One More Time!

Racing was a great success in 2014. Congratulations to Terry, Sean/KC and Tom for their first, second and third place finishes!

We had eleven teams show up to compete on opening day:

Click here or above for an enlargement.

T-28

Background



Click here for background & previous years' results

For more information, contact the Race Coordinator

T-28 2014 Play-by-Play


 by Neil Makar


April

April saw the start of the Park Fiier Air Races at Little field, but the weather was overcast, windy and threatening rain, forcing a short day. (The same weather forced cancellation of the Combat sorties as well.) The day started with eleven fliers, and finished after two heats with nine. A rudimentary grid was drawn on the runway using chalk. This helped to make the line up easier. A status board is being developed that will allow us to mark the grid positions for each heat/section, making line up even easier in the future.

Heat one started out well, with section one consisting of six planes and section two having five. Greg Wiren had an unforced error resulting in a crash, taking him out of the running for the day. Rob Showman overflew the pilot's stations, and in keeping with the rules, was disqualified. Chuck Maguire won section one and Sean Butler won section two.

Heat two was more eventful. Coming up to the last pole in lap seven, Chuck and Bruce Scott were a cowling length apart, when Chuck's airplane ran into Bruce's, causing Bruce to crash hard. Chuck on the other hand managed to keep flying, and completed the last 1/4 lap, finishing in first. So chuck again won his heat, with Terry Hubbard winning section 2 of that heat.

After that the weather closed in causing us to cancel the last two heats. One note - both fliers that crashed out had no spare airplanes or parts. Rob experienced a power train failure, but had a spare plane ready to go, and was able to compete. Having spares ready to go is a highly recommended policy to maintain.

May, June and July

You had to be there!

August

The first Saturday in August was perfect for flying. The wind was slack, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We decided to use Northbound takeoffs for the event. We started the day with nine participants, and therefore had two sections of five and four aircraft.

During the pilots briefing prior to the start, a couple of rule changes were decided upon. The first regarded hitting a pole. The Contest Director initiated a penalty of ten (10) points to anyone who breaks a pole. That is, if you break a pole, ten points are subtracted from your score for the day. The last time the pole was broken it cost the club over $15.00 to fix. The penalty is intended to encourage fliers to be a bit more careful and go around, not attempt to go through the pole.

The other change was to the issue of contestants flying to close to the pilots' stations. It was decided on the insistence of one participant (possibly due to the close calls during combat the previous month) that the first time a pilot flew between the runway and the pilots stations that the result would be immediate disqualification.

By the luck of the draw, the two (typically) fastest entrants, Terry and Chuck, were in separate sections, saving them from having to go head to head. In any event, that would not have mattered. Terry was leading H1-S1 comfortably ahead of the #2 position when, in attempting to round the north pole, he instead hit it square on, damaging his airplane beyond the possibility of field repair, and braking the pole in the process, thereby incurring the 10 point penalty. With Terry out, Rick (#77) went on to win the heat. Section 2 was won by Chuck (#13) in a clean race.

Heat 2 Section 1 was uneventful with Rick winning again, and section 2 was distinguished by Brian (#10) being DQ'd for flying between the runway and the pilots' stations. The section was ultimately won by Chuck.

Heat 3, Section 1 resulted in the 2nd crash of the day with Ray (#15) going into the trees, the win going to Rick again. Section 2 also resulted in a crash; this time it was the #7 of Sean and KC, with KC acting as pilot. The race went to, yup, you guessed it, Chuck.

At this point all crashes resulted in the participants unable to continue, so we were down to six ships for the final heat. So the two sections were merged into one last section. Heat 4 had the remaining planes, but had some interesting results. Not to out do himself by winning all four of his heats, Chuck decided to go out instead by colliding with Greg in #14. Greg had succeeded in coming in 2nd in each of his previous heats, but he was unable to finish heat 4, as was Chuck, bringing the number of crashes to five for the day.

The super surprise in this heat though was the result. By some intervention by God or Fate, the winner of the heat was...(no, this can't be right - wait - yes it is!) BRIAN (#10) in his best finish of the season! Rick, who had previously won his heats, came in second.

So, the collected points this day ranged from 93 (Rick) to -10 (Terry). Second in collected points for the day was Chuck with 75, followed by Tom and Rob, each with 57. See the chart for the remainder.

October

Well, the October KARCS PFR event was held on Saturday, and thus completed the season. All four heats were run with two sessions each, and fun was had by all. We now have completed the season and have our final pilot standings.

As you can see, the final standings are very close, especially between the top three. Sean and KC are only out by 23 points. They were unable to participate in October and that cost them the championship. Just three 6th place finishes would have been enough for them to win.

Tom also had a spot of bad luck when he slammed into a pole and collected a DNF for the heat. He then lost radio contact with his aircraft during his required test flight, finishing him for the day. Had he finished his final three heats in 3rd place or better, he could have won.

But what ifs are just that, and as it turned out Terry has won the 2014 competition. As a result, he is authorized, if he chooses, to fly airplane #1 next season rather than his 37. Sean and KC have the option of Flying as #2, and Tom can fly as #3 in 2015. (All others must fly their regular numbers.)

As for the fastest heat for the year, no data was collected for July, so the heats in April, May, June, August, September and October apply. Interestingly, both the slowest at 113 seconds, and the fastest at 75 seconds occurred in October. The fastest heat was #3, section #1, and was won by Rick Fuller. Congratulations go to him for this accomplishment.

T-28 2014 Final Standings

PlacePilot(s)Points   PlacePilot(s)Points
1st
2nd
3rd

4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
Terry
Sean/KC
Tom

Greg
Rick
Chuck
Rob
Brian
386
363
346

303
297
295
285
240
  9th
10th
(tie)
12th
13th
14th
15th
16th
Jeff
Ray &
Mike M.
Doug
Paul
Ron
Mike A.
Bruce
198
123
123
102
81
33
27
18

T-28 2014 Scoreboard




April Heat 1a  Heat 1b  Heat 2a  Heat 2b 
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
DNF
DQ
Chuck
Bruce
Tom
Jeff
Terry
Sean/KC
Michael
Paul
Brian

Greg
Rob
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
DNF
Chuck
Tom
Jeff
Rob

Bruce
Terry
Sean/KC
Paul
Michael
Brian
May Heat 1a  Heat 1b  Heat 2a  Heat 2b 
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
DNF
DNF
Terry
Paul
Jeff
Rob
Greg
Brian
Michael
Tom
Ray


Chuck
Sean/KC
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
DNF
DNF
Terry
Paul
Jeff
Greg
Brian
Rob
Michael
Sean/KC



Tom
Ray
Heat 3a  Heat 3b  Heat 4a  Heat 4b 
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
DNF
Terry
Jeff
Paul
Brian
Greg
Rob
Michael
Tom




Sean/KC
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
DNF
DNF
Terry
Jeff
Greg

Paul
Brian
Sean/KC
Michael
Tom
Rob
June Heat 1a  Heat 1b  Heat 2a  Heat 2b 
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
DNS
Terry
Sean/KC
Tom
Rob
Greg
Ron
Jeff
Doug
Ray
Brian


Chuck
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
DNF
Sean/KC
Terry
Rob
Greg
Tom
Ron
Jeff
Chuck
Doug
Ray

Brian
Heat 3a  Heat 3b  Heat 4a  Heat 4b 
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
DNF
DNF
Sean/KC
Tom
Rob
Greg
Ron
Terry
Chuck
Doug
Ray


Jeff
Brian
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
DNS
Terry
Sean/KC
Rob
Greg
Tom
Jeff
Chuck
Doug
Ron
Ray
Brian
July Heat 1a  Heat 1b  Heat 2a  Heat 2b 
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
DNF
Terry
Chuck
Rick
Mike
Rob
Sean/KC
Tom
Greg
Brian
Jeff
Ron
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
DNS
Terry
Chuck
Mike
Rick
Rob
Sean/KC
Tom
Greg
Jeff
Brian
Ron
Heat 3a  Heat 3b  Heat 4a  Heat 4b 
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
DNF
DNS
Terry
Chuck
Rick
Rob

Mike
Tom
Jeff
Greg
Sean/KC
Brian

Ron
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
DNS
DNF
Terry
Chuck
Rick
Rob
Mike
Sean/KC
Tom
Jeff
Brian
Ron
Greg
August Heat 1a  Heat 1b  Heat 2a  Heat 2b 
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
DQ
DNF/
Pen.
Rick
Greg
Tom

Ray
Terry (10
Pt. penalty)
Chuck
Sean/KC
Rob
Brian
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
DNS
DQ
Rick
Greg
Ray
Tom
Terry
Chuck
Sean/KC
Rob


Brian
Heat 3a  Heat 3b  Heat 4 
1st
2nd
3rd
DNF
DNS
Rick
Greg
Tom
Ray
Terry
Chuck
Brian
Rob
Sean/KC
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
DNF
DNF
Brian
Rick
Tom
Rob
Chuck
Greg
September Heat 1  Heat 2 
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
DNS
Rick
Tom
Greg
Rob
Sean
          1st
2nd
DNF
DNF
DNF
Sean
Greg
Tom
Rob
Rick
Heat 3  Heat 4 
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
Rick
Sean
Tom
Greg
Rob
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
Sean
Rick
Tom
Greg
Rob
October Heat 1a  Heat 1b  Heat 2a  Heat 2b 
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
DNF
DNS
Terry
Rick
Chuck
Greg
Brian
Rob
Ray

Tom
Doug
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
DQ
DNS
DNS
DNS
Terry
Rick
Chuck
Greg
Tom



Brian
Rob
Ray
Doug
Heat 3a  Heat 3b  Heat 4a  Heat 4b 
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
DNF
DNS
Rick
Terry
Greg

Chuck
Brian
Doug
Rob
Ray

Tom
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
DNS
Terry
Rick
Greg

Chuck
Brian
Rob
Doug
Ray
Tom

As Marshall for this year's event, I want to thank all who participated for the cooperation they showed to me, and for the friendly atmosphere which characterized each race day. I appreciate the support you have given me, and look forward to next year's contest.