The Texas Scale Masters, a pleasant surprise

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...:rolleyes::D). 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!
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