ace of aces [Updated October 2006]  

2006 WBC Report  

 2007 Status: pending December Membership Vote

George Deutsch, MD

2006 Champion

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Event History
2004    Bruce Young     48
2005     Richard Irving     33
2006    George Deutsch     33

 Laurels

 Rank Name              From  Last  Total
   1. Richard Irving     CA    06     30
   2. Bruce Young        SC    05     22
   3. George Deutsch     MD    06     20
   4. Chris Villeneuve   MI    05     14
   5. Michael Schoose    IL    06     12
   6. Phil Barcafer      PA    05     12
   7. Dan Lawall         WA    06     14
   8. Paul Weintraub     MD    04      8
   9. Doug Porterfield   VA    06      6
  10. Ray Stakenas Sr    MI    05      6
  11. Kevin Brown        GA    06      4
  12. Ray Stakenas Jr    MI    05      4
  13. James Pei          TX    04      4

2006 Laurelists

Michael Schoose, IL
2nd

Richard Irving, CA
3rd

Doug Porterfield, VA
4th

Kevin Brown, GA
5th

Dan Lawell, VA
6th


Past Winners

Bruce Young, SC
2004

Richard Irving, CA
2005


Ray Stakenas (right) does teammate Chris Villeneuve a "favor" by shooting Chris down in his team game.

Snoopy's Roof Needs Patching Again ...

The distinctive sound of rotary engines roared into the WBC again this year.  Thirty-three pilots braved the open skies to vie for the title of Ace of Aces. As they found dogfights throughout the week and at the flying circuses each night, everyone flew and flew while trying to shoot down their opponent.

Three pilots had Ace of Aces as their team game and reaching the Final meant at least scoring points for the team.  The "Three Old Farts & Ray" team joined the flying with some internal team competition.  Fun for them, not so much for the teammate that had AOA as his team game.  Chris Villeneuve started his campaign by being shot down by teammates Ray Stakenas and Ken Whitesell.  At the end of Chris' tour, he missed the finals by less than the difference of those two encounters. With friends like these ...

In reaching the Final, Kevin Brown and George Deutsch flew excellent campaigns and were the first two seeds for the fly-off.  Close behind was Michael Schoose.  Rounding out the contenders were Dan Lawell, defending champ Richard Irving, and Doug Porterfield. The Final is a series of air duels with each participant flying once against each other pilot with the best overall record taking the Ace of Aces title.

During the first round of the fly-off, Richard and Doug battled to a tie, the only one during the Final.  The aerial duel was slow to reach a shooting position.  Both pilots conducted a variety of turns and twists that several times returned the duel to the same location (see Image 100 among others).  A breakthrough came as they reached the all-popular close range, dual fire position (Image 20) that causes two points of damage to both planes.  Flying continued. They reached 4 to 4.  Then they traded shots again to reach 6 to 6, normally the end of combat.  However in the Finals with the score at 6 to 6, they had to keep flying to break the tie.  So their dogfight continued and continued, the other dogfights long finished and now just watching the tied contest.  Richard finally prevailed with a fine series of maneuvers ending in a close attack, 8 to 6.

After the third of five flights, every pilot had a loss, so all remained in the hunt to be the Ace of Aces. Entering the final round of dogfights, a four-way tie was possible.  The other flights kept the tie scenario alive, but George did not follow the plan.  George outflew Doug by a score of 6 to 4 to take the dogfight and the wood with a record of 4-1 in the fly-off.

Nine of the 15 flights in the Fnal were within two points; evidence of quality flying by all concerned.  Only one of the battles was won by more than four points, as Doug Porterfield scored quickly against Michael Schoose and finished the duel at 6.5 to 0.5.  Yet, Michael recovered in his other flights to finish second overall, followed by Richard Irving, both at 3-2 in dogfights.  George Deutsch did the most damage and was the only pilot with two battle wins by four points. Foiled again.  Curses Red Baron!

 GM      Doug Porterfield  [1st Year]   12881 Darnick Court, Bristow, VA 20136
   dporterfield@rhsmith.umd.edu   703-369-3235

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