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Anker
83 Posts |
 Posted - 08/15/2009 : 2:17:33 PM
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36th Annual CRRC Soar-In report
As you may remember from previous reports, CRRC has developed a dolly system for retrieving winch lines at the Soar-In, our annual Thermal Duration ESL contest. The weekend before the contest we thoroughly tested the system, and it worked flawlessly. The dolly is pulled back to the winch line by a normal FLS winch and returned to the turn-around trolls with a specially built winch with a variable speed control.
With the mechanics fully tested, our next worry was the weather. This being New England, a long range forecast is about as accurate as flipping a coin. As we got closer, the forecast for Friday settled down to increasing breezes out of the North, veering to the West, with a chance of a thunderstorm in the afternoon. Sunday looked a bit bleaker with winds out of the South and a good chance of rain.
Pre-registrations were strong with a total of 38 pilots pre-registered. Pete Schitzkus takes the prize for having traveled the farthest from the Delaware peninsula.
Saturday morning the forecast was right on. A breeze out of the North, our signature direction. This forces us to set up for downwind launches, but with the breezes light until they veered to the West we would be OK.
The CD, Anker Berg-Sonne, called for an 8 minute task for the first round. This round was plagued by line breaks and line pile-ups on the winches. When a group was launched successfully, the lift was found to be reasonable with about half the expert flyers making the task time. Unfortunately, the round took over 1.5 hours to complete. The second round, with a 10 minute task time, didn’t go much better, and at lunch time we barely managed to complete two rounds.
The afternoon went much smoother, and we were able to fly 5 more rounds before wrapping up just before 5PM. We were helped by the weather, which turned out much better than forecast. The winds abated, the sun shone and the thermals boomed.
The final results were: In sportsman Mike Lavelle took third place, Jim Otis from CRRC, took second and Dave Wood took first. In expert Leszek Zyga from LISF took third, Jose Bruzual, the CRRC pilot lost to Upstate New York, took second, and our own Dave Walter took first.
David Beach managed to pull his 2.4 GHZ antenna out of his transmitter during flight and reduce his Ava to pieces no bigger than a dinner tray. He did well the rest of the weekend with a piece of V-tail Euro-trash.
Sunday we were hopeful we could put the equipment problems behind us. The wind was forecast to be out of the South, straight up the winch lines, with a chance of rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Unfortunately this was not the case. All through the day we had a large number of line breaks. Many caused by overly aggressive launching, some unexplainable. By noon we had 3 rounds in, a tad better than Saturday. After lunch the lift became non-existent for mere mortals and the scores spread out. Yours truly (Anker) had been in first place all morning, but was put into his place by Dave Walter who did some masterful light air flying.
The fourth round took a very long time because of numerous line breaks. The same was happening in the fifth round, and at 2:20PM the CD, John Nilsson, decided to cancel the fifth round in order to get the out of state flyers on the road back home.
The final results for the day were: Sportsman – Ed Anderson from LISF in third place, Jeff Newcum in second place again, and Jim Otis in first place. Jim had done some very plucky down wind flying in the third round and had thoroughly earned his first place. In expert Steve Lucke from New Jersey took third place, Leszek Zyga from LISF took second place and our own Dave Walter took first place. The weekend champion was easy to figure since Dave took first both days and earned the monster crystal mug.
We could not hold these contests without support from a large number of selfless non-flying volunteers. Thank you to all of you.
Before next year’s Soar-In we plan to explore ways to reduce the equipment problem issues. Unfortunately heavier line may be one of the options we will have to choose. It impacts the contest less when a plane breaks than if a line breaks.
John Nilsson and Anker Berg-Sonne
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aeajr
477 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2009 : 3:26:02 PM
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This was a wonderful event. The weather was great, the food was great, and the people were fantastic.
Winch problems occur at all contests, so they are to be expected to some degree. I think the team dealt with the the best they could.
You can count on me to be there next year!
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Best regards,
Ed Anderson
Long Island Silent Flyers
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36th Annual CRRC Soar-In contest report
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