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- Contest Report: 44th Annual MMM 14-Round
- UAS Number in France
- Dave Rounsaville
Contest Report: 44th Annual MMM 14-Round Contest
Denver, July 8-9, 2023
From: CDs: Pete McQuade, John McGrath, and Jace Pivonka
This year, the 14-Rounder kicked off on Saturday rather than the traditional Friday, because F1E Slope Soaring was postponed until the Rocky Mountain Champs in September. The F1E World Championships in Romania (August 1st) were just too close to our contest dates
.
In addition to our local club members, we had several out-of-state fliers who made the trek to Colorado. Enes Pecenkovic, Risto Puhakka, and Jerry Fitch came from California and Tiffaney O’Dell and Blake Jensen flew in from Oregon. Jack Murphy made the long drive from Utah.
Saturday, Centennial Cup day, dawned clear and pleasant, with light breezes for those last-minute test flights. However, moments before Round 1 began, the wind demon showed up and the flying became more challenging. Nevertheless, the FAI flyers made it through Round 1 in good shape, although chases were somewhat long and a bit tougher because of the tall prairie grass. Round 2 proved to be even a bit breezier, and we CDs suspended that hour-and-a-half round with 41 minutes remaining. We carefully monitored the wind and the forecasts over the next two hours. Finally, things abated enough for us to resume Round 2.
No sooner had that round ended than conditions once again became too difficult for safe chasing, given the field conditions. Once again, we CDs conferred, taking additional input from our FAI expert, Chuck Etherington, as well as from the FAI competitors. We decided to adjourn and resume the next morning. Our plan was to hold Rounds 3 and 4 of the Centennial Cup starting at 8:00 am Sunday, hoping to complete the minimum of four rounds required for America’s Cup purposes. After that, we would begin the second contest, the Columbine Cup, with the full, good-faith intention of holding at least five rounds, as per America’s Cup rules.
Sunday was everything Saturday should have been. Skies were mostly clear, winds were light, temperatures were warm, but not oppressively so, and chases were more civilized. We were indeed able to fly Rounds 3 and 4 of the Centennial Cup contest, followed immediately by five rounds of the Columbine Cup. Both days were made even more enjoyable by the fabulous food grilled by our chefs, Darold Jones, Frank Menanno, Bernie Olson, and Jeff Pakiz.
Thanks to everyone who helped make this a great contest. Among them are: Chuck Etherington, Don DeLoach, Jerry Murphy, Mark Covington, and Marilyn McQuade.
Winners of the two-day-contest perpetual cups and trophies are:
F1A Enes Pecenkovic
F1B Jace Pivonka
F1Q Jack Murphy
F1G Tiffaney O’Dell
F1S Frank Menanno
UAS Number in France
From: Can Tezcan
Hi,
We got a bulletin #3 from the organizers in France. They state that everyone must use of the mandatory UAS Number, which is actually the unique digital drone id, however even F1B must use it. I copied below the text from the Bulletin #3 for your information.
*****
UAS regulations
According to the UAS regulations applicable in European Union, the UAS operator number of the competitor must be visible on every model.
For competitors from European Union countries, the registration as UAS operator must be normally done by the competitor on its national registration system.
For competitors outside European Union, or competitors within European Union who don’t get an UAS operator number, a sticker with the FFAM UAS operator number (FRAd02bpviz5wmpr) will be affixed to the models registered by the competitors concerned. This will permit competitors to fly for the championships and International contests without any additional action.
Best
Can
Dave Rounsaville
From: Andrew Barron And Tom Juell
Dave Rounsaville, a long-time Skyscraper member and FAI Power competitor passed away yesterday, July 15, 2023. Dave is pictured in the Skyscraper’s 1976 40th Anniversary photo on our website (1st row, 3rd from left). Dave was a member of the 1975 USA Power team that competed in the World Championships in Bulgaria. He designed the EXCELSIOR 64″ FAI Power model airplane.
Dave was a gifted guitarist. Many of his free flight friends remember his entertaining them with his guitar playing after an afternoon of competition at many contest venues.
If you have photos or remembrances of Dave please forward them to Alan Abriss, alan@alanabriss.com, for use on the Skyscraper website.
Dave
From: Fred Terzian
I too am saddened by this news. My involvement with Dave goes back to about the same time, primarily when he was flying the FAI Gas Power events as well as 1/2A Minis. Yes, a consummate guitarist and musician, and not to forget, his wonderful singing voice. Since I rarely traveled outside of the West Coast, we would meet when he attended the FF Champs at Taft and later at Lost Hills. However most of the times when we were still hosting the Sierra Champs at Waegell Field near Sacramento. Great times. Publishing his beautiful Excelsior FAI design in the model mags and the NFFS Digest convinced me that I too should get involved in flying that international class of free flight airplane.
Back in those days we communicated by landline or by postal mail. I may have briefly communicated by email with him in the Nineties and later.
He shared with me copies of his 8mm video tapes of many of the international contests both abroad and in the States. I will have to locate them and make them available to the modeling community by way of the NFFS.
Miss you my friend. It has been a long road to travel but you made it special whenever we crossed paths!
Fred Terzian
Oakland Cloud Dusters president
Dave Rounsaville
From: Urs Schaller
Rest in peace Dave,
winged guitarist, great modeller and friend for a lifetime!
Urs Schaller
Dave
From: David Johannes
So sad to learn of Dave’s passing.
Always enjoyed flying and chatting on the flight line with him.
Going to dig out the CD of a show he recorded on a local radio station that I bought from him years ago.
He was one of the good guys for sure.
Rest in Peace Dave.
David Johannes