Gene LaFond of Wenatchee and Bob Heikell of Moses Lake blazed through the skies of Nampa, Idaho at the Idaho Scale Squadron's annual Scale Master's Qualifier aircraft meet.

The event was held June 18-20 with the top 30 percent of the entries in the Expert and Team categories qualifying for the National Scale Masters. Winners in the Sportsman and Fun Scale classes were awarded other prizes.

LaFond and Heikell came home finishing high in each category. LaFond had snared second place in the expert class, barely being nudged out by another national class pilot. He flew the Howard "Pete" that he'd built a couple years earlier.

He further snatched second place in the team scale flying the "Little Miss Veedol" model of the Spirit of Wenatchee's plane built and presented by Bob Heikell and his associates.

The Scale Master's is a national organization that focuses aircraft modeling on actual full-sized aircraft. The contest involves the appearance of the model and its actual replication of its full-sized counterpart. In addition, it involves the flight of the model and how well that flight replicates the flight of the plane it represents.

The qualifying meet is to determine the individual aircraft and pilots who will be invited to the national contest being held in Kansas City this fall.

Heikell, flying his quarter scale sized Spacewalker, a model of a popular home-built aircraft, walked away with a first place win in the Sports Scale and added a new radio control system to his collection.

The duo and their wives came home to Wenatchee and Moses Lake respectively, with a feeling of satisfaction that they had represented their communities and Central Washington well. Both are members of the Wenatchee Red Apple Fliers and the Moses Lake Radio Control Modelers clubs.