Middlesex, NJ Spring Contest

APRIL 19, 2009-MIDDLESEX, NJ-The Middlesex Modeller's season opener was held at Mountain View Park in the town of Middlexsex, NJ. The Middlesex Modellers have a nice paved circle for racing and stunt, and use a field behind the circle for combat. Weather was cool and mixed sun and clouds. Paul Brill performed CD duties for the event, with Roy Glenn as primary circle marshall and Phil Cartier backing him up.

There were 4 contestants for the half-A event, which was held first. Entrants were Roy Glenn, Louis Lopez, Al Ferraro, and Pete Sofko. There was one mid-air in the half-A contest, and here are the results:

Roy Glenn:    1st

Al Ferraro :    2nd

Pete Sofko:   3rd

Louis Lopez:  4th

Super Slow / Speed Limit had 7 contestants: Roy Glenn, Louis Lopez, Al Ferraro, Phil Cartier, Chris Lopez, Pete Sofko, and Chris Sarnowski. There was some very competitive flying throughout all of the matches. The scores spread out a bit due to some late engine starts, then spread out further in the 3rd round when Chris S mid-aired Al's plane about 30 seconds into the match. Maximizing airtime points became critical, and the top positions were separated by one or 2 cuts. Here are the results:

Super Slow / Speed Limit:

Louis Lopez:          2171

Roy Glenn:            2117

Phil Cartier:           2004

Al Ferarro:            1864

Chris Lopez:         1818

Pete Sofko:          1658

Chris Sarnowski:   1621

Pull testing was performed on each ship at the start of every match. This particular procedure is dicated in the AMA control line combat rules. It only took a few seconds per match to do the testing, and did not seem very intrusive. It helped to have a circle marshall to do one end of the test, but it could just have easily been done by the pit man.

There was an assortment of engines in use at the contest. Phil used OS LA 25's, Al had Fox 25BB Schnuerle's, Chris S was using Magnum XL32's, Pete had a variety of vintage Fox combat engines, and the Lopez/Glenn team was using OS FP 25's with the custom head. Pete's Fox engines seemed a little balky after the winter's storage, and one of Roy's FP 25's snapped a crankshaft in a match. The FP 25's have been solid performers, so it was pretty odd to have one snap a crank like that.

Thanks again to Contest Director Paul Brill, Roy and Phil for Circle Marshall duties, Al Ferraro for providing lunch, and the Middlesex Modeller's for the cut judging, club field, and hospitality.

Chris Sarnowski