F106DeltaDart
Elite member
Today I went to my first ever scale competition, the Texas Scale Masters event. Initially, I wasn't very interested in going, but I met one of the judges at a fun fly, and he convinced me to give it a shot. I was pretty worried about the perceived snobbery of some members when it comes to foam and electric models, and helicopters. When I got there, my opinion changed pretty quickly. The field was full of a variety of airplanes, from the Eflite UMX planes up to Giant Scale gas Warbirds. Everyone was kind and welcoming, and I met a lot of fantastic people. Many of them brought their families with them, which was great to see. I sat there for probably 2 hours listening to a Veteran tell stories of flying H-34s in Vietnam, and hearing an airline captain tell me about his years of flying fire-bombers.
The weather didn't exactly cooperate with strong 14-18mph winds, but we flew anyways. I brought out my AH-6J Little Bird helicopter, and managed one good flight before the wind got over my maximum limit, and we enjoyed a great fresh grilled lunch. As for the rankings, I was surprised to see that the foam electrics did extremely well. A Carbon Z Cessna 150 placed 1st in the civilian category, and an FMS placed very high in the military class. To top it all off, I won first place in the helicopter category!! (Ok, so I was the only heli guy there...). So overall message, if you are worried about attending one of these, don't be! It was a lot of fun and I'll definitely be back next year. It is really great to see more clubs taking on this kind of open, encouraging environment!
The weather didn't exactly cooperate with strong 14-18mph winds, but we flew anyways. I brought out my AH-6J Little Bird helicopter, and managed one good flight before the wind got over my maximum limit, and we enjoyed a great fresh grilled lunch. As for the rankings, I was surprised to see that the foam electrics did extremely well. A Carbon Z Cessna 150 placed 1st in the civilian category, and an FMS placed very high in the military class. To top it all off, I won first place in the helicopter category!! (Ok, so I was the only heli guy there...). So overall message, if you are worried about attending one of these, don't be! It was a lot of fun and I'll definitely be back next year. It is really great to see more clubs taking on this kind of open, encouraging environment!