Contest Results
New England Aerobatic Contest - May 16-18, 2003

Orange Massachusetts - IAC Chapter 35
Contest Director: Steve Pennypacker


Primary | Sportsman | Intermediate | Advanced

Primary
Rank	Pilot	Aircraft	Known	TBLP Tot.	%PP
1st	Greg Dinning	Decathlon	377.7883	377.7883	83.95%
2nd	Wesley Hebert	Decathlon	362.0150	362.0150	80.45%
3rd	* Ron Sheradin	Acrosport 2	361.4749	361.4749	80.33%
4th	* Weston Liu	Pitts S-2A	335.0848	335.0848	74.46%
5th	Neville Hogan	Extra 300L	295.9927	295.9927	65.78%
Chief Judge: Jim Ward
Judges: Guenther Eichhorn, Hans Bok, Dave Watson, Jim Parker and Bill Sconce

* = flew for patch only.

Sportsman
Rank	Pilot	Aircraft	Known	Free	TBLP Tot.	%PP
1st	Bruce Green	Eagle	1000.1431	997.4342	1997.5773	74.54%
2nd	Weston Liu	Pitts S-2A	966.7052	1007.9945	1974.6997	73.68%
3rd	Ron Sheradin	Acrosport 2	1004.3737	920.5537	1924.9274	71.83%
4th	Andy Cooper	Pitts S-2A	918.4045	965.4362	1883.8407	70.29%
5th	Janusz Becla	Pitts S-2C	838.6723	1005.7344	1844.4067	68.82%
6th	Kendal Simpson	Meyer Little Toot	994.0629	842.9925	1837.0554	68.55%
7th	Chip Drapeau	Pitts S-2C	1038.3739	739.4104	1777.7843	66.34%
8th	Michael Henning	Pitts S-2C	787.4599	874.1610	1661.6209	62.00%
9th	Douglas Durand	Decathlon	785.8230	834.9046	1620.7276	60.47%
10th	Mark Lander	Pitts S-2C	734.3770	785.4473	1519.8243	56.71%
Chief Judge: Jim Ward
Judges: Guenther Eichhorn, Hans Bok, Dave Watson, Jim Wells, Jim Parker and Bill Sconce

Intermediate
Rank	Pilot	Aircraft	Known	Free	Unkown	TBLP Tot.	% PP
1st	Dave Watson	Decathlon	1521.4637	1430.1863	1229.0460	4180.6960	75.87%
2nd	Steve McCalmont	Extra 300L	1485.2785	1413.7877	1124.3208	4023.3870	73.02%
3rd	Bill Crawford	Giles 200	1453.2178	1557.6679	970.5627	3981.4484	72.26%
4th	Jim Wells	Pitts S-2B	1280.1225	1361.7119	1094.3601	3736.1945	67.81%
5th	Peter Bocon	Pitts S-2B	1301.3956	1524.6567	898.6200	3724.6723	67.60%
6th	Ryan Retelle	Pitts S-2C	1425.8281	1391.6101	879.9762	3697.4144	67.10%
7th	Steve Pennypacker	Pitts S-2B	1382.0868	1443.0637	863.2732	3688.4237	66.94%
8th	Bill Matukaitis	Decathlon	1211.5515	1364.3649	1105.0001	3680.9165	66.80%
9th	Ray Moorman	Pitts S-2B	1353.1025	1373.7025	856.0565	3582.8615	65.02%
10th	Sheldon Apsell	Extra 300L	1121.0704	1428.7748	881.6133	3431.4585	62.28%
11th	Bill Gordon	Pitts S-2B	1298.3238	1242.9399	772.6075	3313.8712	60.14%
12th	Sigrid Baumann	Extra 200	883.2800	540.6795	917.5237	2341.4832	42.50%
13th	Peter Ashwood-Smith	Pitts S-1T	1065.4024	977.4652	0.0000	2042.8676	37.08%
Chief Judge: Jim Ward
Judges: Guenther Eichhorn, Neville Hogan, Hans Bok and Jim Parker

Advanced
Rank	Pilot	Aircraft	Known	Free	Unkown	TBLP Tot.	% PP
1st	Robert Holland	Pitts S-2C	1646.8976	2332.5005	1979.0461	5958.4442	71.10%
2nd	Guenther Eichhorn	Pitts S-2A	1602.3261	2420.4667	1790.2236	5813.0164	69.37%
3rd	Alex Belov	Pitts S-1T	1175.9945	2234.5700	1377.4938	4788.0583	57.14%
4th	Dennis Thompson	Laser 230	1079.5670	1856.0427	1280.2722	4215.8819	50.31%
Chief Judge: Jim Ward
Judges: Neville Hogan, Hans Bok, Dave Watson, Jim Wells and Jim Parker

We held the New England Aerobatic Contest (can't say Championships) last weekend, for something like the 12th straight year at Orange. Lots of flying, no safety problems, and everyone seemed to go away happy. As a CD I can't ask for much more than that, though sometimes I do anyway.


There were some real differences that made this year different from any other year I've been out there. some of the highlights (and lowlights):


What started out as a joke turned out to be probably the best thing we've ever done. Ann Salcedo offered to fly up from Florida to be our VC, and her impact was incredible and noticed by everyone (despite her incomprehensible accent :-). We've always felt we've been pretty good at getting a lot of flights efficiently through the box, but 10 minute judging line changes all weekend had us in awe, and her great sense of humor kept even the grizzled judges smiling as she kicked 'em back out to the line for another round. THANK YOU ANN!!!


Danny was back out from Aviat to keep 'em flying. One pilot busted an entire brake assembly in a taxiing incident early on Thursday and thought he was done for the weekend. As much as I tried to convince him he'd be flying before the contest started, he was pretty sure he was done. It took some time for the parts to arrive, but of course he was back in action before his first contest flight, ultimately placing second in his category. Of course there were plenty of other smaller stories as well. If there's anyone else in the acro community called Danny and whose last name isn't Adams, they're going to have to change their name 'cause there's only one Danny, just as there's only one Leo or Patty. The goodwill that Stu Horn and Aviat have built up by sponsoring this program is immeasurable.


We unleashed Steve Till's unending creative talents on the local community this year as our public relations guy. The results were awesome, which has become a trend whenever Steve takes on a job. I won't steal his thunder because he's going to write up something separately, but let's just say that the best way to find Steve was usually to look for the red cap at the center of the crowd that continually surrounded him like bees around the queen.


We've found the secret to good weather... it improved to blue sky right after Dave Watson hung a noose around my neck. Fortunately Dave realized that sacrificing me meant that he would have to take over as CD, so I got to live another day but the gods obviously bought into the whole sacrifice thing as we ended up with clear skies to the end of the contest. I bet they'll be pretty upset with Dave next year.


Only one pilot ended up at or above 78%. Winter in the northeast wasn't kind to pilots this year, and most of us are pretty rusty. Maybe we'll rename the contest to the Cobweb Classic. Interestingly, the one pilot over 80% just returned to the U.S. and hadn't flown for 9 months prior to the contest, although he's an experienced pilot who bumped himself down a category this year. Nice job, Greg.


First Law of Aerobatics, borrowing from Bill Clinton: "It's the pilot, stupid". And the hours of practice. In every category, pilots with lower performance airplanes but more flight time beat out the highest performance planes. If anyone still thinks a mortgage on a big mono can buy you a plaque at the level most of us fly, forget about it.


In the 8 or so years I've been coming to Orange, I think this is the first time Craig Lesinski hasn't been there. Craig isn't flying right now while a health issue gets cleaned up, and acro is part of his blood, so I'm sure not flying was difficult, but we also missed a great volunteer and judge who's always working any time he's not flying. Hopefully next year. We're all pulling to see Ron Burns back out there by next year, too.


Pitts pilot Neville Hogan came sans airplane, so when we needed another Primary pilot to have a category, he volunteered to fly if someone would spot him an airplane. Sheldon Apsell bravely volunteered his Extra 300 and services as safety pilot. I'm not sure which one Sheldon regretted more, but I've never heard an entire judges line burst out laughing before, as Neville whip-stalled his way all the way around his first loop ever in a high performance mono. Of course all eyes were on his second flight, but fortunately or unfortunately (depending on whether your name is Neville or not) it wasn't nearly as entertaining. He's obviously a quick study, as he flew a really nice second flight less than 7 points off the leader.


We've had more contests without Unlimited than with it the last few years, but this may be about to change. A combination of long time Unlimited pilots and some that I expect will be moving up over the next one to three years (not all of whom made it to the contest this year) should get us solidly back to 5 categories.


Our awesome staff of volunteers has gotten better and better each year, to the point where even the CD got a chance to relax and enjoy the weekend. Thank you everyone!


Grass Roots: Greg Dinning, Super Decathlon

American Champion Award: Greg Dinning, Super Decathlon

Pitts Trophy: Bruce Green (Eagle)

Team trophy: Chapter 35 team of Greg Dinning, Wes Hebert, and Dave Watson.

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