Big Birds IMAC 2004 Report

Big Birds has come and gone.  Thank God for our stubbornness, we outlasted the rain which started early Saturday morning and didn’t stop until 2:00pm.  We commenced flying shortly before 3:00pm Saturday and got two full rounds in for all 25 pilots who braved the rainy morning.  We started Sunday a little later than usual, just after 9:00am, with much better weather.  Sportsman thru Unlimited flew their Unknowns and Basic flew two Known sequences.  Everybody flew through lunch and got another full round of two sequences done early in the afternoon.  We also had a freestyle contest with Ethan Raforth, Kyle Woyshnis, Andrew Thompson, Kevin Miller, and Ryan Winslow. However, when the wind started blowing hard and lightning began right after Andrew Thompson finished his first round routine, we decided to call it quits. Too bad, we never got to see Kevin and Ryan fly.

We almost had a spectacular crash Saturday afternoon when the 40% Giles 202 that Kody Knudtson was flying started flailing around, not responding to any of his inputs. Mark Gaines already had the potential crash site marked. After about 20 tense seconds, Kody finally got the plane under control while flying inverted and just slightly above idle. He gently turned it right side up and nursed it back to the runway for a perfect landing. It turns out that the left elevator servo arm came loose and caused the left elevator to flutter severely. A sizeable portion of the elevator broke off the plane due to this flutter. Great job Kody, saving Stan’s Giles 202. I’m sure we will all remember to “Locktite” our servo arms from now on.

When it comes to dedication, nobody beats John Wondra. He had an incident with his car on the way to the flying field which would have caused anybody else to call it a day. The car he was driving got rear ended by a truck, completely destroying his Sig Extra. He had to go to the hospital for treatment. Because of the rain delay on Saturday, he was still able to make it to the field on time. Thanks to Scott Claboe’s generous offer to let John fly his Patty Wagstaff Extra, John still got to sign up and fly in the Sportsman class.

Perry Prescott, president and founder of WTI Designs (Wing Tote) donated 10 tool/parts containers, a 40% Wing bag, and a Heckler fun fly airplane.  Abernathy’s Northwest Hobbies donated a Century Humingbird Helicopter, and Tim’s Hobby Shop donated 2 transmitter trays, and 2 gallons of fuel.  A million thanks for these raffle prizes!   We raffled half of these items early Saturday afternoon while waiting for the rain to stop.  Without this, most of the pilots (including myself, probably) would have gone home for the day.

Thanks again, Bob and Arlene Pearson for driving all the way up from Oregon City to handle the scoring duties.  We owe a good part of the success of this contest to both of you.

To all the Cascade Miniature Aircraft (CMAA) members who volunteered their time to help with the contest, a million thanks. Nori Mihara and Chuck Clemans: thank you very much for braving the rainy weekend to man the concession. The burgers were delicious. Frank Ward, and Azar: you guys did an awesome job as flight bosses, and score runners. You kept the two flight lines going so smoothly on Sunday that we finished way earlier than expected. Dan Flores (Roberto’s son): thanks a bunch as well for helping out as a score runner on Saturday afternoon. Guys, with all your help, Big Birds once again, was a huge success.

Congratulations to the winners!!!

Kevin Miller-Unlimited, Ethan Raforth-Advanced, Danny Watson-Intermediate, Jim Gilbert-Sportsman, and Brian Webb-Basic.  Awesome flying, guys!!!!

Francis D. Garcia

Contest Director 

Big Birds 2004
Basic			Sportsman			Intermediate			Unlimited
1^st	Brian Webb	6000.0	1^st	Jim Gilbert	4988.4	1^st	Danny Watson	5000.0	1^st	Kevin Miller	5000.0
2^nd	Perry Prescott	5134.6	2^nd	John Mann	4931.7	2^nd	Ron Smith	4672.9	2^nd	Francis Garcia	4811.3
			3^rd	Andrew Thompson	4841.0	3^rd	Kyle Woyshnis	4648.4	3^rd	Mark Gaines	4121.0
			4^th	John Minnich	4765.9	4^th	Chris Sells	4630.7	4th	Frank Pellegrini	3729.7
			5^th	Bob Pearson	4522.3	5^th	John Emerson	2601.1
			6^th	Warren Wilson	4519.5
			7^th	Scott Claboe	4244.2	Advanced
			8^th	Aaron Kravic	4192.4	1^st	Ethan Raforth	4988.5
			9^th	Greg Zettler	4150.9	2^nd	Ryan Winslow	4895.8
			10^th	John Wondra	3770.5	3rd	Kody Knudtson	2904.8
			11^th	Nick Bowling	3747.0