2004 Georgia Thanksgiving Classic, Saturday,
November 27th, 2004 (click on any photo for a full size view)
This year the Georgia Thanksgiving Classic was one day, for SSC only. It attracted 27 of the
top fliers from around the country.  The weather this year was the most formidable foe. The
first day was cold, windy, and overcast.

Registration actually began at the Georgia Model Aviators field, north of the Georgia town
of Cumming, on Friday afternoon as CD Lou Melancon started weighing and tech inspecting
airplanes.  The weather prognosticators were offering predictions of heavy rain after noon
on Saturday so as much was done on Friday as possible to create more time the next
morning for combat.  The first to arrive were Mike and Lori Fuller from Evansville, Indiana.  Next came Chris Quinn from
Nashville, and Bob "Long Haul" Loescher.  Getting to the field next was Steve "Slam" Lamson from Orlando.  Soon Billy
Wiggins,formerly of Florida, but now proud to call Georgia home, arrived. Then came Ben "Hillbilly" Morrow, and Stan "The
Dreaded Skull" Erwin. Arriving soon after
As we have done in our last several contests we did RPM checks before launch for every round.  If you have never done this it
sounds difficult and time consuming but it works well and everyone is assured that each plane in the match is legal.  The pilot's
judge stands with the pilot and after the engine is started tachs the engine.  Due to the low temps and dry air it was not uncommon
to see engines running over 18,000 rpms.  My three planes each hit 17,800 or higher with one going to 18,200.  If the judge saw
more than 17,500 the pilot was required to get the rpms down before launching.  This usually mean dialing down the ATV on the
throttle via the transmitter.  Even if your plane made rpms one round it could climb again in the next.  That happened to me once
during the day but it took less than 20 seconds to get checked, make adjustment, get checked again then head out to launch.  The
new RCCA SSC engine test rule for 2005 will require engine tachs of every plane in every round by the pilot's judge.
There were some very high scores today.  The pilot judges are having a harder and harder time
making sure that the pilot gets all the cuts he deserves and not being awarded cuts that were not
his.  When the wind is high, the planes close to each other, the sky overcast it is very hard and we
will have to address how to make sure that contests are well officiated.

NEW TECHNOLOGY:
Mike Fuller had an exciting new design, as yet un-named.  It features a two piece wing that slides
onto an aluminum tube like large Scale Aerobatic planes.  The difference is that Mike is putting the
aileron servos on the fuselage rather than in the wings which means you don't have to have a set of
servos for each new wing.  He also has a motor plate that can accomodate a .15 or .25 so the plane
can be flown in both SSC and Open B.
Stan "the Dreaded Skull" Erwin had what looked at first glance to be a minatuized version of his well
known Go-Devil, but this one was different because it had a V-Tail and a sub fin.  Stan test flew it on
Friday and the results were promising.  He got a high angle of attach launch and the strong wind
caught it and drove it straight up ending with a stall that slammed it down onto the very hard asphalt.

We really enjoyed this contest and look forward to traveling to your contest very soon.

CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE ROUND BY ROUND SCORES


were North Carolinians Robbie Wood and Marty Adams.  Georgia fliers Wayne Voyles, Stanley Harrison, Larry Killingsworth, Buzz
Killingsworth and Bobby Lewis arrived about mid afternoon.  The question on everyone's mind was "where are the Texans"? Pat and
Mike Willcox left Houston on Thursday night to drive to Dallas to meet up with Lee Liddle, then they were turning east for Atlanta.  A
call to Pat about 3 o'clock found them about 4 hours away, and that meant there wouldn't be any daylight left for practice.

Sometimes I am truly amazed at how resourceful Combat fliers are.  Realizing they wouldn't get to the field in time to practice Mike
Willcox started looking for anything resembling a flying site when they were in far west Mississippi.  About 30 into Alabama they
found a dead end road that provided access to a field suitable for test flying.  They jumped out of Pat's Surburban (average speed
with Mike at the wheel 90mph), unloaded the trailer and test flew.  Lee and Mike each flew four planes and Pat three.  After an hour
and a half they loaded back up and continued on their way to the Thanksgiving Classic arriving at 11pm that evening.

The weather on Friday had been fair to good but Saturday dawned cold and windy.  By 8 am the temps were in the mid 30s and the
wind was picking up.  It took Lou Melancon and Don Pruitt till almost 10 to get everything ready to go, complete the pilots meeting
and call Round 1, Heat 1 to the line.  Three heats of 9 pilots each were scheduled for 8 rounds.  The wind, the cold, the overcast
skies and the dark background of tall trees made it very difficult to score cuts.

Larry Killingsworth racked up an 844 round one score to lead all comers. Chris Quinn also started off strong but the wind and trying
conditions led the rest of the pack to lower scores.  The contest settled down after round 1 to an event of attrition but one that
rewarded patience.  It was not unusual for only two planes to be flying at the end of a round.  The pilots strategies changed and we
went further into the contest.  Instead of chasing streamers, pilots started pursuing planes.  The furballs in round 4 and 5 were
incredibly tight as folks tried to catch up but this as often as not led to a midair.  The two poster children for mid-airs at the
Thanksgiving Classic this year were Robbie Wood and SLam.  There is a photo above after they had hit almost everyone else they hit
each other.  Slam had gone through four wings in four rounds and Robbie was averaging a Cobra or Falcon per flight.  These two
guys really had a bad contest day of damage.
Don Pruitt and his planes
Larry Welch working hard for
cuts
Winner, Larry Killingsworth
Lee Liddle has just launched
into high wind
CD, Lou Melancon
Mike "C/F"
Fuller with
exciting new
design
Mike Willlcox
starting his Cobra
Pat Willcox, always the
gentleman
"Colonel" Stanley Harrison's
first contest
Stan "the Dreaded Skull" Erwin
and prototype of new SSC plane
Steve "Slam" Lamson and SSC
Cub (flat bat inside)
Wayne Voyles with new,
larger wing for his SSC plane