Event Coverage

Urbana Heli Championship coverage

May 15th and 16th turned out to be a great weekend for the return of precision flying to the Great Lakes region.  With eight contestants from Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky participating, CD Tom Erb and host club, the Mad River Flying Association of Urbana, Ohio ushered in a new age of precision flying for the area.

Saturday started out beautiful weather wise, nice temps and lite winds.  The setup clinic was held this day to provide info and help to newer pilots just getting into the sport.  Tom Erb and Mark Ellison covered such topics as setting up your heli mechanics for precision, radio programming, rules, and finally flying the patterns.  Four new participants attended the clinic.  After the presentation and questions were answered, we all adjourned to the flying field for some good practice the rest of the afternoon.

Saturday evening we were hosted by Chris Patton and the Champaign Aviation Museum to a private viewing of vintage aircraft and sit down dinner in the hanger accompanied by 1940’s era music.  In our presence was a B25, AT6, DC3, a replica of the Wright Brothers flyer, an A26, a Pitcarin Auto Gyro, and several others.  Once we were done going through all these, Chris took us down to a another hangar where we viewed the restoration of a B17 in progress.  Just starting to skin the front section and with the rear section still in the bones, it was magnificent to see. 

Sunday morning we awoke to lots of wind and cool temps for the contest.  Everyone flew well for the most part with one accident knocking out a class one participant.  Not sure the reason why, but he’ll be back and ready to go next time. 

Official results are as follows…..

Class 1

1)  Andy Panoncillo   Vibe SG   3000.00
2)  Robert Mairs     Hirobo   2792.95
3)  Gus Petratis     Pantera   2550.61
4)  Roberto Munoz     SDX       244.37

Andy’s someone to watch as he gets ready for the 2010 nats.  He’ll be tough.

Class 2

1)  George Matthews     Hirobo       3000.00
2)  Mark Ellison       Trex 600     2452.51

Class 3

1}  Santiago Panzardi     Hirobo       3000.00
2)  Tom Erb           Excell       2807.61

After the three rounds, awards were handed out and we were on our way by 6pm. 

Thanks to the Mad River Club for hosting this event.  They were great hosts!  The food was impressive with monster Black Angus Burgers with all the fixings making great eating.  We’d like to the thank all the participants who attended for helping make this first contest a success.  We think it was a great success and are looking forward to the next event June 12 at the Recker Field in Toledo, Ohio.  Don’t forget the Wooster contest coming on July 17th.  These are both beautiful fields to be flying at.

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