Southern California, Pearl Harbor Classic

David Drowns · Post by **David Drowns** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 8:54 am

The first day of the Pearl has been flown. 17 pilots showed up to brave the weather and we got in 4 rounds of SSC and the first heat of round 1 of open-B before we got chased off by the rain that came in by early afternoon.

The weather did keep the pilot count lower than it could have been and dodging rain clouds caused fewer rounds to be flown than what we'd hoped for but we've all had a good time with the event so far.

My cameras batteries were dead so I don't have any pics from day 1 but there were some other cameras there both still and video so someone should have some pics available when it's all over.

An awning of 20' x 50' provided a safe haven from rain for the BBQ lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs along with Chile and hot cider.

Thanks go out to the cooking crew who provided the hot food and drink.

We'll be back at it later this morning. We've had some overnight rain but it's passing and were hoping for some better flying weather today.

lightning · Post by **lightning** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 2:12 pm

With a name like "Drowns", how could you NOT get rained out![:D][:D][:D]
But don't feel so bad, happens in MI too! Ask Bob!

David Drowns · Post by **David Drowns** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:56 pm

lightning wrote:With a name like "Drowns", how could you NOT get rained out!
But don't feel so bad, happens in MI too! Ask Bob!

Maybe I should go with the call sign "Mig Man" here like I do on the Palomar combat site.

But seriously we have an event to report on. Things were much better today.

We got in 6 rounds of open-B then followed it with 4 more rounds of SSC. I know everyone wants to know how Bob did. I'll let you know he made the podium in open-B but I'll keep you guessing just where he place until we can get some other scores up to report along with it.

It was a long day with more carnage than yesterday and we just left the field a little while ago. Bob has started the return trip home and we'll get some reporting up shortly once we go through what we have.

cosmo64 · Post by **cosmo64** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 8:37 pm

Great two days of combat..well except for the rains on Saturday but it was an experience!. Congrats to Tim in Open B and David in SSC..6 rounds of Open-B and 4 rounds of SSC today and 4 rounds on Saturday. It was lots of fun chasin streamers with Longhaul. Looking forward to seeing all the scores and everyones pics...

tmelton · Post by **tmelton** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 8:55 pm

Here are the line up for our 2 days of combat. Lots of fun. Thanks for making the show Bob. It was good fun. We picked up a couple new RCCA members and had a ton of fun. Thanks to all the cooks and the CD (Darrel). Good job running things Butch. Big welcome back to David! You did great for not flying for so long. You looked pretty streamer hungry!

Great job on the win Tim.

cosmo64 · Post by **cosmo64** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:13 pm

Great photo's Todd!..Yes I forgot to mention the awesome BBQ Lunch and Darryl for keeping things moving!..Also...Did anyone get a pictures of Mark Gilchrist's "helmet"? That is the coolest I have seen! Also Andy Erwin's two great SSC birds the Zero and Fw-190...both flew very well and had multiple cut rounds! The new E-Axe missed out on several cuts but showed that it was combat worthy...got draped but for some reason the l.e. tape did'nt grab...

dbronst3790 · Post by **dbronst3790** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 10:02 pm

Glen's E-Axe flew very well. In the hands of an experienced Battle Axe pilot you couldn't tell he was flying electric.

A new chapter has been opened here in West Coast Combat by Glen taking the mystery out of electric combat and hopefully opening this sport up to many new pilots.

The pictures above show my E-Axe which I didn't fly. I had some good rounds going and wanted to finish strong and since I'm a MiG flyer and have never flown a Battle Axe in competition I needed that advantage.

draftman1 · Post by **draftman1** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 11:08 pm

the contest was awesome, except for the rain but toughed it out. It was great to meet Bob, super nice guy, Thanks you to the Palomar crew, another great contest in the books!

ptsullivan · Post by **ptsullivan** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 11:17 pm

I had a blast. Hats off to all those who chipped in for this. We had another rainy Pearl, but this time it did not get us.
It's good to hear you got home safe Andy, take care of that melon.

David Drowns · Post by **David Drowns** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 11:43 pm

The Winners of the Pearl Harbor Classic

Left to right:
SSC, Glen Kratz-3rd, Danny Bronstein-2nd, David Drowns-1st

Open-B, Bob Loescher-3rd, Pete Sullivan-2nd, Tim Hitchcock-1st

Tim Hitchcock also won the overall points and got the Travel Hat trophy.

David Drowns · Post by **David Drowns** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 1:06 am

Here is the midair between Andy's FW-190 and Todd's Mig.

8 seconds of OOOooohhhhhhh....

http://members.cox.net/migdoctor/midair.wmv

Zig · Post by **Zig** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 7:10 pm

Great job guys! Way to tough it out. Wish I could have been there, but had to travel out of state for work. I see the travel hat has found a new foster home for the time being.
Did you guys end up using the heavy duty ribbons?

THend · Post by **THend** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 9:16 pm

Flew with Dennecrepe the whole time...

The weather, as bad as it was, kinda forced all of us to throttle down and talk... hang out...

But when the weather cooperated, the gloves came off and combat was ON!

Missed you Zig...

Had a great time..

David Drowns · Post by **David Drowns** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:50 pm

Just a few mire pics.
The competition was fierce.

Streamers were getting collected.

The semi-scale kept it looking cool.

And the weather?...Well, it got better on Sunday for sure.[;)]

dbronst3790 · Post by **dbronst3790** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 9:58 am

Pearl Harbor Classic 2009 video is up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tool3nuSJjA