Abbotsford, British Columbia – CA Chapter 8

Contest Director: Donn Richardson

Primary | Sportsman | Intermediate | Advanced | Unlimited

The sun blazed bright on the short-format contest held under the watchful eye of a snowy Mt Baker. Hey, that mountain was your biggest friend, standing white and 11,000' beside the most confusing box in the Pacific Northwest, holding you by the hand to make sure you didn't get turned around. Short format? Arrivals and registration from Thursday night until Friday noon. Contest from noon Friday to Saturday night. 19 competitors got all 3 flights in, with everything cleaned up before the banquet.

Abbotsford has the advantage of being a tower-controlled customs airport with an aerobatic box in the infield. The experienced and relaxed tower controllers took care of feeding pilots from the holding area into the box. Since they were well used to aerobatic pilots, there was never any delay for landing ("Pitts, you're number 6 for landing, but if you can buttonhook your downwind to final in close and turn off the first taxiway, then you're number 1 and cleared to land!"). There were a few distractions, such as the steady steam of helicopters back and forth (S76, Bell 47, Enstroms, Jetrangers), the steady airplane training circuits, the odd RV-6 deadsticking in after an engine problem, and the steady stream of Boeing 737 jets landing and taking off. Kurt Haukohl was halfway through his Known when the tower called him to say "We're landing a 737 underneath you, carry on", then just when he hit his vertical line down at the end of his sequence, a hot pink (ZIP Airlines) 737 smoked his tires on the runway below him.

Donn Richardson the Contest Director did a tremendous job in organizing the contest through a maze of bureaucratic pitfalls and ever escalating fees. Les Mitchell, the co-Director, launched into the logistics and grunt work of the on-field requirements. All this plus they had time and concentration left over to compete in the contest. These guys could run the Olympic Games. Behind them, of-course, were spouses and family and friends generously pitching in to take over the administration of the contest as it got underway.

Sea level, not too hot, aircraft performance wasn't a problem, even for the lower-powered airplanes in Unlimited that were flying an eight figure Free Program. There were more than a few twists and turns, especially in the Unknown, where it was a rare pilot not to take a program interruption. Have a look at the Unlimited Unknown. As a consolation, at least the double strength Canadian beer afterwards helped numb the indignity of those zeros.

See you all next year!