Penelope RC

On the long weekend in May this year, IMAC made its way to the first contest in Canada’s capital, Ottawa. Hosted by the Ottawa Radio Control club on their new West End Power field, the first Scale Aerobatics contest in the area this season welcomed 26 pilots to the field, with their scale aircraft.

The fun started Friday evening as several camping contestants arrived to scout out the field, set up, and get in some last-minute practice.

Saturday morning arrived with clear blue skies, despite the weather man calling for a cold and rainy weekend. After a brief pilots’ meeting, round one began. As the morning progressed, the winds picked up from the south creating some difficult turbulence over the runway. There were a few small mishaps involving sudden downward gusts of wind and landing gear: some were repaired, some were not. All was forgotten as lunchtime rolled around and registered pilots were treated to Swiss Chalet dinners.

At about 3:00 p.m. with two rounds completed in each class, the forecasted rains finally arrived and shut down the flying for the day. Most competitors retreated to their trailers, and tents, but after a relaxing couple of hours everyone converged at a nearby steakhouse for dinner and quality time with friends and rivals.

Contest directors Dave Rees and Tom Hastie made a decision to hand out the Unknowns on Sunday morning, which made for an interesting morning scrounging up judges, as everyone was looking for quiet time to plan their unknown flights.

By noon on Sunday, everyone had completed three planned rounds plus one round of Unknowns for the Sportsman through Unlimited classes. The directors called a pilots’ meeting to determine if people were interested in flying a final round to make up for the lost time on Saturday afternoon – the decision was quick and unanimous. With blue skies, calm winds, and aircraft assembled, everyone wanted to continue flying. All the pilots flew one more round.

With the end of the final day, flying concluded, and as score keeper Genevieve Thouin judiciously calculated the results, Don McLellan treated all pilots and spectators to a freestyle demo.

As a surprise to at the closing ceremonies, in addition to trophies and the usual pilot prizes, the pilots were treated to a complimentary 11 x 17” print of his or her aircraft in flight as well as a CD-ROM of all other pictures taken by the official contest photographers, Bill Leshien and Kevin Stanley. In appreciation for all of their hard work, the first trophies of the contest were presented to Bill and Kevin in gratitude.

The event introduced many RC pilots in the Ottawa area to scale aerobatic competition. Many pilots – nine out of 10 Basic Class – were attending their first scale aerobatics contest, and from all pilots’ responses, the contest is absolutely scheduled for next year.

Thanks to all the sponsors for their generous donation of pilots prizes:

Forgues Research, Flying Giants, MSC Props, RC Armour, Hobby Horse, Horizon Hobby, Hitec, Desert Aircraft, Jersey Modeller, Smart Fly, TBM Aircraft, Higher Plane, Baldwin Presentation, Tower Hobbies, and JB Enterprises Custom Signs and Graphics.