1400 Lap Marathon Weekend

Sept 24 & 25, 2011 - Centennial Park, Toronto
Balsa Beavers 54th Anniversary

This 1400 Lap Marathon weekend was blessed with very friendly weather. No wind
or rain could be used to blame a poor performance - What else is there?

Saturday was host to Old Time Stunt, Musciano and Half A Scale, as well as
the scheduled F2D Combat on the grass side.
Old time is fastly becoming one of my personal favourite events as it does not
seem to carry the stressful element of full pattern stunt with its heavy focus on tasking manoeuvers
such as the square horizontal eight, the outside squares, hourglass and cloverleaf. It just
feels more fun, fast and loose with manoeuver tops at the 60 degree line instead of the 45, lending
itself to big smooth shapes on a bigger canvas - Easier on the ticker...!
This would be a much more friendly entry point event for a beginner, on his way
to full pattern stuntitude (lets call Wikipedia and give me full credit
for the creation of this great new word).

Musciano is a cute event that will hopefully garner more attention in the future. Good for
spectators too as there is a ton of ground whacking involved, as the hapless pilots endeavor
to take the little Musciano hollow logs through death defiying acrobatics such as inside loops and the
much maligned lazy 8 of doom. I think I counted about 1 crash for every one and a half flights - They
where outdoing F2D hands down in the crunch realm.  I should really make a point of finishing
the Cyclone kit that Keith Morgan so kindly created for me some years ago. Maybe this will be
my pet project for this winter along with finishing off my Stahlwerk MkIII R/C slow flyer. There
we go, it is in writing - so shall it be done!

On a bit of a downer note, it looks like 1/2A Scale is teetering on the edge of defunction.
I am only the messenger so please don't shoot me with real bullets
or cut off my head - Although it is totally permissible to squint your eye and visually
squeeze my head flat using your thumb and forefinger from a short distance away...

Sunday was host to the 1400 Lapper and a makeup date for F2D combat missed at
the windy & rainy T&D.  It appears that the Marathon has finally digested itself down to the
hardest of the hardcore, the toughest of the tough, the Master Racers or as they would
say in German UBERACERS (mitt ein umlaut ja...). Hats off to these stalwarts who
endure the misery of 1400 laps at the handle for upwards of one and one-half
hours (if lucky) at the hard centre of this magic donut of speed and wonder.
Myself I was all too glad when Brad announced that he was not entering
this year (fortunately having won the shindig last year with one Ivan MacK at
the handle) and that my services were not required, as he was going to be
busy with the running of make up combat for the T&D - Hot diggity dog ah sez!

I remember the last time I had the pleasure of entering this journey. The
pain running straight from my inside foot (the left one), through my leg, followed by my lower back
,straight up the spine and said pain finally nesting in my Medula oblongada, as well as
the cramping of my right wrist as I attempted to keep it tucked into my chest for ultimate race
edge advantage. Also the nauseating feeling when someone informed us after
what seemed like eternal racing had taken place, that we had just completed
400 laps and that there were now only 1000 laps to go... poop!

 This time I chose to help out by timing the race, as I figured that the hardest part of
that was staying awake. A quick coffee and that problem should be fixed. Well
did not 400 laps pass by at the timing chair, when a certain bladder of mine starting giving
me the liquid expulsion call (thanks COFFEE), gee... I only had to wait for 1000
laps to pass before being able to answer this most powerful and persistent call ! I cannot win, even
outside of the magic donut. Anyhow, my point is Kudos to those brave and most
patient Pilots (many times the unsung heroes of the racing world of model planes).

On a side note, I was timing for team Evil Empire and had to admire how well it
worked out for them, considering that one nameless Empire pitman was having several
mind wandering instances, at times casually chatting with old friend Zivko (not his real name),
and completely forgetting about the fact that he was engaged in the Big Race (with his plane
parked and waiting lonely on the tarmac more than once) and other times he was just simply going
out on walkabout, much to the consternation of his Pilot, Talcum Pete, who did a tremendous
 job of guiding said plane to victory. Pete would many times have his hand up signalling
that he wanted to land, only to look around and find no pitman to catch or even care about
his upwardly situated hand. IMHO Pete did a stellar job of bringing his plane in reliably
 and at a good catching speed, and when Stevo finally did get around to showing
up to flip, he got the job done with no fuss at all, more like a casual 20 pit walk in the
park than a marathon frenzied pace. Sometimes EVIL is just that GOOD! 

I was only focusing on Steve's plane but looking at the scores it seems like Len was
also doing a great job of steering his way through the maddening murkiness of the 1400 lapper,
 finishing only 4 minutes later. Both Smith's and Steves planes where very evenly matched in
speed with many instances of Smith's passing Steve's plane and Steve's plane shortly after overtaking Smith's.
This scenario makes it a real hassle when you are matched that tight, are passing and worried about running
out of gas. One of the real ongoing hazards that pilots run into (second only to people pitting
out of their landing box and in the way of opponents taking off) and a real reason that the pitman should
always be very attentive to when the pilot signals that he is ready to come down for a pit. Sermon
is over - AMEN

Boy does this webmeister ramble.... :(   Anyhoooo here are the results:

Sunday, Sept 25

 2011 Marathon Champs 

 Team Evil Empire

 Steve Stefanovic & Pete Hanson 

Stevo at right, runs away with the Big Marathon Shield proving
yet again the virtues of Evil in the Racing Realm. Also he makes a
rather dapper yet bold fashion statement wearing his
 tan Louis Vuitton chapeau -  It drives the ladies crazy!

Of course where would Evil be without his trusty minion - Talcum Pete?
Probably roasting marshmallows way below turf level and prodding
other neer-do-wells with his pitchfork!

2nd place

 Team America 

Paul Smith & Len Bourel 

Paul said that all he needed to beat Evil to a pulp would be an extra
handful of pit stops thrown into the rules!

3rd place

 Team Prez 

 Chris Brownhill & John McFayden 

They may have finished late by about 17 minutes but finish they did!

Stunt S. moments after bladder depletion therapy!!!