Stetsons' Aerobatic Fun Fly Day:
2023-08-13: On a weekend normally reserved for IMAC competition, the Stetsons organized a different flavour of fun fly with an 'aerobatics' theme and some old-school fun and games! After pushing to Sunday for weather issues, the fun began bright and early on a sunny morning.
Weather cooperated for once and gave us a warm and not too windy day for some aerobatic hi-jinks from many disciplines.
Some twenty pilots signed up and flew about every style of R/C and Control Line aircraft imaginable, from the most modern Giant Scale Jets and Gassers to the tiniest little foamies.
Control Line Balloon Bust was held and we actually managed to break some balloons! John Weekes was the eventual winner in a tight battle. The very wet field conditions added to the laughs with splashdowns instead of landings, and a lot of wet feet, etc. Thanks go out to Peter Wakefield and his c/l crew who made the apparatus and ran us through, for me, the first event like this in 50 years!
Not to be outdone by the circle burners, the R/C crowd put on a hilarious Spot Landing event which had everyone laughing and jeering as multiple efforts failed to find the magic spot! The variety of aircraft trying this on was astounding, from the beautiful Giant Scale Tiger Moth, through many different sport planes and foamies.
Many attempts later, the winner was again John Weekes who managed multiple close stops after some very sneaky rudder work with his beautiful Sig Kadet. Honorable mention to Rick Ramalho as well who nailed it right on the bullseye!
The day's activities saw many different styles of aerobatic flying from mild to wild as pilots defied the laws of gravity while avoiding any figure 9's!
We were treated to Control Line patterns from Richard Gareau, Giant Scale Jet maneuvers by Top Gun champion Elckar Monsalve, impressive F3A sequences by Team Canada member Xavier Mouraux, and some hard charging 3D flying from Eric Charlebois.
In a year when pilots must comply with many new rules including a 400-foot AGL ceiling, it was really great to get out and have some fun with many different disciplines of the hobby represented. The superb lunch by Marc Cote and his canteen crew ensured that no one was hungry! They even had to open early as the wonderful smells from the BBQ had hungry people ganging up on him demanding to be fed! Many thanks to Marc and the crew! Well done all!
Big thanks go out to the hard-working volunteers at Stetsons who put together a successful fun fly in lieu of the normal IMAC Competition weekend.
I think we all learned that adding some of these really old-school activities to our other events would be a popular idea, and a way to spice up fun flies in the future.
Hey, when life serves you lemons, make lemonade!
|
