The Bong Eagles 2023 AMA Meet was held at Wind Lake Turf Farms. The announcement of the Contest appeared in the AMA Contest Calendar in the Model Aviation for August. Report on the results by the Contest Director follows:

Bong Eagles AMA Free Flight Contest Results 8/5/23                                      

Mulvihill Rubber

1^st Jim Gerszewski 180

2^nd Mike Kirda 177

3^rd Jeff Annis 42

P-30

1^st Jim Gerszewski 148

2^nd Jeff Annis 48

One Minute Target

1^st Jeff Annis 75

The contest started out with fairly high winds at 6-8 mph and then picked up to about 8-12 mph out of the East as the day progressed. Participation was low with only 3 contestants competing and the wind forecast may have scared a few folks away. Throughout the day we had three groups of visitors stop by to see some of our flights. The max. was set at 90 sec. due to these higher predicted wind velocities. Several of us set our DTs to about one minute and Mike Kirda used his RDT system to keep our models on the field and out of trouble. Temperatures started out in the mid 70’s and rose to near 80 later in the afternoon. We setup at the far south parking lot and walked in to the East canal, maximizing field distance toward the West.

Jim Gerszewski won both Mulvihill and P30 events with several beautiful thermal flights. Mike Kirda also had two beautiful flights with his dominator Mulvihill model and was able to RDT the model on both flights before landing deep in trees or corn. On his first flight, the RDT was triggered just a tad too late and his model landed on the edge of a tree row at about 30-40 ft. Mike was able to get the model down by using his 40 ft. indoor steering pole. As demonstrated by Mike, these RDT systems are a must-have.

 Many thanks to Jim Annis for all the contest photos, setting up his canopy for the scoring table, and helping with model retrieval. All had a great time flying and having conversations with fellow modelers whom are all passionate about the same hobby.

Jeff Annis, Contest Director