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aeajr
477 Posts |
 Posted - 10/12/2006 : 12:19:51 PM
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The LISF2 contest was held September 23 and 24 at the Long Island Silent Flyers field in Syosset NY. www.lisf.org
By coincidence, this was the same weekend the World Soaring Masters was being held. As a result, many of the ESL's top pilots were at the World Soaring Masters challenging the best of the best. |
Edited by - aeajr on 10/17/2006 10:25:17 AM |
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aeajr
477 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2006 : 12:22:40 PM
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The LISF2 contest was held September 23 and 24 at the Long Island Silent Flyers field in Syosset NY. www.lisf.org
By coincidence, this was the same weekend the World Soaring Masters was being held. As a result, many of the ESL's top pilots were at the World Soaring Masters challenging the best of the best. Despite the competition for the date, there were over 35 pilots preregisterd for the event.
A big thanks for Frank Strommer for taking on the Contest Director role. As all of you know, there are a million details to be covered and Frank did a great job especially under such challenging circumstances.
Also, a big thanks to Rich Verriest and his team for handling the field registratio and the scoring table. In a Man on Man format, the scoring table has a very active role in managing the flyers and who needs to launch when. Rich and his team are masters of the Man on Man format!
NOVICE CLASS
This year LISF added something new, a Novice Class. Novice is a new program created by the Eastern Soaring League. Novice is not a rank and it is not really a competition class. Novice is a program that allows new contest flyers, of any talent level, to give the ESL style of competition a try. There was no charge for Novice flyers at the LISF2 event. They flew a reduced time task and less stringent landing points scoring. Other than that, they followed the same process that everyone else followed. So they got a taste of the fun, the excitement and the friendly competition that we all enjoy, but without the pressure a new contest flyer is likely to feel.
We had 6 flyers enter in Novice class. From all reports they had a great time. They must have, because they all came back Sunday! More on the Novice flyers later.
MAN ON MAN SCORING
LISF has adopted the man on man format for all of its ESL contests. In this style of competition, groups of 3-4 pilots are launched together so that they are flying in the same air. They are then scored against each other and their normalized scores are what is used for final ranking. It takes a bit more work on the part of the CD and the score keepers, but many feel this is a fairer way to score flights. I know I like it.
SATURDAY - WIND AND RAIN -
The conditions were so poor, I was impressed that anyone showed up. My wife called me around noon to see what I was doing since I couldn't fly. I won't tell you what she said when she learned we were still running the contest.
Considering the conditions we had a good turnout. We had 9 experts, 14 sportsman and 6 Novice on Saturday.
If you like windy conditions, this was the contest for you. The day started off wet with winds in the 10-15 mph range with gusts over 25 mph. This presented some real challenges on the winches. During the first round planes in Sportsman, Expert and Novice were damaged from launches that were too aggressive for the conditions. However those who were a little more cautious did fine. This was not just a test of the strength of planes but the skill of the launcher. Some pretty high strength planes were damaged, but most of the Novice woodies and foamies came through the rounds fine.
My brand new Thermal Dancer was the first launched during the contest and the first to be put back in the car. The wind had calmed somewhat and I had positioned my foot poorly over the pedal. Rather than a moderate launch I over pedaled it and virtually turned the wings into a V tail when a huge gust hit. It was pretty exciting .
My over zealous launch creased one wing, however in retrospect, I am surprised I did not do more serious damage. I was not aware I had damaged it till after I landed, except that it was not flying well. However it was serious enough to take it out of the air for this weekend. Time to bring out my Legend, which is much heavier plane and better suited to the conditions anyway. The Legend likes windy conditions and I have never had to add ballast!
Thermal lift was hard to find, but there was an elusive uneven ridge of lift that could be found in the Southeast corner of the field. This was more like slope soaring then thermaling. It was very challenging to find just the right channel to ride and the lift could disappear all of a sudden. Of course the gusts were stronger up high and it was common to see a plane cruising along then suddenly take a hard left or right as a gust turned it up on its side.
A few planes did not make it back to the field, especially when the more adventurous took a run down wind to work a lift area that was definitely there and definitely pretty far out. Only the brave and well ballasted could run to that lift and land with confidence. I never took a run down wind.
SUNDAY - DRYER, BUT MORE WIND
Sunday we had 11 experts, 13 Sportsman and 6 Novice ready to accept the challenge that mother nature presented. These were hardy souls!.
If Saturday was wet and windy, Sunday subtracted the rain and added to the wind. Wind speeds were constantly above 10 mph and gusts were approaching 30. It was the wider variations that played havoc with the flyers.
Some time during the last round, the wind knocked over the PortaSan. I don't know if the wind gets points for knocking over the privy, but it certainly confirmed that it was windy. No one checked to see if anyone was in the can when it went over, but no missing persons reports were filed.
As the afternoon aged, the last round was called and the final flights were taken we all knew that we had faced difficult conditions and most survived the experience. The sky looked bad, the wind was high and everyone felt that we had had a solid contest.
As we raced to get our tents down and our planes away before the coming rain, the skies suddenly started to clear, the winds died down and we had the best conditions of the weekend. Of course the contest was over. But to give you a contrast, out came some DLGs which were floating around in the newly calm air, catching lift right off the field. Crazy weather!
If you would like to see the standings for the two days, they can be found here:
www.flyesl.com/scores/scoreCon.asp?vnr=Saturday&vfn=18" target="_blank">http://www.flyesl.com/scores/scoreCon.asp?vnr=Saturday&vfn=18
As Novice is not really a class, Novice scores are not kept for the year.
NOVICE
The real highlight of the weekend, in my mind, was the Novice flyers. Five of them were from the host club, and I know them well, so let me share a bit about the Novice experience under challenging conditions.
These guys were flying light 2 meter and 100 inch planes. Most were wood, one was foam and one was a well used 100" Super V.
Steve purchased his Super V about 8 weeks before the contest, his first pure glider. Steve has been flying for a little over a year, having started on an Aerobird. He also has time on an Easy Glider electric and an Aerobird Xtreme. With 8 weeks of prep, Steve took first place in Novice on Saturday but could not join us on Sunday. Nice going Steve! I expect Steve's soaring days are just getting started. He is very talented, having started his flying a little over a year ago.
Mike Lavelle, another Novice, damaged his new Spirit Elite on its first launch when a strong zoom met a big gust and the wing failed. Mike had been practicing hard over the past few weeks with this new plane. While Mike has been flying for years, his sailplane experience is dwarfed by his power plane experience. But Mike has turned to the silent side of late, and he likes it. He built this Spirit Elite from an ARF kit just for this contest. It was handling full pedal launches and strong zooms off the club winch without a complaint. When Mike went for the zoom on Saturday, the wing shattered into a million pieces of balsa and monokote which floated back to the launch line like so much snow. Actually it was a pretty spectacular wing failure. Mike dug the fuse out of the mud, which was basically intact.
Now, you would think a new contest pilot would be pretty discouraged, having his plane fail. Not Mike! He ran home and got a 2 meter slope plane, put a hook in it and ran back to the field. After a little episode around a disappearing wing rod, Mike was able to make it back for the next round. He finished Saturday with that slope plane and was back again Sunday to fly again. Mike is either a great competitor or he is nuts! Either way, I think he had fun because he has the Spirit Elite under repair, purchased a 3.? full house and has a 4 meter scale glider in preparation for aerotowing. Man has this guy got energy!
Mike and his slope glider took third place on Sunday. Great job Mike!
Rudi Oudshoorn has been flying parkflyers and a 2M Spirit for a few years, but has not gotten as much stick time as he would like. A few months ago he picked up a Multiplex Easy Glider and a Hitec Eclipse 7 radio. Rudi and the Easy Glider bonded quickly. When he decided to try Novice class, Rudi got very focused. He practiced more, he worked on his landings and we all watched his soaring abilities really blossom.
Rudi flew Saturday and Sunday. He, like all the Novice pilots, was told that there would be no disgrace in dropping out as these were horrible conditions. But Rudi was committed. He slipped a 10 ounce ballast rod into the wing of his 25 ounce plane and took it to the launch line. He did very well on Saturday and took second place on Sunday. We are all very proud of his results.
Joe Albrecht is one of our senior members having racked up years of flying experience. However Joe has spent more time with power than with gliders. Like the others, when Joe heard about Novice class he decided to give it a try. This guys was so committed that when he damaged his 2M Aspire during practice, he took the prop off his Aspire electric, put a cap over the nose and put a hook in it! He was determined to take this step.
Joe we are very proud of you and your commitment! Joe's Aspire electric suffered a joiner failure in that Sunday wind, but Joe assures me that he will be back. Joe is working on a Slegers 3M Prism full house for the next contest.
Last, but not least, is Dayle Cook. Dale is 11 years old and one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. What scares me is how fast he learns. Dayle has a relatively little experience with gliders. But when we announced the Novice Class he and his Dad, Dennis Cook, LISF VP, decided it was a good challenge. Dayle took to it like a natural.
Dayle was flying a R/E 2 meter woody. During practice he launched this off the winch himself with some pretty impressive zooms for a plane of this type. ( what kind of spar you got in that thing boy? ) While the plane is a bit heavy for a 2M, it seemed to work to Dayle's advantage during the contest. Dayle placed second on Saturday and won first place on Sunday. Watch out for this one guys! I predict he will blow through Sportsman and move into Expert before he gets out of High School, unless, of course, he discovers girls. Then maybe we will get him back after college. Great work Dayle. You were awesome.
Post contest reports from the Novice flyers is that they all had a great time and are all preparing for the LISF 1 contest in June.
I think this Novice program could be a big success.
My thanks to Rudi and Dimitri for these photos.
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Best regards,
Ed Anderson
aeajr on the forums
Long Island Silent Flyers
Best regards,
Ed Anderson
aeajr on the forums
Long Island Silent Flyers
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Edited by - aeajr on 10/12/2006 2:29:23 PM |
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aeajr
477 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2006 : 12:40:20 PM
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Please post your thoughts, comments and personal experiences. If you have photos you would like to share, please add them too!
Best regards,
Ed Anderson
ESL Content Editor |
Edited by - aeajr on 10/13/2006 6:36:41 PM |
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LISF 2 Contest 9/23-24 2006 - A Great Event
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