Alamo Escadrille 2010 Contest Calendar

Generally, meetings are the second SATURDAY of the month, but all dates are subject to change.
Call before traveling!
NOTE: Only the events scheduled will be flown. We hope this will encourage diversification.
January 9, 2010 Heap Big Goulash Event
February 13 Judged Scale (Rubber Scale, Peanut, Jumbo, Giant, Power) | WWII Mass Launch | Old Time Rubber Stick
March 13 Non-Judged Scale (Golden Age, Dime Scale, No-Cal) | WWI Mass Launch | Old Time Rubber
April 10 Non-Scale Endurance (Old Time Rubber, Old Time Rubber Stick, Embryo) | Greve and Thompson Races | P-30 (AMA Rules) | OT Gas Replica Electric
May 8 Judged Scale (see February) | Golden Age Mass Launch | Jimmie Allen | Two–bit Rubber
June 12 Non-Judged Scale (see March) | WWII Mass Launch | Catapult Glider (AMA Rules) | Old Time Rubber Stick
July 10 Non-Scale Endurance (see April) | Greve and Thompson Races | Jimmie Allen | Phantom Flash
August 14 Judged Scale (see February) | WWI Mass Launch | Embryo
September 11 Golden Age Mass Launch. Low-wing Trainer
October 9 Non-Scale Endurance (see April)
November 13-14 Annual Alamo Scramble | Any and all events that present themselves
December 11 WWI and WWI Mass Launches | All Racer Mass Launches
January 8, 2011 Heap Big Goulash Event

NOTE: The Draw Poker event will also be held at any time that there is sufficient interest.

DEFINITIONS

Judged Scale events: Those FAC events which require scale judging and in which the scale points are included in determining the winner.
Non-Judged Scale events: Those in which no scale judging takes place.
Non-Scale Endurance events: Those in which the model need not be a scale replica of an actual airplane. In such events, only duration of flight figures into winning. (Exception is Embryo, in which additional points are awarded for esthetic aspects.)
Goulash events: All models are eligible, with factors applied to "level the playing field."

Goulash Factors for 2010 (same as 2004/5)…It's that time of year again - time to update our Goulash Factors to reflect our latest experience. Instead of using the Geneseo flight times as we have in the past, however, we have used the experience of the past five years of flying by Alamo Escadrille. As expected, there was some variation. The difference between the 2002 factors and those of 2003 averaged only about 5%, however. In addition to providing factors more suitable for our own flying, the calculations provided some very interesting side data. In arriving at this year's factors, only the "best" times for each event were actually available (from back issues of Windy Sock), so the number of scores involved, 420, represent only about one-third of the official flights actually flown. First, 1998 popped up as the year of the Big Bust, with only 29 "best" flights recorded! Compare that with 107 best flights in 2002, excluding December 2002. A total of 420 "best" flights was recorded for the five-year period 1998-2002, but recall that the total of official flights was more like 1,260. The average flight time for the entire activity was 63.1 seconds; not spectacular but respectable when you consider that we rush off to the barbecue hut just about the time the thermals start up. Even at that, enough models have been lost to discourage serious effort for longer duration. One-minute models are better than "dead" ones. The one-minute flight time has been sort of a rule-of-thumb standard for a good flight, and these statistics do indicate that is a reasonable goal, at least for scale flyers. Of course, endurance guys should expect more. With all of this said, here are the 2003 Goulash Factors to be used at our first event of 2003 in January. Since this is not an FAC event, a kanone will not be awarded, but the club will pay for the winner's lunch.

Old-Time Stick: 1.00
Old-Time Rubber: 1.02
Dime Scale: 1.89
Embryo: 1.14
Peanut Scale: 1.87
Rubber Scale: 1.39
Golden Age Scale: 1.28
Giant & Jumbo Scale and No-Cal Profile: 1.28 (estimated due to lack of data).