The 57th Annual

Southwest Regionals Model Airplane Championships

    Eloy, Arizona      

13, 14, 15 JAN 07

updated: 9 FEB 07 

Another great January at Eloy, Arizona has come and gone, but we had a great time at the SW Regionals! Our 3 separate contests [AMA Free Flight, FAI Free Flight, and SAM RC Old Timers] and the MECA Collecto provide a lot for modelers to do!

Sunrise  at Eloy!

For 2007, we listed the whole slate of NFFS [National Free Flight Society] National Cup FF events, including the junior events. As a result, the SWR AMA FF contest was designated as a National Cup exempt event, meaning that points awarded here could be added to the usual limit of 6 contests.

Distinguished Folks

News about our favorite model magazine columnists: 

~ This is our first contest in a very long time without David Ramsey. He will be missed for a lot of reasons. David was always a lot of fun at a contest. He divided his time between flying his models and taking pictures for his column, although he usually seemed busier with his camera. Hope you find a lot of thermals up there, David. 

~ Larry Kruse and Gene Smith were stuck in an Oklahoma snow storm that became an ice storm, and never were able to drive out here. They both had Tomboys, too.

~ Don DeLoach was taking pictures for Flying Models mag - great! We'll watch for them.

~ Dick Strang too pictures for Elmer Nelson, outgoing president of the Phoenix Model Airplane Club, who will submit a report for the NFFS Digest. He always does a good job on that project. Dick also provided a number of pictures for this report - Thanks!

 Aerial photos of the site and most of the RC OT pics are from Eut Tileston. Other pics from Steve Riley, Mike Woodhouse, Ben Nead, Dick Strang, Tiffany O'Dell, and Dave Harding. Thank you all!

For 2007, every contestant received one of these

These are the same "Remove Before Flight" key tags you might have seen at airports or aviation museums, except ours were specially printed on the back with Southwest Regionals Eloy. The tags can obviously be used for keeping track of keys, but modelers can use them to mark rubber stooge pins or dethermalizer pins for removal. There probably are other uses as well that modelers can devise, such as using the tag to identify chase bike keys in the toolbox and marking special tool keys in the workshop. We have some extra tags for sale - contact AL at:    aalmps@aol.com    for details.

A note from our International restaurant reviewer

This note is leftover from a previous SWR report, and it's still valid as we've check out the place yet again! Mike Woodhouse, who travels to the SWR from the UK, told us he'd found a pretty good Mexican restaurant nearby. He said he's been working his way down the menu! Bob Christ and I checked it out - it's called "Eva's Fine Mexican Food", and it's on Sunland Gin Road [Exit 200, 3 miles north of Toltec Road, which is Exit 203], about 2-3 blocks north of  I-10. Address is 7087 Sunland Gin Road.

Notes from Greg Tutmark, AMA FF Assistant CD

From the table-

            This year I have been finding it difficult to say much about this past SWR.  I could comment on the weather – it was cold; or the turnout – it was cold. So having done that, I’m still at a bit of a loss.

            Some things did catch my attention this year. One of these was accidents – I saw more people getting into altercations with spinning propellers this year then the last several years combined.  This might just be a freak statistic, or it may be the result of other factors. People seemed to be in a hurry more this year – probably on account of the weather – you never knew when it would get worse (it did – all day Saturday). The strange thing I observed was that all of the modelers involved were experienced fliers. I guess this means we never get too good not to be reminded to take out own safety into account.

            “Who runs this circus anyway?” – I received many compliments to the effect that I was running a “good contest” – well, thanks, but,  IT AIN’T SO.   I am only one person in a large team that works all year to make things run at all , and usually run quite well. Al Lidberg is the main man. He is well supported by Elmer Nelson, John Nystedt, Peter Brocks, Steve Riley and Bob Angus. These guys put on the good show; I just get to watch. You’ll be pleased to know that we have already started planning how to make SWR’08 better. One of the things we are considering is making the contest three days long. There has been good response to our questionnaire about this. But, it won’t come easy. SWR is run 100% by volunteers – how many of us got up Monday morning this year after the contest ready for another day of it?  Every decision is made through a series of compromises. I can’t make any promises now, but I can guarantee next year will be different – probably better.

            Last  item  -  I want to  bid farewell to David Ramsey. David was one of the nicest gentlemen I have ever had the pleasure to know. He always found time to visit, share a good story or a hearty laugh. He always found space in his column in ‘Flying Models’ magazine to mention our contest, and he was always most kind to us. He was a true “life modeler”. I consider myself fortunate to have been one of his friends. He will be missed.

 ‘Til next year / Greg

AMA/NFFS/SAM Free Flight

Frank Pollard, WA, with the winning Rapier model.	Lee Hines, CA, watching for lift.	Stan Buddenbohm, CA, with his discus-launched HLG.	Randy & Todd Reynolds, CO, also looking for lift.
Ben and Ben Nead from Tucson with a Rapier model.	Bernie Crow, CA,  winding.	Bud Romak, CA, with a Lamb Climber OT.	Carl Redlin, UT, winding.
Frank Roberge, Mesa, Arizona, with his Lucky Lindy Nostalgia model.	Herb Kothe, CO, with a Jimmie Allen.	Lanzo Classic.	The Lanzo with Doug Petty, LA.
Al with twin pusher ready to launch. It's a Delamater design from a 1940 Air Trails.	They do fly, and quite well at that. The world needs more TPs!	Phil Klintworth's winning twin pusher from TN. Looks a lot like a DeLamater - note the staggered props.	Willard Smitz, AZ, with his twin pusher - that he built in 1937! He brought it out, but couldn't remember what it needed for motors.
Ben Nead, AZ, shows Bob Christ, also from AZ, some details of his Rapier model. Bob is mostly a CL racer, but we may get him back into FF as he now has a Tomboy that flies nicely!	Lamb Climber, nearest, with the Lanzo Classic in the background.	Ben again, with Mike Woodhouse. Mike sells the Rapier motors from his FF supply shop in the UK.	The Nelsons from Tucson. Must be Saturday as they are bundled up against the cold.
Lynn Pulley with NOS Gas model.	Stan Buddenbohm with discus launched HLG.	Ted Firster with his big Powerhouse.	Don DeLoach from Denver with his B Menace bunter.

Report from the AMA, etc FF side of the Regionals

Yes, it was cold and kind of windy. We were told that Sunday morning was the coldest in PHX in 19 years! Saturday results show that not many events had a full turnout, but Sunday developed into nice day with mild winds. The final entrant count was 45, just 1 or 2 down from last year. 

Greg Tutmark was the assistant CD, and he does most of the work at the field, recording the scores, and interpreting rules. He's been coming from the Seattle area to the SWR for about 7 yrs now because he likes talking to and being with the folks who fly with us. 

Some observations:

-The Jetex/Rapier event was soundly won by Frank Pollard with a Rapier powered HLG-sized built up model. He scored a couple of 2 minute maxes and another good flight. Ben Nead was pleased with his flights using a Sweepete-style HLG-looking model, but I believe he's realizing that air [inside a built-up wing] is lighter than the lightest solid balsa.  

-Ken Bauer took HLG with a conventionally thrown model among a group of discuss launched gliders. His glider was equipped with a servo controlling the elevator - a bit of zero/down for the launch and some up for the glide. His model also has a forward CG with helps with stability. Lee Hines was timing and was all excited as Ken scored his 8th max flight. Believe he finally did 10 maxes to win. It's a significant achievement and for sure an SWR record. Lee will be doing a write-up for the NFFS Digest.  

Many of the other entrants in HLG were discuss launched, which looks like the coming thing in this event. These gliders tend to be pretty big – about 30” span. I’ve been told that the discuss launch method is a low-stress idea, so those of us who have been told by Drs that we shouldn’t throw may still have a chance. Discuss models are of 2 types – locked up and servo assisted. There have been articles in the NFFS Digest about these gliders and there’s at least one kit available. It’s a locked up, English design and kitted in Australia !  

-We’ve been scheduling the NFFS towline event called “Classic Glider” plus an A1 towline event. The reason for the informal A1 event is because some folks felt that the organizers of Classic made the event too broad, allowing very large models, actually bigger than old A2s. There were 4 entries in each event and I believe just one A1 flew in Classic. Both of these events, along with many NFFS National Cup events that haven’t brought many entries were set up with Certificate awards and minimal [$2] entry fees. The purpose of adding all those extra events was so that we could qualify, flying “all” National Cup events, for “exempt” status, meaning that Cup contenders could count 2 Eloy contests, instead of just one in their Cup quests.  

-Twin pusher saw Jean Andrews, me and Phil Klintworth. Jean's mid-30s Duflon flew for 45 sec; mine [a Delamater from 1940 Air Trails / Bob Holman/Jim O’Reilly kit] for 111 sec and Phil's [unknown type] for 4min 5 sec! The event was set up to be a mass launch, but that idea fell apart when I forgot my winder at home. Jean lent me one that he wasn’t using and my model got away about 10 minutes late. About an hour later, Phil asked, “Are we having Twin Pusher today?”, so we let him fly, too. While it’s probable that he caught some lift, his model clearly climbed best of all. Willard Smitz of Arizona , the grand old man of F1A, who often beats the circle-tow modern planes with his old straight tow gliders was especially interested in our twin pushers. He has one that he built in 1937 and last flew it in the 60s. He can't remember what he used for power, so he was counting rubber strands on the planes. And, there's nothing new under the sun as they say. When I asked him what he thought of my 'step on the string to pull prop stop pins' on the twin pusher, he says, "That's the way we did it!"  

-The Sal Taibi Powerhouse event had 3 flying: Jean Andrews with a 1/2A sized one that climbs really well; Ted Firster with a full sized one with O&R .60; and Tom Carman with a Super Cyce powered full size. Tom's ROG'd quite impressively and really worked well but missed beating Jean's time by just a few seconds. Ted's needs more power and was 3rd. There was no entry fee for this event. Jean got to take the special award home and has promised to get an updated engraved plate made for it. The other flyers received certificates.  

-Tom Carman flew a 1200 sq in Spacer with a white cased McCoy .60 on glo. It's really a brute. Spacers need left thrust to avoid going into the ground to the right under power and I looked - it has quite a bit. I still believe it takes a special kind of person to handle a hot .60 powered FF! Those models are: big, noisy, hard pulling, and more exciting than smaller ones! The West coast is the home of the Super D event - 60s and 1000 sq in or more. Tom had flown the plane before with a Rossi .60, but thought the McCoy worked well for power.

-The Tomboy event saw Larry Kruse and Gene Smith with their planes stuck in an Oklahoma snowstorm that became an ice storm! There were a couple of others locally but one didn't show because of the weather and I haven't caught up with the second one. Anyhow, I won. The Indian Mills on my latest Tomboy is particularly strong. It's turning a 9X4 and took the model extremely high on a couple of flights while only burning the first inch of fuel [about 1 cc] from the 3 cc syringe! I asked Ed Carlson the following Monday if a Mills p.75/.045 cu in would turn a 10" prop [in hopes of lowering rpms and power] - he says he had tried ever larger props on one and finally stopped at a 15"! I guess a restricted intake will need to be tried to hold down the power. BTW: Ed reports that he has fresh stock on a number of CS Chinese engines, among them ED Hunter 3.5s

The AMA, etc officials table was down-sun from Ted Firster's motor home. About 11, the sun began to shine on the desk and Greg. He noted that whenever someone stood behind him, he got cold, so would get up and move around a bit. I had a hard time getting the Tomboy's diesel to start the first time due to the cold, but an hour of sun time helped. A number of times on both Saturday and Sunday, my hands would begin to ache from the cold, so I'd go sit in the truck to warm them. Fuel covered hands don't work too well. By the way, for 2007, we had redone the scorekeeping method at AMA, etc. In place of the workable, but unpopular notebook, we set up an angled tabletop in front of Greg, the scorekeeper. From his chair, he could reach to record times on any of the 21 events each day. Flyers could also see the score sheets easily. There was some ooohing and aaahhhhing about the scoreboard from some visiting contest directors, so maybe we’ve done “a good thing”! For 2008, we will have a second angled table that will display Saturday’s results on Sunday. Another point that received favorable comments was our habit of posting a single page of rules for engine runs and fly-off times. This is a necessary thing now that some events have gone off to increasing maxes on the first 3 flights and other events keep the same max beyond achieving 3.

There were plenty of thermals and strings of maxes noted on the results board. We set up the launch area with both a north of the cars flight line - for wind from the south, and a south of the cars line. Our field at Eloy sometimes exhibits wind shifts throughout a day of 270 degrees. Most of the day Saturday we used the south line, and most of Sunday we used the north line. Yes, there was some griping, but most flyers took the shifts in a calm manner, recognizing that a change like this is done for safety reasons. On Sunday, the wind shift was blowing models east by southeast, toward Toltec Road

We worried about rain going into the contest, but it didn't happen. The field had received some rain over the past month tho so the dust wasn't as bad as 2006. This is the 12th year of drought with no indication on when that will turn around.

This was the 57^th Annual Southwest Regionals. We’ve been doing this thing for a long time – and we intend to continue! Your Southwest Regional Modelers Association takes pride in presenting the SWR! / AL

FAI / Randy Archer Invitational 

Now we know why gloves were in such great demand! Was the coldest it's been here in 30 years. Blake Jensen with the thermometer.	Our International travelers - David Oldham and Mike Woodhouse from the UK. They've been flying with us for a few years.	Dick Wood of Phoenix..	The Brocks with Peter's coupe.
Elmer Nelson times Dick Wood's F1H.	Tiffany O'Dell, OR, holds Blake Jensen's F1B near the contest clock.	Rich Rohrke, CA, with F1B.	Just a few more turns! Bob Piserchio winding F1B.
Jerry Murphy and Don DeLoach from Colorado with Don's Menace.	George Batiuk, CA, with F1B.	'Fast Richard' Mathis, LA, with F1C.	Daryl Perkins, CA, launches F1C.
Cody Secor, CA, World Jr Champ holding his F1P.	Both FF contests as viewed from the air over the RC OT contest.	Paul Crowley, MI, trying to stay warm.	Charles Jones, OH, with F1G - he won F1B.
Tony Robertson, UT, with his original design F1J.	Tiffany O'Dell prepares her F1G.	Mr "FAI" himself, John Clapp!	Mike Woodhouse and F1B.
Jack Emery, CA, and his coupe.	Terry Kerger, CA, with F1P and Randy Archer, AZ, with an F1C.	Randy with a 'folder' F1C.	Charles Jones, OH, winding his coupe.
Logan Tetrick, CA, our youngest contestant who flies F1A and F1H, with Ms. Archer, AZ, our favorite 'cookie lady'.	Randy again. I included this pic because of the 'Fat Cat' chase bike. Terry Kerger tells me that this fat tired bike has no problem with the plowed fields to the north and south of us. Why they are plowed, we don't know as nothing ever seems to get planted there.	Mike Woodhouse, in a pic from his website. Mike seems to enjoy flying over ice and snow. It wasn't quite that cold here!	Why don't YOU make plans to fly with us next year?

Click here for FAI results

RC Old Timers

Dale Tower with his Hollinger Floater.	The Floater climbing out.	Dale steadies Dick Bartkowski's Record Hound on takeoff.	Colin Widdison with his first stick built model, a Korda, perhaps the Stickler, for SOS.
The cookout fire Sunday evening.	Cookout folks: Randy Burros and Lewie Kear at the left.	Picacho Peak off to the east [to the right of center].	Phil with Walt Angus, assistant CD.
Bob Angel says, "It's cold!".	Phil with Porterfield, probably Spirit of SAM.	Bob Angus [CD] at left; Chef Griswold in the back.	Bob Angel and Ken Myers at his table offering  special mugs and plaques. Ken operates as Cochise Graphics at www.tombstonesilver.com
Mr. & Mrs. Hawkins	Staying warm at the cookout.	The flightline	The Chef
	Bob Angus setting up for the day while Don Bishop prepares to make a test flight.	Don Bishop, Eut Tileston and Luther Peters confer with George Talant [in the light blue shirt] in George's "office" at Picacho.

Well, that's our contest. We [SW Regionals Modelers Association] may have as much fun putting the contest together as the contestants do flying in it!

We would like to see YOU here at Eloy next year - watch for announcements for the MLK long weekend in January, 2008.

Sponsors:
Southwest Regional Modelers Association
AL Lidberg, John Nystedt, Elmer Nelson, Steve Riley, Bob Angus, with a lot of assistance from Greg Tutmark, John Patton, Herman Andresen and Peter Brocks.

Back to SW Regionals Introduction

Webmaster, editor, caption writer: Al at   aalmps@aol.com