District IX Report
Colorado / Kansas / Nebraska / North Dakota / South Dakota / Wyoming
Russ Miller Vice President
980 N. 3rd St. Carrington, ND 58421 Tel.: (701) 652-2321 Fax: (701) 652-2994 E-mail: rumiller@daktel.com
Associate Vice Presidents
- Max Hansen, 1909 Wisconsin SW, Huron, SD 57350
- H. Michael Harrington, 6112 Ashton Ct., Ft. Collins, CO 80525
- Fred Hildebrand, 4015 Somerset Circle, Casper, WY 82609-3161
- Nathan Lancaster, 3597 S. Kendall Street, Denver, CO 80235
- Troy Lapp, 1619 Wichita Dr., Bismarck, ND 58504
- Travis McGinnis, 8027 W. 81st Circle, Arvada, CO 80005
- Don Moden, 410 Hart St., Salina, KS 67401
- Jim Ricketts, 4921 Fernwood Drive, Sioux Falls, SD 57103-5573
- Jack L. Sibert, 3611 Kimberly Circle, Lincoln, NE 68506-4524
- Mark T. Smith, 14632 W. 50th Street, Shawnee, KS 66216
Frequency Coordinator
- Steve Mangles, c/o Radio Service Center, 918 S. Sheridan, Denver, CO 80226
NEWS FROM NEBRASKA
The Lincoln Sky Knights (LSK) held a fun-fly on June 21 and 22. It will be remembered as a cloudy, breezy fun-fly. Although not one of the better flying days windwise, the clouds kept the temperatures down and the breeze kept the bugs away.
One of our newer members, Roger Hinrichs, probably logged more flights on his Avistar than the rest of us combined. A rain delay during lunch was followed by clear skies and lower wind speeds.
This was a good time to test-fly Brian Miller’s design, El Grillo Rapido. What started as a science fair project may have received a little extra credit in Spanish class. Rich Kuenning, who performed the first test-flight duties, reports all is well and Brian greased the first landing with his pride and joy.
Ray Kieser displayed realistic flights with the Cub he learned to fly with—now more than 15 years old.
I don’t know where the day went but the next thing I knew it was time to put the steaks on the grill. President Neal did the grill-to-order honors this year over charcoal. Food and folks appeared out of thin air and soon there was too much to eat and no place to sit.
Sunday was a lazy, relaxed day of flying and general goofing off at the airfield—my idea of a perfect weekend!
—Tom Wild, contest director
Waverly Wars '03
The Lincoln Knights’ Combat meet was held on August 8 and 9, 2003, at the LSK field. There were 10 pilots registered for Class B Combat by 10 a.m. Six rounds of Combat were flown with five pilots in each heat. They flew a variety of airplanes including home-built wasps, predators, bat-trick types and plenty of A.J. Seaholm Avengers. There were some righteous cuts made and a few midairs to add to the day’s carnage.
A couple of pilots, including Jeff Smith, had six cuts in one round and there were a number of four-cut rounds. Zack Parmenter flew his first Combat meet on Saturday and beat his dad, Wes Parmenter, by 20 points for sixth place. He and his father were picture-perfect as their Picture of the Week made it onto the Radio Control Combat Association’s web site. There were a few fatal midairs, but most of the models were fixable.
Pilot scoring (top ten):
- 1st: A.J. Seaholm — 2,260
- 2nd: Jeff Smith — 2,140
- 3rd: Mitch Eaves — 1,500
- 4th: Rick Miller
- 5th: Mike Yearley
- 6th: Zach Parmenter
- 7th: Tom Wild
- 8th: Wes Parmenter
- 9th: Neil Rohrke
- 10th: Loren Blinde
Bernie Smith did the honors at lunch, turning out burgers as fast as we ate them, and Tom Wild took charge of the computer for the final scoring. Thanks to both for helping out. Also, thanks to Dave Greathouse who helped with registration on both days and setting up the clubhouse. Many thanks to all the other club members who helped judge the Combat heats.
On Sunday, there were six World War II Combat pilots, mostly with Japanese aircraft like the Zeros, for six rounds of 2610 Combat. By the third round, there were only four pilots left. (I think Mike means only four pilots had airplanes left ... we don’t actually have many pilot casualties in Combat. —Editor)
An excess of furious combat and midairs ended the career of my Japanese Zero and both of Jeff Smith’s Zeros, but the airplanes had enough parts left that they will live on to fight another day. The top ace was A.J. Seaholm with 1,768.
Some final thoughts: Rick Miller had a P-51 that went amphibious after getting hit by A.J., but it was not totaled out, thanks to some weeds and water in Lake Fredericks. A.J. Seaholm can literally fly four to five feet above the ground with three streamers on his wings at full speed. Pilots crashed trying to take him out at that altitude.
We hope to have another great season of Combat next year with the help of our pilots from all over the country. Remember, if you’re not a fighter, then you’re a target. Also, "The easy way is always mined."
—Mike Yearley
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
