Each year, the Radio Control Association of Central Florida holds a contest called "Geezers vs. Upstarts". The age of all the contestants are averaged and divided down the middle. The younger guys are the Upstarts and the older guys are the Geezers. I had to laugh when I ended up being an Upstart!
The contest pits one Geezer against one Upstart in different competitions. Scores are added up to see if the Geezers or the Upstarts win.
The first event was "blind taxiing". The pilot of the aircraft faced away from the plane while another person told him which direction and what speed to drive the airplane. The airplane had to be taxied through some obstacles (in this case, five gallon buckets) and it had to hit a balloon with any part of the plane. If the balloon burst from being hit by the propeller, an additional ten seconds was knocked off of the official time. I hit the balloon but didn't pop it.
The second event was the "bomb drop". Small plastic Easter eggs filled with plastic bags of corn starch were attached to each plane. The pilot had to fly over a marked spot and drop the "bomb". The pilot dropping his bomb closest to the target won. The best way we have found to drop the bomb is by rubber banding a cup to the top or side of the airplane and then let the plane dip quickly or roll over to drop the bomb. The best bomb drop was made by a little foamy who did some vertical spirals and dropped his bomb about three feet from the target. I think I dropped mine about 33 feet away and was the best at the time but my record was quickly beat.
The next event was a time and glide/spot landing. The pilot was given 30 seconds to gain as much altitude as possible, then he cut his engine and had to glide back to the runway. The time plus how close the plane got to the target were calculated to decide the winner. I flew up and thought I had cut my engine but when I got lower, it was still running so I was disqualified.
Overall, we had a beautiful day. There was no wind starting out but it started picking up by noon. The Upstarts got the best of the Geezers but we all had a great time except for the four airplanes that crashed!
