2004 Toys for tots
 I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who participated on our "frozen finger" Toys for Tots fun fly yesterday. We had 25 pilots signed up despite the cold & windy weather. Many of our club members also participated and showed their support by being there as spectators and bringing a donation for the Toys for Tots foundation. We collected over 50 toys (I think many more than that) and $108.00 in cash donations.
I want to thank some of our sponsors: Larry's Hobbies, Ritch's Brew (r/c fuels), New Creations r/c, who donated lots of nice door prize items for the pilots (I believe everyone went home with something, thanks to their generosity).
I want to personally thank Chris Bourne, Kevin Morris, Steve Minter, Mike Funk, Justin Conroy, Shannon Conroy and his Wife for donating so much of their time to make this event happen.
It feels good to be a part of something that will help others in need.
Thanks again to all who came out and participated.
Regards,
Mark Hunt
President, Houston Sport Flyers Inc.
AMA #4154
Cub Scout Fly-in 2004 and SWAP MEET on 8/21/04
From the President:
I want to thank everybody for their efforts at our Scouts fly-in. It was a huge success. We flew 31 student pilots and everyone walked away with a delta dart kit and a nice first time flyer certificate.
The 3rd Annual Jetero Pattern Classic on June 05-06, 2004 in Houston Texas is now history and proved to be a great success. We had hoped for 20 contestants, and would have been wildly happy to have 30. We ended up with 41 contestants !!!!! Wow what an achievement !!! We had contestants from all over Texas and Louisiana - a major regional event. Pattern is alive and well in the Southwest area.
The event got off to a wild start on Friday night with 12 flyers arriving early for practice. Things were going well until the field was struck with a world class lightening and rain storm. Thankfully things calmed down over night and Saturday and Sunday gave us partly cloudy skies and low winds – perfect flying weather.
The mix of flyers was pretty interesting. We had flyers in the 70+ years flying in FAI and as young as 9 years old in Sportsman. Probably the coolest thing was to see the father - son team of Martin and Carlos Stohr from Houston. Both flew in the Sportsman class and dad ended up in 2nd place. Young Carlos proved to be an excellent flyer in his own right and put in some very credible flights and after-the-contest flight demos with a 3D fun flyer. Carlos represents the future for pattern. We awarded trophies through 5th place in Sportsman in order to attract new flyers. Apparently this strategy worked.
The Jetero Club received good reviews from the contestants on the field as being "best flying site we have ever seen", The Jetero Club is blessed by having a beautiful grass runway with no trees or obstructions . The field has running water, flushing toilets, and electricity so that many of the amenities of home can be experienced (refrigerators, full kitchen, electric fans and lighting). This makes life bearable for the spouses, many of whom attended the event.
All classes were well represented with 10 in Sportsman, 10 in Intermediate, 9 in Advanced, 6 in Masters, and 6 in FAI for a total of 41. Results of the contest are as follows:
|
Sportsman |
Intermediate |
Advanced |
Masters |
FAI |
|
1st Chuck Hochhalter |
1st Keith Black |
1st Stephen Byrd |
1st Glen Watson |
1st Bryan Hebert |
|
2nd Martin Stohr |
2nd Brian Clemmons |
2nd Wayne Galligan |
2nd Jim Thompson |
2nd Paul Villarubia |
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3rd Jerry Wilson |
3rd Ken Nesteroff |
3rd Larry Mercer |
3rd Don Ramsey |
3rd Earl Haury |
|
4th John Forestieri |
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5th Paul Horan |
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There were some particularly interesting battles for the top positions. FAI had 3 different leaders in the 5 rounds, and the contest wasn’t decided until the last round. In the other classes the 1st place finishers won 4 or 5 of all 5 rounds and ended up with perfect 4000 scores. There was a good mix of airplane designs represented including PL products, Aeroslave, Piedmont, Executive Airplanes, along with many scratchbuilt designs. Many sportsman flyers chose ARFs that performed well.
As the CD I want to thank all the club members for supporting this pattern event by the exceptional work that got us ready… the list of people is long. I am reminded that it requires huge dedication to put on a quality event and make 41 people happy. I am now ready for a nervous breakdown.
Ron Barr
Contest Director
NSRCA 249
AMA 6507
JUNKYARD WARS 2004
Team Gravity Sucks wins JunkYark Wars 2004!
 
Offical score sheet
| Team |
Building |
Voting |
Take off, Laps( 3 max) & Landing
| Loops or Rolls(6 max) |
Balloom Pop |
Total |
| Gravity Sucks |
10 |
2 pts Ulgiest Plane |
8 |
11 |
0 |
31 |
| Team Podunk |
8 |
3 pts Best looking plane |
8 |
11 |
0 |
30 |
| Jolly Rogers |
10 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
out |
16 |
| Heck I don't know |
10 |
3 pts Best Design |
2 |
out |
out |
15 |
| Team Iscar |
6 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
out |
10 |
Team PoDunk (Combat Winners!)
 
Team Jolly Rogers
 
Team Heck I Don't Know
 
Team Iscar
 
Waco Pattern Meet 2004
 Please congratulate Mark for his 2nd place win in the Intermediate Class at the Pattern Meet in Waco April 3-4. Mark flew good enough to win 1st, and was edged out by just a few points.
Way to go Mark....
In all, three pilots, Mark Hunt, Richard Lewis, and Jim Sheffield represented the Sport Flyers at the meet.
Pattern Warm-up 2004
 The first annual Houston Pattern Warmup was originally slated to be held at the Houston Sport Flyers field with the permission of the club. However, due to short notice and uncertain runway conditions, we relocated and reserved Scobee field for the day of March 6th. The event was a smashing success (bad word choice eh John?). We registered 20 pilots for a NON-competitive day of pattern flying. The format allowed anyone to try flying pattern without the pressure of being at a pattern meet. We setup a flightline signup sheet which allowed pilots to fly as little or as often as they wanted to. Judges stood ready all day (thank you guys) to score flights and educate new pattern pilots on ways to improve their flying and scores. It turned out to be a very educational day of flying. Even some of the experts flew late in the afternoon which, for me, was a real treat to watch (rolling loops anyone?). At one point during the event, a camera crew showed up to cover the event for a small upstart website. You can view the interview and clip at www.getonvideo.com. The consensus of the pilots was that the event should be held every spring as a warmup for the upcoming pattern season, AND that we (Sport Flyers) should host a full pattern event later during the year. Please visit the pictures page for some great in flight shots from the pattern meet. Pictures here.
Jetero Fun Fly 2004
 John Forestieri of our own club and Jetero hosted a wonderful Fun Fly on the Sunday after the superbowl....good planning John. Simply put, we had a blast, despite the 40° temperatures and the 25+ mph winds. In four events, there were two winners who took home the $$$ for all four events. Believe it or not, one of the two winners was flying a 40 size trainer, the other hot dog was flying a Funtana. My favorite of the events was the poker challenge. With any luck we can get John to host one of these events at the Sport Flyers field.
The Winners
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