Early in the day, Claude Paquin put in an excellent spot landing flight, landing his Alien Explorer only 4 feet from the target. No one else was even close; Steve Cox's 62 foot distance was next best. Claude also put in a couple of awesome A Parachute Duration flights. The first flight caught a thermal and drifted away off to the north, with one timer keeping it in sight for nearly 12 minutes. His second flight, using the upper stage from a Rogue Aerospace two-stager with an A8-3 engine, managed to catch another thermal. Again, his model flew out of sight. Unfortunately, Claude couldn't recover either one, so he could get only flight points in the event.
Tom McAtee put in PD flights of 94 seconds and 76 seconds for a two-flight total of 170 seconds to take first place. Michael Sears' total of 145 seconds took second place, while Steve Cox's single 101-second flight was good enough for third place. Our Arkansas guest flyer, Stew McNabb, made two consistent flights for a fourth-place total of 78 seconds.
In 1/2 A boost-glide, Tom McAtee managed to lose his glider on its first flight; it flew out of sight with a time of 66 seconds. A successful flight of 68 seconds with a backup model was returned; this was good enough for first place. Stew McNabb took second with 84 seconds, followed by John Buckley and Jeff McCoy.
The Plastic Model Conversion event attracted four entries: John Buckley's two-engine F-15, Paul Graf's Vostok spaceship, Tom McAtee's V-2, and Jeff McCoy's SR-71. John's nice-looking F-15 took the lead in the static judging, with the other three close behind. A successful cluster flight clinched first place for John. Tom's V-2 moved from fourth to second place on a good flight. Paul Graf's Vostok arced over a bit, ejected late, and suffered some damage on a hard landing, giving Paul third place. Jeff McCoy's SR-71 featured two widely-separated engines, and many wondered whether this might cause problems with off-center thrust. Jeff got good ignitions on two flight attempts, but the model turned out to be unstable, for a DQ.
It was a great day for sport flying as well. Claude Paquin had a very nice-looking upscaled Alpha III that put in a great flight. Greg McCoy put in a couple of good flights with his F-22 rocket-boosted glider. On a sadder note, Mark Geislinger's big Nike-Hercules, based on the Launch Pad plans, went unstable and crashed. Paul Graf's nice Gemini-Titan ignited only one of its two engines, and impacted the ground at high speed.
Tom McAtee tmcatee@hotmail.com Visit our web site at http:\\www.stlouisrocketry.org
Contest Results - First St. Louis Regional
Open Spot Landing
| Place | Distance (ft) |
| 1. Claude Paquin | 4 |
| 2. Steve Cox | 62 |
| 3. Jeff McCoy | 74 |
| 4. Mike Walsh Sr. | 86 |
1/2A Boost-Glide
| Duration (sec) | |||
| Place | Flt 1 | Flt 2 | Total |
| 1. Tom McAtee | 66 | 68 | 134 |
| 2. Stew McNabb | 33 | 51 | 84 |
| 3. John Buckley | 33 | 19 | 52 |
| 4. Jeff McCoy | DQ | 43 | 43 |
| 5. Tim Sears | 5 | 33 | 38 |
| 6. Michael Sears | DQ | 30 | 30 |
| 7. Steve Cox | DQ | DQ | 0 |
A Parachute Duration Duration (sec) Place Flt 1 Flt 2 Total 1. Tom McAtee 94 76 170 2. Michael Sears 37 108 145 3. Steve Cox 101 NF 101 4. Stew McNabb DQ 78 78 5. Tim Sears 45 32 77 6. Jeff McCoy 49 DQ 49 7. John Buckley DQ 16 16 Claude Paquin - flight points. Plastic Model Conversion Place Model Score 1. John Buckley F-15 861 2. Tom McAtee V-2 719 3. Paul Graf Vostok 705 4. Jeff McCoy SR-71 DQ Overall Place Points 1. Tom McAtee 1200 2. John Buckley 1017 3. Stew McNabb 360 4. Paul Graf 312 5. Michael Sears 189 6. Jeff McCoy 171 7. Steve Cox 156 8. Claude Paquin 141 9. Tim Sears 84 10. Mike Walsh Sr. 24 Michael Ludwig, Steve Mizerany, Larry Mills, Bruce Weidner