The Northern California Free Flight Council (NCFFC) awarded several perpetual trophies at a year-end dinner each year. I remember Hal Woods winning the Wicker Trophy for C Gas and Doug Galbreath and Ken Oliver dueling for F1J.

At a business meeting in 2001 it was proposed by Roger Simpson, et al, to change the NCFFC trophy arrangement to one reflecting then-current modeler's interest and possibly attracting fliers from Oregon and SoCal. Big Al's contest at Lost Hills would be part of the contest schedule. The three events for a Gold series would be the mini-FAI events and the three for the Silver series would be HLG/Catapult, P-30, and 1/2A Gas. All the then-current trophies were to be stored at Bill Vanderbeek's warehouse. The Gold trophies were Silver plated cups and the Silver trophies were large wooden plaques. The cost for the, trophies was born equally by the three NCFFC clubs. The cost for engraving the trophies each year was to come out of NCFFC treasury. (Prior to this trophy winners were "punished" by having to engrave their own trophies and some were not getting engraved.)

The points schedule to determine the event winners was patterned after the America's Cup with 25 points for first, 20 for second, etc., and bonus points for six or more entries in an event. The best four contest results would be totaled. Mike McKeever was the first Points Guy and relinquished the job to me in 2010.

The F1J trophy and F1G trophy have both disappeared. The F1H trophy plate was put on a separate plaque and awarded to Mike McKeever who won it every year since inception. The F1J event was replaced by something we called Open Power which is a gas class for A through D engines. The trophy for Open Power came from the NCFFC collection at Vanderbeek's warehouse, The F1G event was replaced by Open Rubber which is for any rubber event other than P-30 that has a three-flight total. (This excludes F1B and F1G.) The F1H event was replaced by a new class called Electric. This class includes event times from E-36, E-20, A Electric, B Electric, and F1S. It excludes the F1Q event.

In 2009 the P-30 mass launch event was held and the points, per America's Cup rules, were added to the P-30 scores. In 2013 a mass launch for HLG/Cat was held, and the points were added to the regular HLG/Cat scores in the manner of the P-30 mass launch. Shortly thereafter a Gollywock mass launch was instituted. The Gollywock point score was added to the Open Rubber point score. Recently we hold an E-36 mass launch and those scores go into the electric event. Contest results and a point summary are kept on the OCD web site, Oaklandclouddusters.org, and is open to all.

The meaning of "Gold and Silver" may have changed since 2001 as have some of the events. Currently the Gold event series consists of Open Rubber, Open Power, and Electric. The Silver series, unchanged since 2002, consists of HLG/Cat, P-30, and 1/2A Gas. A change in Open Rubber for 2018 will the mass launch of Small Old Time Rubber models which includes Gollywock.

For 2018 NCFFC Gold & Silver Trophies, click here.