ace of aces [Updated October 2007]  

2007 WBC Report  

 2008 Status: pending December Membership Trial Vote

George Deutsch, MD

2006-07 Champion

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Event History
2004    Bruce Young     48
2005     Richard Irving     33
2006    George Deutsch     33
2007     George Deutsch     41

 Laurels

 Rank Name              From  Last  Total
   1. George Deutsch     MD    07     40
   2. Richard Irving     CA    07     32
   3. Bruce Young        SC    07     26
   4. Doug Porterfield   VA    07     14
   5. Chris Villeneuve   MI    05     14
   6. Dan Lawall         WA    06     14
   7. Grant LaDue        NY    07     12
   8. Michael Schoose    IL    06     12
   9. Phil Barcafer      PA    05     12
  10. Paul Weintraub     MD    04      8
  11. Bill Ashbaugh      NY    07      6
  12. Ray Stakenas Sr    MI    05      6
  13. Kevin Brown        GA    06      4
  14. Ray Stakenas Jr    MI    05      4
  15. James Pei          TX    04      4

2007 Laurelists

Grant LaDue, NY
2nd

Doug Porterfield, VA
3rd

Bill Ashbaugh, NY
4th

Bruce Young, SC
5th

Richard Irving, CA
6th


Past Winners

Bruce Young, SC
2004

Richard Irving, CA
2005

George Deutsch, MD
2006-07

 

 

 The tiered seating of the Hopewell Room depicts altitude advantage?

 A late night Circus heat allows fliers to congregate for some chance encounters.

Snoopy's Roof Needs Patching Again ...

   Sopwith Camel and Fokker DR1 (the famous tri-plane) airplanes soared and battled their way around the convention halls again this year.  With the game taking two small books and only a short duration, flying duels are allowed to occur throughout the convention at any time and place where two flyers meet.  Special Flying Circuses are held to draw players to congragate and allow concentrated combats to take place as you meet fellow pilots.

        Finding pilots is done by searching out those with a distinctive green Ace of Aces badge showing Baron von Richt ofen (buttons designed and graciously provided by Greg Schmittgens).  Battles occurred around the halls, before those land-based board games, in the lobby, and almost everywhere two people can stand or sit with two books.  New players joined the flying excitement as they learned from veteran pilots nearby or during the flying circuses.

        After days of flying, the top six pilots based on the point scoring system were advanced to the Final Fly-off, a round robin event.  Qualifying requires flying a minimum of 15 dogfights with no more than five against the same opponent.  The total flying points are divided by the number of flights to obtain a 'sort of' level of pilot skill.  Grant LaDue edged into the sixth, and last, Final Fly-off spot with a 1.96 rating, barely edging out Brad Raszewski (1.93).  Top seed went to Bruce Young with an impressive rating of 2.5, as he shot down 10 of his 15 opponents and was only shot down once during the qualifications, and won the other four matches to top off his feat.  The reigning Ace of Aces, George Deutsch, returned to the Final with the second seed. Also earning return flights to the Finas were Richard Irving and Doug Porterfield in the 3rd and 4th seeds.  New to the Final Fly-off and taking the 5th seed was Bill Ashbaugh.

        The Final Fly-off has five rounds as each pilot dogfights the others.  In Round 1 Doug and Bill started with the well-known double close-in shots (see Page 20) and two points of damage, but Doug quickly rolled up the needed six points of damage on Bill to score the first victory of the Final.  Bruce and Richard were involved in a classic dogfight.  Richard flew out to a 4 to 1 lead only to see the edge keep sliding away until Bruce was able to shoot his way to a tie.  After another face-to-face, Bruce was able to complete the comeback and score a victory at 8-6. In the Final ties continue to fly until one scores another point of damage.  George opened with a a strong 7-3 victory over Grant.

        Bill gained an early lead in his next dogfight but Grant recovered for a 7-4 win.  Doug and Bruce ended on Page 20 as Doug won 6-4.  Many of the dogfights were close.  With no whitewashes, the largest victory in the Finals was George's 6-1 win over Bill.  Each pilot won at least one dogfight as Richard recovered in the final stanza to beat Grant.

        As the Final Round began, George led with four victories.  Doug was flying against him.  They began with the mid-range head-to-head for 1 point each.  As the other dogfights finished, it became clear that the George-Doug battle was the fight for the championship and the winner would take the wood. George and Doug reached a 5-5 impasse, meaning the next damage would take the victory.  George flew ahead of the pack and finished Doug to win 6-5 and thereby repeat as the Ace of Aces champion with a perfect 5-0 record in the Final Fly-off.  Curse you, Red Baron ! Grant took second over Doug by a tie-breaker.

        During the flying, many others learned or taught others to fly.  Thanks to Paul Weintraub, Chris Villeneuve, Lee Rodrigues, Ray Stakenas II, Rebecca Hebner, Craig Yope, Tim Hitchings, and Kaarin Engelmann for running flight school sessions.  Until next year and a new sky full of the roar of rotary engines and flying circuses.

 GM      Doug Porterfield  [2nd Year]   NA
   dporterfield@rhsmith.umd.edu   703-369-3235

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