Ottawa 2002

Voir le nouveau site http://pattern-canada.mouraux.com/ pour les résultats 2003

See the new site http://pattern-canada.mouraux.com/ for 2003 results

Les 31 aout et 1 septembre 2002, se tenait la sixième édition de cette compétition de voltige de précision organisé par le club Stetson Flyers, à Orléans, près d'Ottawa. Le directeur de la compétition était Ken Langille. Il avait l'aide de sa femme et de ses enfants. La pluspart des participants étaient ensemble au restaurant le samedi soir pour souper.

The Stetson Flyers hosted our annual Pattern Contest on the 31^st of August and the 1^st of September. This year was the 6^th annual event and we were blessed with sunny skies for most of the weekend. The Labour Day weekend has often brought wet and very windy weather for at least one day of the contest but not this year!

Our numbers were down this year with 14 competitors out of 16 registered pilots. This has been a pretty hard year on aeroplanes and pilots with several of our regulars out of the game early in the season after crashes and many people caught up in work-related commitments. Both the AMA and MAAC made major changes to the sequences this year. MAAC aligned the Advanced and Expert classes with the AMA in an attempt to encourage cross-border competition. There was a significant increase in the level of difficulty in the new Advanced sequence and this year’s change represented the second in the Expert pattern in as many years. Several of our regular competitors found the new sequences, in combination with their limited practice time, a bit too much for this year.

We flew the new Sportsman sequence at this year’s contest and by all accounts it was a big hit. I am rather proud to be the designer of the new Sportsman pattern. We set off to address many of the complaints heard from both competitors and judges about the entry class. All the feed-back received from the pilots on the sequence has been very positive and it is much more interesting to judge.

We had several new Sportsman pilots this year. The Stetson Flyers own Darcy Whyte placed first followed closely by his son Joe in second and Paul Brine of Fergus, Ont. in third. Dave Crocker rounded out the class flying his old Saturn. Joe was leading after four rounds but decided not to fly the last two rounds allowing Darcy to sneak through. Paul was in the thick of things until his SuperTigre decided to eat its piston. Unfortunately, Dave’s plane developed a problem and it was lost in the cornfield on Sunday in the 6^th round. These guys all impressed the judges with their flying.

Intermediate had only two competitors this year. Dan Woolney of Dorchester, Ont. placed first and Lloyd Graham of Agincourt, Ont. was close behind in second. Dan had a lot of trouble with his YS140”Dingo” all season but things went really well for him in Ottawa. Advanced also only had two flyers; my good friends Alan Hewson of Thornton, Ont. and Xavier Mouraux of Laval, PQ. Xavier placed first in the class based on Saturday’s successful rounds and, with the blessing of the FAI flyers, moved over to FAI on Sunday.

Expert has become a busy class in Ontario. Kim Vasiliadis of Mississaugagua, Ont.; Tim Pascoe of Hamilton, Ont.; Jim Eichenberg of Oakville Ont.; and Karl Mueller of Brampton, Ont. ran a very tight race. Tim placed first, with Kim very close in second place, and Karl close behind in third. Jeff Stevens of Millbrook, Ont. and Harry Ells of Cobourg, Ont. came to compete in FAI. Our good friend Richard Vigneault was called away at the last minute so he could not compete. Jeff finished first and with Harry close in second. These guys make the very difficult FAI pattern look easy. Harry is the MAAC Precision Aerobatics Committee chairman.

This year’s contest was not as well attended as anticipated but was still a very successful event based on the feed-back from the flyers. The winners will receive photo plaques and everyone present will receive a 5 x 7 photo of himself with his aeroplane. We intended to have custom trophies made up for this year but my prolonged illness upset many of our plans. Hopefully, next year will be better.

We would like to extend our gratitude to those who helped out with the event and those who lent a hand when we need it. These people include several members of the Stetson Flyers, the wives of the competitors and the pilots themselves. All of the contest participants pitch in to set-up the tents, judge, scribe, enter scores, etc. aided this year by several pairs of willing hands from Stetson members. Charmaine (Mrs Langille) did her usual outstanding job as contest 2IC. She, as usual, baked muffins, made coffee, ran the canteen, did the registrations, prepared lunch both days and took care of a hundred other details. The contest could not happen without her unflagging support. Thanks also to my daughters, Sarah and Justine, and my son Zachary who spent many hours scribing scores, running the scoring computer and helping with the canteen. We extend a special thank-you to Richard Robichaud for the loan of his generator and to the Stetson Flyers club membership for their continued support and the use of the field. The event this year was sponsored entirely by the Langille family.

The amenities of the Ottawa area and the club facilities continue to receive compliments from all who attend the event. We have done well with this event and are already planning for next year’s contest. Hopefully, the membership will continue to support us and keep the event going.