last update 10/30/09

From the Oval Office

Competition News

HE DID IT!!!  Manny Gomez did it!!! Manny Gomez is the 2009 SC-2 Champion and he led the entire season! What an amazing season for Manny.  He outright won 3 of the 8 contests for the year and scored 999, 990 and 989 to seal the deal.  His feat caps a long list of ISS winnings in the SC-2 championship run. Along with Manny taking some winnings, Mike Lee took 2^nd place with Steve Garland taking third for the year….That’s an ISS top three sweep!  It is the best ISS finish ever.  That’s not all; Ed Stewart took 2^nd in Intermediate Class with John Dora in 4^th place.  The Sportsman Class has Les Ward in a solid 3^rd place, and Mike Lee took the 2-meter class for the third year in a row.  If that’s not enough, how about the ISS took the top position for Club Team…another first!  Just a fantastic year for Team ISS!

            All this came about by way of the final contest of the year at Torrey Pines in San Diego.  We had all of our players there, plus Robert and Kerry Cavazos, Matt Garland, Alberto Dona, Rick Pearson, George Gomez and Consuela Gomez. Having a good time in Europe was John Dora, but we did miss him. This contest was make or break for some of our pilots. Scores within the classes for year-end bragging rights was tight.  The weather at TPG was a bit scary at first with low lying clouds and fog to greet us. The first pilots up in a 6-minute round were not too lucky with no lift for a bit of time.  It picked up within 20 minutes, but you had to work carefully to maintain the altitude.  By 10:00am, it was spotty but substantial, and if you got lift, it was not long before you had company.

            Many of the local TPG pilots came out to this one, and that made for 51 entries on the roster.  The good pilots always seem to rise to the top of the crowd, and in this case, the top 17 pilots were within 30 points in the raw scores at the end…that’s tight, guys!  Manny Gomez knew that as the points leader, the guys chasing him would have to fly really hard to overcome a 39 point deficit.  That may not seem like much, but in the Expert class, it may as well be 1,000 points!  Manny would have to blow a complete flight to lose.  Instead, Manny put on a conservative show, carefully choosing when to fly and nailing his landings.  Although he finished 11^th in the class, remember that the top 17 were within 30 points of each other. 2^nd place only caught up a mere 5 points for the season, despite finishing 6^th overall in the event. Manny was cool, calm and deadly.  He earned that top spot all the way! What was also unique about this victory was that Rick Pearson, whom I understand was the first pilot to win the SC-2 Perennial Trophy, posed with Manny for a photo and is also a current ISS Member!  The SC-2 Perennial Trophy has a history of better than 25 years!

            As for the winners, Ed Stewart took 4^th in Intermediate Class, Les Ward took 6^th in Sportsman with Alberto Dona in 5^th and Kerry Cavazos in 7^th.  Mike Lee did as good with his 2-meter as he did with his open class bird, winning 2-meter over Ed Stewart. Speaking of Ed, let’s talk about him for just a minute.  Many of you know that we re-named the Turkey of the Month Award to the Stewart Award.  And, just to reinforce the meaning and spirit of this award, let me remind you that it is a safety reminder to you all, given to the member who has goofed up during the month in a situation that can and should be avoided.  It is also given out for doing something rather…uh, er… stupid…..dumb…dopey.  So, just to provide that example of something that wasn’t really a safety issue, but definitely falling into other category of doing something dopey, we have a Stewart Award going directly to…the man himself….the person for whom this award is named after and dedicated to…

Ed Stewart!

            So, what did Ed do to deserve his own award?  It was a triathlon event for Ed.  While timing for Les at the SC-2 at TPG, he tossed off the plane for Les, but failed to start the stopwatch until some time later when Les asked about how much time he had flown. Oops!  Luckily, Les managed to get enough flight time to make the watch show all 6-minutes of that flight. Reality was that the actual flight time was much longer.  But, that’s not all.  He repeated this feat on the 8-minute flight for Les as well!  They say lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same spot, but they don’t know Ed.  But it’s not over yet.  If you really know Ed, you would know that Ed moves around a lot while flying.  As Les puts it, he dances.  So, while this is not truly unusual behavior, it was not expected by Les at the moment and while Les took the time to read the stopwatch for Ed, our dancing pilot danced a two-step towards Les and Les wasn’t ready for it.  Mind you, it was not a big bump he gave Les, but it was enough to cause Les to hit the stop button on the stopwatch.  Only fast thinking and a step away from Ed saved Ed from flying another 10-minutes.  Actually, now that I think about it, maybe he should have reset the watch to make him fly longer!  Payback is just a beech!  So, Ed has definitely earned his way to his own award this month….but wait, there is another!

            This pilot should have known better.  While allowing another pilot to try out his E-Flite T-28 Trojan Trainer electric, this pilot was quick to save the plane from killing a large eucalyptus tree on the west border of the field.  We all applauded this pilot for the save and certainly gave him credit.  However, only a few battery cycles later, and on another day, this same pilot was behind the sticks, bombing around the field and nobody really watching him. Apparently, there was one live soul watching this plane, and it looked just like the big eucalyptus tree on the west border of the field.  Well, that big fella reached out them long tree limbs and just tore that planes to shreds!  The fuselage came down like a javelin and smaller foam parts came floating down, but the wing remained property of the tree for about a week.  For first saving the plane from a tree kill while in the hands of another pilot, but then hitting and killing the exact same tree from virtually the exact same direction, altitude and speed as the save he did, we award an Honorable Mention and Junior Turkey to:

Matt Garland

            Matt, we wish you a long and profitable career in flying, and just remember that this won’t be the last time that you and a tree will have this type of relationship… together.

News from the State of California

            In reading the news from our Governor, it appears that the Citrus State Park is being hit with budget cuts.  According to the newspapers, their schedule will now be closed Monday through Thursday every week through at least June 30, 2010.  The park office will be closed completely until June 2010.  Now, I don’t know how this will affect the employees, as you certainly can’t just close the office and leave the park open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  But for sure, there will be a loss of personnel. Grounds keepers will be retained to maintain the place, and some Park Rangers will be retained…but which ones!  (Yes, that is an open question, based on speculation and anticipated to be directed at one particular individual who will remain un-named.)  At any rate, this will also affect the availability of the public restrooms we use, to some degree.  So, be prepared.  I heard some talk about the City picking up the Park, but this news article made no mention of such a deal. Besides, the City has other things already cooking at other locations.

Other News

            We need to pick a date for our ISS Get-Together for the end of the year.  Some dates tossed about has been mid-December and another one being the 2^nd weekend of January, but that is also the same date as the AMA Show.  Please think about this and let’s have an ISS Party!

            It’s that time of year once again for club officer nominations.  Yes, the railroad is long and labored, with many officers having been railroaded more than a few times.  We have the following officer positions:

President                     Mike Lee

Vice-President                        George Gomez

Treasurer                     Bill Hensley

Newletter Editor         Annette Dora

Equipment Manager    John Dora

Safety Officer             All of you guys!

Nominations are open this month with elections taking place in December.  For you current officers….run!  I see a train coming down the tracks already!

In closing this month, I can’t say enough about our ISS Team.  Not only for the pilots who flew, but for the pilots who did not fly and supported our events with their time and labor.  No other club that I know of has the cooperation and support of all of the membership like ISS does, and that is what makes this club so outstanding!  It’s fun to be with you guys, it’s great to have you as part of a team, and it’s a joy to be friends with such fantastic people.  I am honored to be part of this club.  I am privileged to fly with great people. Thank you, ISS! See you at the field!