Golden West EAA Chapter Competition

[jjconstant]

This year Golden West started a friendly competition between chapters, inviting each of them show 5 airplanes from their chapter to represent it. They would then be judged and the total points would be tallied and the chapter with the most point would win. Well, for the inaugural contest EAA Chapter 663 from Livermore won! Participants were: Harry Crosby-RV6, Bob Steffen-RV7A, John Youngblood-Velocity and highest points winner, Bob Cowan-RV7A and Jeremy Constant-RV7A. What we didn't win was any prize for photography...nothin', nada, zilch. I'll see if I can't get some photos of all the planes separately. One interesting thing to note...they were all painted by Juan Solorio at T and P Aero Refinishers in Salinas, CA. I know that in every region there's a place that establishes a reputation for high quality at a price that folks feel is fair for that quality. Well, Juan has earned that reputation around Livermore.

The planes represented by all the chapters were very impressive and there were some beautiful examples of many different types. A personal favorite was a gorgeous Volksplane that was also there the previous day, braving the howling winds tied down in the dirt. Most participants appeared to fly in that morning. Some left before the airshow, some after. I think it's a great idea and gets more channels of communication going between the chapters. Apparently, in the process of setting it up, it also enabled some Young Eagles call for pilots to go out to some neighboring chapters that hadn't previously communicated.

A suggestion for next year was to include a provision for very high time airplanes to have some kind of allowance made for condition, based on flight hours. If a plane was once stunning and has been well maintained and cared for but has a lot of hous on it, well, that's why we build them and it's an inspiration for those people still building or thinking of it. It's a shame if they aren't included in representing the accomplishments of a chapter because of wear. Perhaps some kind of points multiplier based on hours. Any suggestions for making it even better will be passed along. We're just participants not organizers.

All in all, good fun and congratulations to everyone.

All Best

Jeremy Constant

[Bob Axsom]

Something that gets the focus back on airplanes instead of purely social functions.

Bob Axsom

[Michael White]

Originally Posted by jjconstant

A suggestion for next year was to include a provision for very high time airplanes to have some kind of allowance made for condition, based on flight hours. If a plane was once stunning and has been well maintained and cared for but has a lot of hous on it, well, that's why we build them and it's an inspiration for those people still building or thinking of it. It's a shame if they aren't included in representing the accomplishments of a chapter because of wear. Perhaps some kind of points multiplier based on hours. Any suggestions for making it even better will be passed along. We're just participants not organizers.
Jeremy Constant

Jeremy,
You need to plant tongue firmly in cheek and ask Rosie if he'd like to enter that one.....3,400 hours and climbing...

[N427EF]

Sorry, don't have pictures of the winners but here is a line up of chapter 393.
Unfortunately one short of the required 5 airplanes when a Zenith CH801
didn't show up for the judging contest.
The Volksplane won Grand Champion last year at Golden West. When I asked Eric Schulte, the pilot of the plane, if he left really early to make it to the show before 9am he said, " yes really early yesterday". He reported 40 MPH ground speed into 30 Mph headwinds.
We are all out of Concord KCCR.

[jjconstant]

Ernst
Thanks for the photo of the Volksplane and congrats on some beautiful planes coming out of Concord! Nice variety representing the chapter too. I didn't realize that not having the full compliment of planes would disqualify the chapter...wouldn't want to be the Zenith driver, considering how great the other planes were...

All Best

Jeremy

[jjconstant]

Left to right
Bob Cowan RV7A, Harry Crosby RV6, John Youngblood Velocity, Jeremy Constant RV7A and Bob Steffen RV7A

The wide angle lens for the shot really elongated the wings, especially on the outside of the shot! All the RV's appeart to have higher aspect ratio wings than the Velocity

Photos by Ray McCrea.

[Mile High Relic]

Originally Posted by jjconstant

One interesting thing to note...they were all painted by Juan Solorio at T and P Aero Refinishers in Salinas, CA.

I bought my RV, but that is who painted my plane. A couple weeks ago someone expressed surprise that the paint on my plane was 14 years old. Nice to know it was done by a shop with a good reputation.

[Sig600]

Man I was thinking "cool! A twin engine Velocity!" until I scrolled down to the zoomed picture.