05/16/03 - NEW ENGLAND AEROBATIC CONTEST - Orange, MA

Contest Results
New England Aerobatic Contest - May 16-18, 2003

Orange Massachusetts - IAC Chapter 35
Contest Director: Steve Pennypacker

Primary | Sportsman | Intermediate | Advanced

 

           

Primary

Rank

Pilot

Aircraft

Known

TBLP Tot.

%PP

1st

Greg Dinning

Decathlon

377.7883

377.7883

83.95%

2nd

Wesley Hebert

Decathlon

362.0150

362.0150

80.45%

3rd

* Ron Sheradin

Acrosport 2

361.4749

361.4749

80.33%

4th

* Weston Liu

Pitts S-2A

335.0848

335.0848

74.46%

5th

Neville Hogan

Extra 300L

295.9927

295.9927

65.78%

Chief Judge: Jim Ward

Judges: Guenther Eichhorn, Hans Bok, Dave Watson, Jim Parker and Bill Sconce

* = flew for patch only.

 

             

Sportsman

Rank

Pilot

Aircraft

Known

Free

TBLP Tot.

%PP

1st

Bruce Green

Eagle

1000.1431

997.4342

1997.5773

74.54%

2nd

Weston Liu

Pitts S-2A

966.7052

1007.9945

1974.6997

73.68%

3rd

Ron Sheradin

Acrosport 2

1004.3737

920.5537

1924.9274

71.83%

4th

Andy Cooper

Pitts S-2A

918.4045

965.4362

1883.8407

70.29%

5th

Janusz Becla

Pitts S-2C

838.6723

1005.7344

1844.4067

68.82%

6th

Kendal Simpson

Meyer Little Toot

994.0629

842.9925

1837.0554

68.55%

7th

Chip Drapeau

Pitts S-2C

1038.3739

739.4104

1777.7843

66.34%

8th

Michael Henning

Pitts S-2C

787.4599

874.1610

1661.6209

62.00%

9th

Douglas Durand

Decathlon

785.8230

834.9046

1620.7276

60.47%

10th

Mark Lander

Pitts S-2C

734.3770

785.4473

1519.8243

56.71%

Chief Judge: Jim Ward

Judges: Guenther Eichhorn, Hans Bok, Dave Watson, Jim Wells, Jim Parker and Bill Sconce

 

               

Intermediate

Rank

Pilot

Aircraft

Known

Free

Unkown

TBLP Tot.

% PP

1st

Dave Watson

Decathlon

1521.4637

1430.1863

1229.0460

4180.6960

75.87%

2nd

Steve McCalmont

Extra 300L

1485.2785

1413.7877

1124.3208

4023.3870

73.02%

3rd

Bill Crawford

Giles 200

1453.2178

1557.6679

970.5627

3981.4484

72.26%

4th

Jim Wells

Pitts S-2B

1280.1225

1361.7119

1094.3601

3736.1945

67.81%

5th

Peter Bocon

Pitts S-2B

1301.3956

1524.6567

898.6200

3724.6723

67.60%

6th

Ryan Retelle

Pitts S-2C

1425.8281

1391.6101

879.9762

3697.4144

67.10%

7th

Steve Pennypacker

Pitts S-2B

1382.0868

1443.0637

863.2732

3688.4237

66.94%

8th

Bill Matukaitis

Decathlon

1211.5515

1364.3649

1105.0001

3680.9165

66.80%

9th

Ray Moorman

Pitts S-2B

1353.1025

1373.7025

856.0565

3582.8615

65.02%

10th

Sheldon Apsell

Extra 300L

1121.0704

1428.7748

881.6133

3431.4585

62.28%

11th

Bill Gordon

Pitts S-2B

1298.3238

1242.9399

772.6075

3313.8712

60.14%

12th

Sigrid Baumann

Extra 200

883.2800

540.6795

917.5237

2341.4832

42.50%

13th

Peter Ashwood-Smith

Pitts S-1T

1065.4024

977.4652

0.0000

2042.8676

37.08%

Chief Judge: Jim Ward

Judges: Guenther Eichhorn, Neville Hogan, Hans Bok and Jim Parker

 

               

Advanced

Rank

Pilot

Aircraft

Known

Free

Unkown

TBLP Tot.

% PP

1st

Robert Holland

Pitts S-2C

1646.8976

2332.5005

1979.0461

5958.4442

71.10%

2nd

Guenther Eichhorn

Pitts S-2A

1602.3261

2420.4667

1790.2236

5813.0164

69.37%

3rd

Alex Belov

Pitts S-1T

1175.9945

2234.5700

1377.4938

4788.0583

57.14%

4th

Dennis Thompson

Laser 230

1079.5670

1856.0427

1280.2722

4215.8819

50.31%

Chief Judge: Jim Ward

Judges: Neville Hogan, Hans Bok, Dave Watson, Jim Wells and Jim Parker

We held the New England Aerobatic Contest (can't say Championships) last weekend, for something like the 12th straight year at Orange. Lots of flying, no safety problems, and everyone seemed to go away happy. As a CD I can't ask for much more than that, though sometimes I do anyway.

There were some real differences that made this year different from any other year I've been out there. some of the highlights (and lowlights):

What started out as a joke turned out to be probably the best thing we've ever done. Ann Salcedo offered to fly up from Florida to be our VC, and her impact was incredible and noticed by everyone (despite her incomprehensible accent :-). We've always felt we've been pretty good at getting a lot of flights efficiently through the box, but 10 minute judging line changes all weekend had us in awe, and her great sense of humor kept even the grizzled judges smiling as she kicked 'em back out to the line for another round. THANK YOU ANN!!!

Danny was back out from Aviat to keep 'em flying. One pilot busted an entire brake assembly in a taxiing incident early on Thursday and thought he was done for the weekend. As much as I tried to convince him he'd be flying before the contest started, he was pretty sure he was done. It took some time for the parts to arrive, but of course he was back in action before his first contest flight, ultimately placing second in his category. Of course there were plenty of other smaller stories as well. If there's anyone else in the acro community called Danny and whose last name isn't Adams, they're going to have to change their name 'cause there's only one Danny, just as there's only one Leo or Patty. The goodwill that Stu Horn and Aviat have built up by sponsoring this program is immeasurable.

We unleashed Steve Till's unending creative talents on the local community this year as our public relations guy. The results were awesome, which has become a trend whenever Steve takes on a job. I won't steal his thunder because he's going to write up something separately, but let's just say that the best way to find Steve was usually to look for the red cap at the center of the crowd that continually surrounded him like bees around the queen.

We've found the secret to good weather... it improved to blue sky right after Dave Watson hung a noose around my neck. Fortunately Dave realized that sacrificing me meant that he would have to take over as CD, so I got to live another day but the gods obviously bought into the whole sacrifice thing as we ended up with clear skies to the end of the contest. I bet they'll be pretty upset with Dave next year.

Only one pilot ended up at or above 78%. Winter in the northeast wasn't kind to pilots this year, and most of us are pretty rusty. Maybe we'll rename the contest to the Cobweb Classic. Interestingly, the one pilot over 80% just returned to the U.S. and hadn't flown for 9 months prior to the contest, although he's an experienced pilot who bumped himself down a category this year. Nice job, Greg.

First Law of Aerobatics, borrowing from Bill Clinton: "It's the pilot, stupid". And the hours of practice. In every category, pilots with lower performance airplanes but more flight time beat out the highest performance planes. If anyone still thinks a mortgage on a big mono can buy you a plaque at the level most of us fly, forget about it.

In the 8 or so years I've been coming to Orange, I think this is the first time Craig Lesinski hasn't been there. Craig isn't flying right now while a health issue gets cleaned up, and acro is part of his blood, so I'm sure not flying was difficult, but we also missed a great volunteer and judge who's always working any time he's not flying. Hopefully next year. We're all pulling to see Ron Burns back out there by next year, too.

Pitts pilot Neville Hogan came sans airplane, so when we needed another Primary pilot to have a category, he volunteered to fly if someone would spot him an airplane. Sheldon Apsell bravely volunteered his Extra 300 and services as safety pilot. I'm not sure which one Sheldon regretted more, but I've never heard an entire judges line burst out laughing before, as Neville whip-stalled his way all the way around his first loop ever in a high performance mono. Of course all eyes were on his second flight, but fortunately or unfortunately (depending on whether your name is Neville or not) it wasn't nearly as entertaining. He's obviously a quick study, as he flew a really nice second flight less than 7 points off the leader.

We've had more contests without Unlimited than with it the last few years, but this may be about to change. A combination of long time Unlimited pilots and some that I expect will be moving up over the next one to three years (not all of whom made it to the contest this year) should get us solidly back to 5 categories.

Our awesome staff of volunteers has gotten better and better each year, to the point where even the CD got a chance to relax and enjoy the weekend. Thank you everyone!

Grass Roots: Greg Dinning, Super Decathlon

American Champion Award: Greg Dinning, Super Decathlon

Pitts Trophy: Bruce Green (Eagle)

Team trophy: Chapter 35 team of Greg Dinning, Wes Hebert, and Dave Watson.