We had forty-eight pilots register, including nine in Primary. So much for an underutilized category! Thanks to all who participated-- pilots, judges, assistants, recorders, boundary judges, and volunteers. Thanks especially to our Contest Director, Ron Chadwick, who put it all together. Thanks to Ann Salcedo who keeps all of the volunteers happily on-track; Deanna Willson with Miriam Levin keep tabs on of all of the pilots and keep the paperwork flowing to the judges line; and Greg Dungan, who runs the judges line most professionally.
Judges at the contest were, in no particular order, Dennis Thompson, Bill Gordon, Hans Bok, Stephen Seidel, Stephen Holup, Neville Hogan, Miriam Levin, Wes Liu, Karen Greenfield, Greg Dungan, Jim Wells, and Douglas Lovell.
At 3pm Sunday we made the awards. Weather was beautiful throughout the Northeast and all departed safely for home.
John Nafziger, a student of Stephen Seidel, won Primary easily with two beautiful, consistent flights. Randol Webb of Chapter 35 and Mark Mattioli of Chapter 52 duked-it-out for second. Randol had a 62 point lead on Mark after the first flight. Mark regained five points in the second flight, not quite enough, and ended at third place.
Two Primary competitors, Jian Yu (from MIT) and Carlos Almeida (also from Chapter 35) made great recoveries from inexperience on the first flight to make respectable second flights in the Executive Flyers Decathalon.
Kirill Barsukov, another student of Stephen Seidel, easily won Sportsman ahead of Gus Fraser, Karen Greenfield, and Matt Crane. Second, third, and fourth place were separated by six points, a virtual tie.
Second place winner Gus Fraser also won the prize for best first time Sportsman competitor. Gus trains with his partner Sergey Prolagayev in the Technoavia SP-91. Both are members of Chapter 52.
Neville Hogan, Jim Wells, Larry Bashore, and Bill Gordon battled for the top places in Intermediate, which was closely contended right up to the Unknown flight. Jim started in first. Bill Gordon took-over the top spot after the free program. Neville smoked them all and won the gold with a stellar Unknown.
Larry Bashore climbed up from ninth place after the known to win third. Going-in to the Unknown he was 200 points behind the leader, Bill Gordon. Bill kept repeating, "I'm ready for the Unknown." To no avail.
Sergey Prolagayev won Advanced one-two-three ahead of Bill Finagin. Chapter 52 wins again! Third place Hans Bok was ahead of Bill by five points going to the free program. Bill took second in the free and surpassed him in points. Derek Dodds of Chapter 52 gave a third place performance in the free flight with the super S2S he has just completed building. Everyone else gave good performances in the free as well, however. Derek remained last and Hans Bok remained in the wood.
The Unlimited category had three competitors guaranteed to place. The order at the end was Dennie Thompson, Charles Schumacher, and Kendal Simpson. Kendal is an Advanced competitor with an Ultimate biplane who moved-up to fill-out the category. There are a number of Advanced pilots who hope he will just plain move up. Kendal took second on the free.