TEXAS CLOUD CLIMBERS 58th ANNUAL FREE FLIGHT CHAMPS
FLYING ACES CLUB TEXAS SCALE CHAMPS 2005
by Tandy C. Walker
The Texas Cloud Climbers (TCC) is the free flight club of North Texas with about thirty-five active members. Mike Fedor spearheads the club’s activity as President assisted by Richard Cadena as Vice President. John O'Dwyer runs the business end of the club as the Secretary/Treasurer. Henry Spence is the Field Marshal and is one of the driving forces that make this free flight club so successful.
Beaumont Ranch, the club’s previous field, sold off half their property last year, which was then put under cultivation. As a result, Henry with the help of members Don Moreau and Ed Vanlandingham, started conducting an active search for a new field by automobile. They were unsuccessful, but Henry’s son, Steve, spotted the Sendera Ranch from the air. Henry met with the resident rancher and negotiated an annual lease.
The new Sendera Ranch flying site is an ideal free flight field located north of Fort Worth, Texas and west of the Alliance airport. It is just off the interstate I-35W with access to nearby motels and restaurants. This north-south field is two miles long and a mile and a half wide at the north end. Even more open ranch land stretches beyond the fence on the north end.
This year the Texas Cloud Climbers co-hosted their 58th Annual Free Flight Champs in conjunction with the Lone Star Squadron of the Flying Aces Club Texas Scale Champs 2005, which were held on June 25th & 26th at the new Sendera Ranch flying site. The TCC Free Flight Champs will be presented first.
Henry Spence was the CD for the contest with Mike Fedor assisting. Several of the members helped with road signs and the Port-A-Potty acquisition. There were forty-seven contestants, without several regulars like Steve and Kim Bruno from Oklahoma City. Out of state contestants came from Connecticut, Florida, and Ohio. There was plenty of clear sky, Texas heat, and 5-15 mph southerly winds. The models stayed on the new field for the most part with a few landings on the open ranch land to the north. After the contest, Steve Spence found all lost models from the air except for Larry Kruse's 1/2 A and Mike Midkiff’s DeHavilland Sea Hornet twin-engine scale rubber ship. Larry’s ½ A may not have deployed its dethermalizer. Mike’s Sea Hornet, like most scale models, was not equipped with a dethermalizer.
Reid Simpson prepares to launch his F1C at TCC’s new Sendera Ranch flying site
All of the contest results for the Texas Cloud Climbers 58th Annual Free Flight Champs are presented below. The America Cup Scores are the first part of the report and includes all flyers. Flying was by rounds and from pole positions.
TEXAS CLOUD CLIMBERS 58th ANNUAL FF CHAMPS RESULTS
JUNE 25th & 26th
F1A F1G
Andrew Barron 1160 Ed Vanlandingham 512
Steve Spence 1123 Ken Wernicke 480
Mike Fedor 1036 Ed Wiley 369
Malcolm Andrews 540 Mark Hoffman 83
Mike Reeves 128
F1B F1H
Ed Vanlandingham 1260 Colby Fedor 121
Ed Wiley 1188 Mike Fedor 120
Mike Reeves 50
F1C F1J
Faust Parker 1260 Steve Spence 632
Reid Simpson 1168 Faust Parker 630
Gil Morris 1123 Henry Spence 120
Roger Simpson 540 Bob Hanford 120
Don Chesson 290
F1P
Mike Fedor 622
½ A GAS A GAS
Faust Parker 750 Bob Hanford 724
Jim Parker 691 Reid Simpson 713
Bob Hanford 335 Jim Parker 571
Dan Berry 329 Gerald Brown 428
Jack Sheffer 206 Faust Parker 228
Carl Schifelbein 64
HLG
B GAS Steve Spence 283
Bob Hanford 480 Don De Loach 224
Gerald Brown 448 Dan Berry 211
Dan Berry 310 Mark Hoffman 176
George Avila 293 Bob Hanford 118
Gerald Brown 82
MULVHILL Dick Mathis 50
Ed Vanlandingham 840
Gerald Brown 689 HLG JR
Ed Wiley 540 Colby Fedor 11
George Hilliard 449
Dan Berry 300 CAT GLIDER JR
Grant Carson 258 Nasim Andrews 84
Ken Wernicke 237
CAT GLIDER A/B CLASSIC GAS
Steve Spence 321 Dan Berry 480
Larry Kruse 302 Bob Hanford 477
Faust Parker 290 Larry Kruse 183
Gerald Brown 233 Jim Parker 86
Mark Hoffman 232
Dan Berry 179 C/D CLASSIC GAS
Richard Adams 153 Bob Hanford 600
George Hilliard 145 Dan Berry 598
Ed Vanlandingham 72 George Avila 116
Mike Reeves 60
Grant Carson 33 SMALL FIELD COMBO
Robert Hanford 120
JR COMBO
Colby Fedor 162
½ A NOSTALGIA A NOSTALGIA
Bob Hanford 351 Jack Sheffer 960
Jack Sheffer 342 Faust Parker 347
Larry Kruse 301 Bob Hanford 281
Faust Parker 277
Dan Berry 269
½ A ZERO/STARDUSTER X/FUBAR
Bob Hanford 350
Larry Kruse 348 P-30
Faust Parker 323 Don De Loach 510
Jack Sheffer 179 George Hilliard 488
Dan Berry 79 Jim Thornton 443
Robert Hanford 337
Ken Wernicke 336
Ed Vanlandingham 210
Grant Carson 147
Chris Lengham 134
Richard Adams 120
Gerald Brown 112
Jeff Butt 48
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FLYING ACES TEXAS SCALE CHAMPS 2005
(The FAC Texas Scale Champs 2005 will now be presented)
The “Lone Star Squadron” of the Flying Aces Club (FAC) in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is one of three squadrons in Texas. The squadron leader is FAC hall-of-famer Mike Midkiff assisted by Ed De Loach and Richard Adams. Lone Star Squadron hosts three or more competitions each year in the DFW area, including the “Texas Scale Champs” in June, one in November and the “Pearl Harbor Scramble” in December. FAC is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the traditional building and flying of free flight stick and tissue rubber powered model aircraft as exhibited by Duke Horn’s classic P-38 shown below.
Dick Horn services right nacelle on his P-38 for the FAC Rubber Scale competition
The FAC Texas Scale Champs were held in conjunction with the Texas Cloud Climbers Free Flight Champs on June 25th & 26th at the new Sendera Ranch flying site. Fifteen scale contestants flew 38 different scale models logging over 70 official FAC flights with several achieving two minute total flight times. Mike Midkiff’s museum-quality twin-engine DeHavilland Sea Hornet won the most competitive event (Rubber Scale), but the Sea Hornet flew OOS on the last flight and was never found. All of the contest results for Texas Scale Champs are presented below.
Dick Horn launches his P-38 for 2nd place in Rubber Scale
Texas Scale Champs Hi-Point Champion
Recipient of the Texas Scale Champs Perpetual Trophy
Mike Midkiff
(64 total points)
FAC Rubber Scale
|
Participant |
Model |
Flight Pts |
Scale Pts |
Bonus Pts |
Total Points |
|
Mike Midkiff |
DH Sea Hornet |
82.5 |
59.5 |
35 |
177 |
|
Duke Horn |
P-38 |
65 |
58.75 |
30 |
153.75 |
|
Don De Loach |
Tony |
82.5 |
59 |
10 |
151.5 |
|
Richard Adams |
Tony |
75.5 |
55 |
10 |
140.5 |
|
Mike Isermann |
Lippisch P-13 |
36 |
61.5 |
35 |
132.5 |
|
Bob Isaacks |
Helio Stallion |
73.5 |
53.5 |
0 |
127 |
|
Charles Hill |
Tony |
59 |
53.5 |
10 |
122.5 |
|
Ed De Loach |
Stinson Reliant |
49 |
56.5 |
0 |
105.5 |
|
Al Backstrom |
TK-1 |
25 |
58 |
15 |
98 |
FAC Peanut Scale
|
Participant |
Model |
Flight Pts |
Scale Pts |
Bonus Pts |
Total Points |
|
Don De Loach |
Davis DA-2 |
71.5 |
58.5 |
10 |
140 |
|
Jerry Porter |
Maubousson Hemiptere |
36 |
56.5 |
15 |
107.5 |
|
Al Backstrom |
Penguin |
38 |
50.5 |
15 |
103.5 |
|
Mike Isermann |
Helio Stallion |
54 |
48.5 |
0 |
102.5 |
|
Bob Isaacks |
Helio Stallion |
36 |
48.5 |
0 |
84.5 |
|
Richard Adams |
Zero |
24 |
52 |
10 |
84 |
Golden Age Civil and Military Scale Combined
Participant |
Model |
Flt #1 (secs) |
Flt #2 (secs) |
Flt #3 (secs) |
Total |
|
Jerry Porter |
Messerschmitt M-18 |
77 |
114 |
38 |
229 |
|
Mike Midkiff |
Howard DGA |
97 |
56 |
24 |
177 |
|
Al Backstrom |
Comper Swift |
54 |
47 |
42 |
143 |
|
Ed De Loach |
Stinson Reliant |
38 |
34 |
49 |
121 |
|
Duke Horn |
Heath Parasol |
31 |
32 |
32 |
95 |
FAC Dime Scale
|
Participant |
Model |
Flt #1 (secs) |
Flt #1 (secs) |
Flt #1 (secs) |
Bonus |
Total |
|
Jerry Porter |
Maubousson Hemiptere |
69 |
86 |
46 |
45 |
246 |
|
George White |
Arado 96 |
47 |
63 |
42 |
30 |
182 |
|
Bob Isaacks |
Arado 96 |
42 |
|
|
10 |
52 |
Fidelity to Flight Power Scale
|
Participant |
Model |
Flight Pts |
Scale Pts |
Bonus Pts |
Total |
|
Mike Midkiff |
Port Victoria |
90 |
61.25 |
25 |
176.25 |
|
Charles Hill |
Dornier/Zeppelin D-1
|
90 |
59.5 |
20 |
169.5 |
WW II Mass Launch (Three Elimination Rounds)
|
Participant |
Model |
Place |
|
Bob Isaacks |
EKW 3603 |
1 |
|
Mike Isermann |
Tony |
2 |
|
Dan Berry |
P-51 |
3 |
|
Mike Midkiff |
P-51 |
4 |
|
Don De Loach |
Tony |
5 |
|
Charles Hill |
Tony |
6 |
Multi- Wing Mass Launch (Two Elimination Rounds)
|
Participant |
Model |
Place |
|
Mike Midkiff |
DH-9 |
1 |
|
Richard Adams |
Jenny |
2 |
|
Ernie Harwood |
DH-9A |
3 |
|
Dick Adams |
PT-12D |
4 |
|
Al Backstrom |
TK-1 |
5 |
FROG Mass Launch (One Elimination Round)
|
Participant |
Model |
Place |
|
Mike Midkiff |
Tomtit Biplane |
1 |
|
Bob Isaacks |
Redwing |
2 |
Golden Age Combo Mass Launch (Three Elimination Rounds)
Participant |
Model |
Place |
|
Mike Midkiff |
Howard DGA |
1 |
|
Ed De Loach |
Stinson Reliant |
2 |
|
Dick Adams |
Cessna 145 |
3 |
|
Al Backstrom |
Comper Swift |
4 |
|
Jerry Porter |
BAT |
5 |
|
Richard Adams |
Jenny |
6 |