Racing was the first event on Friday morning. The weather was perfect for Racing, Overcast, cool, no wind or rain.  Only four contestants were entered for the three events.

First up was Sportsman Clown. Mike Hazel and John Thompson each entered a plane; Leighton Mangels and I also each entered a plane. We flew two races of 10 minutes each. Leighton flew for me so he raced against John and then against Mike.

The most laps,155, went to Mike Hazel for first place, John Thompson was second with 139, Leighton third with 132, and that left fourth for me with 116.

Next up was Sport Race. There were only three entries, John Thompson, Mike Hazel, and Leighton Mangels.  We decided that each team would fly one at a time for the 140-lap race. Mike had the fastest time at 9 minutes 15 seconds for first place. Leighton came in second with a time of 11 minutes 27 seconds. John went 47 laps and then wasn't able to restart his engine; he didn't finish the race for third place.

The last Racing event was Super Sport Race. This time there was only two entries, Mike Hazel and Leighton Mangels.  We again decided to do only the one 140-lap race. Mike had the fastest time, 8 minutes 26 seconds for the win. Leighton's time was 9 minutes 1 second for second place.

Thank you to Jim Cameron for running the Racing. Thanks to Darrin Bishop and Don Curry for being the lap counter/timers.  And thanks to Mike and John. Without them there wouldn't have been any Racing this year.

We successfully pulled off another Stunt event at the Tune-Up.

Saturday featured nine competitors in four events.  The weather turned out fine, with low winds and high clouds.

Jim Cameron flew in Old Time again this year, placing second between John Thompson and Mike Hazel; I believe we have someone to watch in this event.

Competition on Saturday was uneventful, with no crashes or other drama.  The worst that happened to anyone was folks having problems with engine runs.

A highlight for me was that Bob Parker came down from Seattle to spectate; I half-jokingly asked if he'd like to judge Profile and he gave me an emphatic "yes"! We had some Nats-level judging for the second half of Saturday.  Jim Cameron managed to end up scribing for him, and so got a bit of a judging education in the process.  Somehow I shall overcome my feelings of envy.

Sunday ended up being kind of a wash -- both figuratively and literally, given the rain.  The day started with drizzle, and turned into a steady but low-wind rain halfway through the morning.

Our flying contingent on Sunday was one each of Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert, so we made the decision to lump them all into Expert for the day.

Randy Ling provided us with some drama by putting in the best flight of the first round.  For a while, it was looking like the Intermediate guy would take the gold. John Thompson put in a much-improved second flight and took care of that concern, taking first in PA.

Judging was provided by:

Tim Wescott -- all events
Jerry Eichten -- Old Time
Jim Cameron -- Classic on Saturday, PA on Sunday
Bob Parker -- Profile on Saturday, with Jim Cameron as scribe
Robin Gearn -- Standby judge for PA on Sunday

I want to thank all of the people who stepped up to judge -- especially Robin Gearn, who thought she was just going to shadow-judge PA, but suddenly got promoted to a substitute judge in the second round when Jim Cameron was called away for an emergency in the Combat circle.

NW .15 Fast Combat; Double elimination; four entrants

A HUGE thank you to Terence Bardue and Niels Madsen for helping with the officiating during the two days of Combat.

Rain, rain go away, come again another day.  Of course, we need rain.  It's necessary for life.  We just don't like it to be coming down on us from the sky while we are flying our model airplanes.  We've been fairly lucky dodging the rain clouds over these last several years of holding the spring opener event here in Portland that has traditionally been called the Jim Walker Memorial contest.  Most of the contests have occurred on or about the third weekend of April.  Easter weekend would not be a good time to have a control line event so we steer clear of that time of the month.  April showers bring May flowers.  Having our contest in May would put us close to the Northwest Regionals Memorial Day weekend time frame.

To the point:  Friday was nice and dry for Racing and Speed.  Saturday was the same.  We had the hope of more competitors showing up Saturday for the NW .15 Fast event but we were happy that Greg Machen, Jim Green, Gene Pape and Robert Smith came to town to engage in the air-to-air dogfight.

We are glad to have a venue in Portland to play with our toy airplanes and we're on fairly good terms with the city of Portland Parks and Recreation personnel.  The down side is that right next to where we fly our models is a baseball field that can become inhabited by a bunch of people who want to use a club to attack an innocent white object and force it to fly through the air.  Saturday, the day of our contest, the baseball/softball teams flooded E. Delta Park for their first spring tournament.  What a coincidence!  Last year we heard some complaining from one of the coaches who didn't like us doing our thing near their ballfield.  This year, no complaints. 

Not having a large field of competitors gave us the freedom of being somewhat laid back so far as feeling pressed for time.  It is good to note that while each entrant shows up with an attitude of competitiveness wanting to win, we help each other compete.  Pilots will trade off pitting chores with other pilots throughout the contest.

We got started; Matches were flown, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.  The plus side of officiating is that those judging get to watch some very skilled pilots put on entertaining matches.  Wows and Ahhhs were heard.

Robert flew against Greg for a win, then against Jim for a second win.  His third match pitted him against Gene who got the win, and then again in the final against Gene with Robert winning and taking first place.

Gene flew against Jim who pulled off a win, then Gene duked it out with Greg and Gene scored a victory.  Next, Robert suffered a loss to Gene.  Jim then lost a match to Gene.  With three wins and one loss Gene met Robert in the final and Robert took the win.  This gave Gene second place.

Jim flew his first match against Gene and scored a win.  Then Jim's second match was with Robert who took the victory.  Flying against Gene again and this time losing knocked him out of the event and placed him third.

Greg's first match resulted in a loss to Robert.  Unfortunately, his second match resulted in a loss against Gene, eliminating him.

I should mention that in the middle of the day we got to be served Bar-B-Q dogs cooked up by Northwest Fireballs member Robert Ladd.

See full results in the scoreboard below.

NW 80mph Combat; seven entrants

Jim Green, Mike Hazel, Gene Pape, Robert Smith, John Thompson, Russel Hester and Greg Machen.

Sunday was a different story.  It was misty enough to be called rain and it settled in.  We had seven entries signed up to fly but one didn't show.  Can't blame anyone for not wanting to fly in the wet stuff.  But we had six who were willing to get after it and they did.  The Stunt flyers didn't have much of a turnout. Three were there to put up Stunt flights and after they did; two of those came over to fly Combat!  Later in the day the weather did change for the better and the moisture quit falling from above.

Greg first flew against Russ for a loss.  It looked like Greg's bad luck followed him from the day before.  Next match brought a ray of hope when he took the win over experienced pilot John.  Next match for Greg was with cagey Gene.  Again a win for Greg.  Next Greg was pitted against Russ again and now this time the tide changed with Greg pulling off another win.  In fact, Greg had done so well that now he found himself in a final match with Russ.  They both flew really well and put on a show for those watching.  Greg came out victorious and had earned first place.

Russ began the day hot with three wins in a row.  Down went Greg, then Mike, then John with losses.  By this time Russ and Greg found themselves in a semifinal match.  Russ had no losses and Greg had one.  Greg took a win so now each had a loss.  Since this contest was based on a double elimination format and the other pilots were out of the running, Russ and Greg needed to fly once more to determine the winner of the event.  So, they went up in the air one more time and in the end Greg came away with the win.  So, second place for Russ.

John started the day with a loss to Greg.  Next match found him pitted against his flying buddy Gene.  John got a win.  Next he had to fly against Russ.  This unfortunately was the spectacular midair of the day with a jaw-dropping splatter of white foam particles snowing down on the grass.  There were no cuts or kills but Russ was launched ahead of John meaning he was in the air first.  Russ got the win.  Third place for John.

Gene, a solid stalwart of the combat community with a long history of CL flying started his day off with a win against Mike.  Then followed with a loss to John and a second loss to Greg which now put him out of the running and a placing of fouth.

Mike, who had already flown in Racing, Speed and Stunt came to the Combat circle to chase some streamers.  First match was against Gene who got the win.  Next match found Mike pitted with Russ who took the win.  Mike was now eliminated.

Jim's first match was one of those that didn't happen.  Accidents that cause the blood to gush out are painful to see and of course hurtful to the recipient.  Somehow Jim's left hand, while starting the plane's engine at the beginning of the match, got just a little too close to the rotating propeller and flesh got gashed.  Off to the hospital he went with helpful Sam Baird in Sam's Maserati to get patched up.  No more flying for Jim today.  He returned in a couple of hours all taped up and in good spirits.

Robert Smith was entered but did not show for 80mph Combat.