the great grape gathering 2019 - the national free flight

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The Great Grape Gathering 2019 by Roy E. Smith

The Greeting Sign

This year’s GGG has come and gone. The

weather gods looked kindly on us this year – we

had three good days of flying fun. Saturday did

see some fairly strong breezes in the afternoon,

but not enough to prevent flying.

On Friday morning we set up initially on the

South side of the field, because the forecast

that Gerry and I had seen said that the wind

direction would be from the South. There was

no significant drift at first but it soon

materialized from the Northwest. We had to

bite the bullet and move the flight line to the

Northwest side of the field. From then on the

flying began in earnest.

Before the move was forced on us I started out

the day by destroying my C Nostalgia

Dixielander. I put it up for a simple test flight,

just to be sure that everything was still in order

after flying it at the NATS. It was supposed to

be a 6 second engine run and a 30 second DT.

At 6 seconds the engine didn’t stop, but at 30

seconds the DT tripped, so it would appear that

the timer ran but the engine stop lever didn’t

release. The aeroplane exploded at a great

height – wing and tail both broke in half, at

which point the engine then stopped. One half

of the wing and the tail remained with the

fuselage, providing it with a relatively soft

return to earth, the other pieces floated gently

Northwards on the Southerly drift that was

prevalent at that point. Richard Barlow kindly

retrieved the tumbling pieces for me while I

licked my wounds and then despondently

retrieved the fuselage and other parts. Later

that day I flew my diesel aeroplane only to have

that disappear upwards in a boomer thermal

when the DT failed to trip on the third flight.

This was not turning out to be my finest hour –

any more than the other contests have for me

this year.

Campbell Blair also suffered the severe damage

to a nice model that morning. He had walked

out into the centre of the field, before our

move, to launch his aeroplane – which climbed

nicely and then proceeded to glide to the South.

Unfortunately, it met the power lines that

supply the museum. One of the lines went

straight through the leading edge, close to the

fuselage, then tore through all of the ribs right

out to the tip, but the tip held firm so there it

hung, dejectedly, skewered on a wing tip.

P-30 was a hard fought event, with six

contestants battling it out and Jim Moseley

emerging as the winner. The results here were

typical of the whole weekend. Although the

weather was good for flying, calm to moderate

winds for most of the time, and sunny without

being too hot, thermals were difficult to come

by. In P-30 the event often has multiple maxes

but this time no-one maxed out – in fact, only

two of the 18 official flights recorded were

maxes. Defying the trend, Richard Barlow came

within one second of maxing-out in the Senator

event.

I spent a good part of the afternoon hunting for

my errant model, radio tracker in hand – Joe

Mollendorf, good friend that he is, volunteered

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to go with me. We were unsuccessful in

locating the model. I did not realize at the time

that Joe had three maxes in the A/B Classic

event and was giving up the opportunity to fly

the fly-off. Thank you, Joe – but you really

should have carried on flying.

On Friday evening we had the traditional “Fish

Fry” at Leisures restaurant in nearby Lakeville.

Seventeen people attended and a good time

was had by all. No-one had to eat fish – there is

a full menu!

Saturday dawned rather mistily and the forecast

was for the wind to remain in the Northwesterly

direction, so we set up more-or-less as before,

with just a little move Northwards in case the

wind should veer further to the North, taking us

in the direction of the museum and its aircraft.

Vet Thomas winds his Embryo while

Mark Rzadca surveys the sky

The wind maintained the forecast direction but

by lunchtime was getting quite fresh – taking 2-

minute flights well into the beanfield to the East

of the airfield. Thermals were just as hard to

come by as they had been on Friday.

Brad and Ruth Ann Bane accompanied me on

another search for my errant diesel aeroplane,

to no avail. We did identify a very weak signal

in one location but we could not follow it to its

source, or pick it up anywhere else. After

spending nearly all afternoon on the effort we

had to give up. I concluded that the weak signal

we did get must have bounced off some surface

and that we were nowhere near its actual

location.

Plenty of flying did ensue, for those who

remained at the field to do it, despite the rather

fresh winds.

Snoopy flies high at the GGG

The Movie Belle takes off

On Saturday the Museum had a Chicken BBQ

and Corn roast fundraiser – their C47 had an

engine failure while performing at a show and is

in need of expensive repairs. A large number of

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people showed up, there was some WWII re-

enactment displays, and the “Movie Belle” B-17

was in use to give rides.

The runway is right on the Northern edge of the

field, so there is no significant restriction on our

flying activities, but the sight of this aircraft

coming and going makes it very clear to

everyone why we have a strictly-enforced policy

prohibiting the use of retrieve vehicles any

closer than 100 feet of the runway strip.

The full-size activity on the airstrip had very

little effect upon our flying fun – fortunately for

us the wind direction was taking us away from

the runway. Despite the somewhat windy

conditions, which did abate a little towards the

later afternoon, plenty of flying competition

was accomplished.

Paul Morris Prepares his beautiful Pushy

Cat – Smeed design

Saturday evening saw 29 of us gather for

Heather’s Barbecue in Swanson Hall, part of the

museum complex at the field. Heather

Mollendorf is a master of her craft and the

repast was, as always, delectable and the

company delightful. The Cresthill Motel, where

many of us stay, provided bottles of red and

white wine for the occasion. In recent years we

have presented door prizes to two lucky

winners, in an effort to encourage full

attendance. We try to make these prizes

unique and memorable. This year an

anonymous donor provided funds that allowed

us to obtain six stemless glasses, engraved with

the logos and date of the Great Grape

Gathering. Enough funds to cover this year and

the next two. The two for 2019 went to Priscilla

Whitford and Lynn Miller.

The BBQ Door Prize, 2019

Another feature of Heather’s BBQ in recent

years has been that Gerry Litschi has chosen a

“GGG Angel” from the spouses who help their

loved ones participate in the annual contest.

This year’s recipient of the award, a porcelain

angel, was Ruth Ann Bane.

On Sunday the weather forecast was for light

winds, in the same direction as for the previous

two days, so headquarters remained in place

and flying began almost immediately.

The three power events each saw at least one

max-out in the qualifiers, a change from earlier

in the contest. When the wind veered to the

North, rather than the NNW, some aircraft

ended up in the beans to the South of us but

were not difficult retrieves as long as a radio

tracker was on board. Beans can be really

difficult without a tracker, especially for a small

aircraft.

The John Magee Trophy, presented to the

winner of the FAC WWII Combat event, went to

Matt King.

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Matt King with the John Magee trophy

The trophy has a model of a Spitfire on a

pedestal and we also present a framed version

of John Magee’s famous sonnet “High Flight”.

Matt also squeezed out Jim DeTar, 29 points to

28, to win the Jack McGillivray Achievement

Award for highest points in FAC competition.

Matt King with the Jack McGillivray

Award

The Jim Anderson Memorial Trophy is

presented to the flier who accumulates the

highest aggregate scores in all non-FAC rubber

events at the GGG. This year’s winner was Jim

Moseley.

Jim Moseley won the Jim Anderson

Trophy

Highest aggregate score in non-FAC power

events earns the Bob Gordon trophy. This

year’s winner was Simon Blake.

Simon Blake with the Bob Gordon

Trophy

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The last trophy to be presented was the MAAC

Can-Am Free Flight Trophy. This trophy is

awarded to the flier who has accumulated the

most points at both the ESFFC and the GGG

combined. The winner must fly at both

contests, and must fly in at least two of the

categories (power, rubber, and glider). The

winner is declared the Grand Champion. This

year, for the third time in a row, the winner was

Dave Pishnery.

Grand Champion – Dave Pishnery

There is something that I think is worthy of note

as you peruse the event results, which appear

at the end of this report. Two of the highest

scorers in the FAC events – Jim DeTar and Mark

Rzadca – were also very high in the Grand

Champion race. Very well done guys. It would

be good to see more of the non-FAC

participants be as prolific in their flying. Dave

Pishnery, as usual, did his impersonation of the

Energizer Bunny, and Jim Moseley did a

remarkable job of nearly catching him.

I think the GGG was a success again this year

and there are many people to thank for that.

Lyle Whitford was our CD – having the fortitude

to deal with the bureaucracy of establishing our

sanction. Jim Moseley and Jim DeTar were our

event directors and Jim M handled the raffle.

Gerry Litschi handled the organization of the

prizes and acted as general factotum –

efficiently solving various problems that arose.

I want to take some space here to mention one

person in particular. My wife, Sally, took

registrations, sold raffle tickets, recorded

scores, and also timed some of my flights. The

real factor, however, that singles her out for

special thanks is that she did all of this on

Sunday, as well as the other days – and Sunday

was our 57th wedding anniversary. Now that is

love – she not only allowed her husband to fly a

model aeroplane on that special day – she

actually helped with the administration of the

event.

The complete results follow:-

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GGG 2019 RESULTS

Friday, September 6th .020 Replica/¼A Nostalgia

Brad Bane 80 108 111 299

Mark Rzadca 62 120 182

AMA A/B Classic Gas

Simon Blake 120 120 120

120 37 517

Joe Mollendorf 120 120 120 360

P-30

Jim Moseley 110 108 120 338

Dave Pishnery 82 120 110 312

Jim DeTar 78 108 94 280

Lynn Miller 88 93 95 276

Richard Barlow 118 84 56 258

Robert Blair 71 83 74 228

Senator


Jim Moseley 111 120 100 331


Campbell Blair 96 63 67 226

FAC No Cal Scale

Jim DeTar 108 120 96 324

Mark Rzadca 51 53 152 256

Matt King 39 26 41 106

Vic Nippert 38 67 105

FAC Dime Scale

Jim DeTar 93 99 75+15 282

Matt King 51 62 59+15 187

Mark Rzadca 37 53 45+1 136

FAC WWII Combat (Mass Launch)

Matt King 1

Vic Nippert 2

Mark Rzadca 3

Robert Blair 4

Campbell Blair 5

Saturday, September 7th B Nostalgia Gas


Diesel Duration

Roy Smith 78 107 120 305

Simon Blake 78 74 120 272

E-36

Brad Bane 48 46 94

½A Old Favourites

Simon Blake 120 120

SAM Small Rubber Stick


Jim Moseley 86 94 54 234

SAM Large Rubber Stick

Gerold Litschi 54 54 108

HL/CL Glider Combined

Jim Smith 19 24 29

22 48 57 134

Dave Pishnery 20 27 57

28 42 10 127

Richard Barlow 28 13 26

5 11 16 70

Lynn Miller 26 39 65

Jim Moseley 13 5 27

3 4 5 45

Cloud Tramp

Richard Barlow 93 49 99

147 45 241

Mark Whalen 53 66 77

77 85 220


63 13 109

Lynn Miller 58 34 40

43 83

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Nostalgia Rubber

Jim Moseley 120 120 103 343


Vic Smeed Design

Campbell Blair 39 30 28 97

Paul Morris 16 23 31 70

36” Bungee Launched Glider


Jim Smith 15 20 25 60

FAC Golden Age Scale

Jim DeTar 72 109 69 250

Matt King 109 63 61 233

Mark Rzadca 59 59

Matt King 64 41 57 162

FAC Embryo Endurance

Vet Thomas 108 93 120+9 330

Jim DeTar 85 93 78+9 265

Matt King 79 97 75+9 260

Lynn Miller 120 +8 128

Mark Rzadca 63 +9 72

FAC 2Bit + 1


Jim DeTar 75 84 49 208

Matt King 42 69 46 157

Vet Thomas 51 51

Sunday, September 8th A Nostalgia Gas

Roy Smith 120 120 120

120 111 591

Simon Blake 120 120 120

120 78 558

Jim Smith 51 51

½A Nostalgia Gas

Brad Bane 120 120 120 360

Simon Blake 104 120 84 308

½A Classic Gas


E20



Bill Klepser 43 43

Mulvihill/Unlimited Rubber

Jim Moseley 120 131 189 440


Gerold Litschi 31 31

SAM Commercial Rubber



SAM Small Rubber Fuselage


Jim Moseley 101 120 120 341

Mark Rzadca 120 105 77 302

Jim DeTar 90 98 94 282

SAM Large Rubber Fuselage

Gerry Litschi 26 29 32 87

Unlimited Towline Glider


Brad Bane 111 111

FAC Combined Race Planes Mass Launch

Campbell Blair 1

Matt King 2

Jim DeTar 3

Mark Rzadca 4

FAC Simplified Scale

Jim DeTar 75 115 120+25 331

Matt King 79 78 119+0 276

Mark Rzadca 26 +0 26

Matt King 70 82 80+0 232

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FAC Half Wakefield

Lynn Miller 60 72 53 185

Jim DeTar 57 44 61 162



FAC WWI Combat (Mass Launch)

Jim DeTar 1

Matt King 2

Mark Rzadca 3

Campbell Blair 4

Faux FAC Power Simple Scale

Matt King 140

Jim Smith 131

Mark Rzadca 120

Robert Blair ?

Campbell Blair ?

Ebenezer

Robert Blair 250

Jim Smith 245

Paul Morris ?

The Jack McGillivray Memorial Award (high

points in FAC events)

Matt King 29

Jim DeTar 28

Mark Rzadca 22

Campbell Blair 8

Vet Thomas 6

Lynn Miller 6

Vic Nippert 5

Robert Blair 5

Jim Smith 4

The John Magee Memorial Trophy (winner

of FAC WWII Combat)

Matt King

The Jim Anderson Memorial Trophy (high

aggregate in non-FAC rubber events)

Jim Moseley 1843

Richard Barlow 1528

Dave Pishnery 1367

Robert Blair 577

Mark Rzadca 542

Jim DeTar 542

Campbell Blair 226

Gerold Litschi 226

Lynn Miller 218

The Bob Gordon Memorial Trophy (high

aggregate in power events)

Simon Blake 1775

Joe Mollendorf 1022

Roy Smith 896

Brad Bane 683

Mark Rzadca 382

Dave Pishnery 104

Campbell Blair 97

Paul Morris 70

Jim Smith 51

Bill Klepser 43

The MAAC Can-Am Free Flight Trophy (high

points from ESFFC and GGG)

Dave Pishnery 29

Jim Moseley 26

Mark Rzadca 18

Jim DeTar 11

Campbell Blair 4

Lynn Miller 3

Four more fliers scored points in both contests

but were disqualified because they had not

flown in more than one category of event. They

were:-

Simon Blake 16

Roy Smith 14

Joe Mollendorf 11

Robert Blair 6

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The 2019 GGG in Pictures

Jerry gets the wine ready

A conflab over the results sheet

A Miss Canada carried in comfort and safety

Which event was that again?

This is your bottle Brad

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It’s a busy life!

What’s the most fun – flying or retrieving?

Joe’s 1/2A Astrowhip

Richard disassembles his Senator in relaxed

style

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Richard builds and packages his models in

threes – perhaps he anticipates losing a lot

Simon readies his 1/2A Top Banana

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Joe contemplates his flight

Jim M and Sally

What are you looking for under there Jerry?

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Richard’s Miss Canada Eh! (one of them)

A pretty collection from the Blair Clan

Jim Smith’s very pretty Power Scale entry,

unfortunately suffered damage in a hard

landing

Robert Blair shows off his innovative Ebenezers

– he won with the flying saucer.

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Campbell Blair shows us his Power Scale entry

Brad launches his 1/4A Nostalgia

What are we going to fly next folks?

Lynn Miller readies a rubber model

Joe and Lyle share a joke, Lyle is holding his

beautiful P-30

The trophy table

Brad and Ruth Ann prepare Brad’s Dragmaster

the great grape gathering 2019 - the national free flight

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