona, and we’re excited for one more day of fun.
--Don DeLoach
As of Friday evening, with 1 day of flying to go, the current major event leaders are:
A-6 Hamish Christie 9:26
ROG Stick Josh Finn 15:38
Easy B Karen Khanagov 16:49
F1D Brett Sanborn 38:53
F1N HLG Tim Batiuk 3:30.7
Limited Pennyplane Josh Finn 11:06
NFFS Towline Don DeLoach 4:34.6
Hand Launched Stick Ross Clements 30:55
Intermediate Stick Josh Finn 20:34
Ornithopter Josh Finn 4:13
Ministick Karen Khanagov 9:45
P-18 Brett Sanborn 3:31
Pennyplane Josiah Rose 9:55
Unlimited Catapult Stan Buddenbohm 2:33.7
HLG Tim Batiuk 2:29.2
Manhattan Cabin David Aronstein 7:58
ROG Cabin Ross Clements 21:21
F1D Brett Sanborn 38:53
Standard Catapult Stan Buddenbohm 2:12.5
F1L Mike Fedor 22:06
F1R 35cm Josh Finn 33:18
F1M Chuck Andraka 23:39
See more photos at https://www.flickr.com/photos/modelaircraft/.
Caleb Finn and Jonathan Nunez
A sublime Friday evening at Camp Finn: balsa free flying things ... and pizza!
George Nunez's Nardi twin competed in Peanut Scale.
George Nunez's SE-5 biplane that competed in Peanut Scale.
Jess Wignall sets up for Limited Pennyplane launch.
Smooth flying F1L by Jim Lueken.
A tense moment as Jonathan Nunez and father George prep his tightly wound Corsair for the Mass Launch.
A young pilot competes in catapult launch.
David Wagner is justifiably proud of his Chester “Goon” Peanut model.
Josiah Rose works intently on his F1D late into Friday evening.
The great Ron Wittman, past indoor glider record holder, trying his hand at Standard Catapult.
Tim Batiuk (L) and Jim Lueken.