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Steve Lucke
7 Posts |
 Posted - 09/04/2009 : 11:26:02 AM
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Guys:
I apologize for being so late with this contest report. I have a thousand one and one excuses for being late, but since one of the excuses involves drinking…….. I can't seem to remember the others. :-)
The first of, hopefully, many mid season ESL contests at the Daniel Boone Homestead in Birdsboro PA looked like it was going to be complete washout when I went by the field on the Friday before to set up the winches. Dave Beach was there, along with Carl Luft, Frank Strommer and Paul Bell hoping to get some flying in. We were able to get the winches set up and Frank, Paul, Carl, myself and Dave were able to get a little flying in before the intermittent rains finally got to us. Dave Beach was hoping to get a LSF ladder contest in and possibly a goal and return flight but the weather did him in.
Luis Bustamante, and his lovely wife Joanne, showed up as well to start their prep work for the scorer's tent. I think it was at this point Luis started consulting every weather oracle he could find on the net, or in a gypsy's tent, to get us a contest for Saturday. There was no question in my mind we were getting rained out for Saturday.
Luis's magic worked, Saturday morning came, we had a brief rain shower, and then we had a contest during probably the most humid conditions I have experienced in my life. I kept waiting for somebody to just reach up into the air and squeeze the water out of the very ether and soak all of us. But it didn't happen and we got 7 rounds in.
We were slightly down wind for launches, and landings, as the wind forecast had called for light and variable conditions. I guessed wrong as to which way the wind was going to be light and variable from. But fortunately the winds were not very strong and everyone did an excellent job getting their launches and taking good care of their launches as to not over load the line. We had about 2 or 3 line breaks at the most.
We had 19 experts for Saturday and 5 sportsmen. Supra's and Explorers appeared to be the weapons of choice for most of the contestants. Carl Luft flew an Eclipse I believe and If I recall correctly there were some Shadows and Perfects also flown. Even considering how humid the conditions were, and how overcast the skies were, there was a lot of light buoyant lift and for the most part people were making their times. I was very surprised with the number of maxs that were flown.
At the end of the day we had Ed Anderson take third in Sportsman, with Jim Griffeth in second and Preston Heller in first. Preston flew an Explorer if I recall correctly and flew it very well under the difficult conditions.
In Expert we had Dave Beach finish third. I think Dave flew his Ava in at least the first few rounds of Saturday's contest. John Hauff from New York, NOT LONG ISLAND, flew his Supra to a second place finish. :-))
In first place, flying his Supra was Luis Bustamante. I have to give Luis a lot of credit as he managed the scorer's tent, with a great deal of help from Joanne, and still managed to keep his concentration to make all of his times.
It was a very well flown contest flown, under what I thought, were difficult conditions.
Sunday's weather was a lot less humid and the wind was directly into the winches and the landing areas, but best of all, no threat of rain! The wind was maybe 5 to 6 at most for the day and again everybody made an outstanding effort to get a good launch without breaking the lines. We had only 2 for the day, and a third one I caused by crossing some winch lines when I was pedaling the chutes down to the turnarounds. I had to give Neal Huffman a relaunch on that one. I made Phil Barnes and Luis Bustamante fly out their breaks, but they showed me up, they both got their maxs. Phil was very low on his break and made a very nice recovery.
We had 20 experts and 9 Sportsmen. A good turn out considering how questionable Saturday's forecast had been as most people have to travel to get to Daniel Boone. The conditions were light at the start and improved during the course of the day. Again it was Supras, Explorers, Perfects and Shadows the preferred choice. Except for, and correct me if I am wrong, Dave Wood was flying a very nice 15 year old obechi winged Victory from NSP. The plane was competitive in the conditions we had for Sunday and we got in 6 rounds for the day.
In third place in sportsman was George Hill flying a Supra, in second was Dave Wood flying his Victory and in first place flying his Explorer or a Shadow was James Griffeth.
I though the experts fared much better on Sunday as they didn't let Luis win like they did on Saturday. :-))
In third place in expert was John Hauff flying his Supra, in second was Dave Walter flying his Supra, and finally adding a little variety to the list, was Leszek Zyga flying his Perfect. I think Leszek made all of his times and did very well on all of his landings.
The Grand Champion for the weekend was John Hauff.
A special word of thanks to John's son, Sam, for helping us with driving the golf cart for the line retrievals. Sam spent both days on the golf cart and that was a huge help. Another big thank must go out to Joanne Bustamante for her tireless efforts in running the scoring tent, which is one of the more thankless jobs on the ESL tour. A big thank you also to Dave Beach for loaning us his winch and retriever for set up as a pop off winch and also for fixing some line breaks and to Anker for his efforts on fixing a line break as well.
I was really impressed by how well everybody managed themselves during the 2 day contest. Everybody was either flying, or timing, or waiting at the winch for the lines to come back and a timer to get freed up so they could go fly. The contests had a nice pace to them and the lack of line breaks really contributed to that as well. Luis and I try not to run things too fast, so we don't wear everybody out, and we don't want to run things too slow so you don't feel you didn't get enough chances to fly. I was really happy with the way everybody helped out everybody else when it came to timing too. Dave Beach was really helpful to a lot of folks who needed timers.
I hope everybody has a great Labor Day weekend!
Steve Lucke
PS I did finally manage to get a bloody sanction for the contest. :-))
One final note. I stayed at the Econo Lodge on 422 and it was $219 for 2 nights including taxes. The room was clean and the mini fridge worked. Not a great room, but close to the flying site.
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Steve Lucke
7 Posts |
Posted - 09/04/2009 : 4:39:43 PM
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| I forgot to mention that the Mid-Season ESL contest was a man on man format. And we used a golf cart rented locally to bring the winch lines back. The EOS contest will be the same format and will use a golf cart as well. |
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aeajr
477 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2009 : 5:07:20 PM
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This contest was a great success. Well run, smooth in operation and a lot of fun. Clearly Steve has a special relationship with the forces of nature since we should have been rained out on Saturday. But somehow, after a brief refreshing rain, Steve rolled back the rain and we had a full day of flying on Saturday. That was amazing.
I had a wonderful time. I am sure everyone else did. |
Best regards,
Ed Anderson
Long Island Silent Flyers
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Mid Season ESL Contest at Daniel Boone
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