All week before the CRRC Soar-In the forecast was for scattered thunderstorms Saturday and scattered showers Sunday, typical weather for the late summer of 2012. Friday the forecast turned for the worse with rain and thunderstorms from Friday afternoon, through the evening and into Saturday. Sure enough, at 3:30 Friday the rain arrived and the pilots coming from New York and points beyond reported driving through torrential rain.
Saturday morning was humid, but no rain, no wind and a very low ceiling. We lost a small number of pilots due to the bad forecast, and ended up with 18 experts and 5 sportsmen. The CD, Fritz Bien, called for an initial 7 minute, unseeded, round, followed by another unseeded, 8 minute round, and then seeded 10 minute rounds the rest of the day. Launches in round 1 put you right into the ceiling. Lift was wide and good, and almost all pilots made all their times before lunch.
After lunch conditions became a bit more challenging. A strong Southerly wind was blowing just above the 90 foot tree line at the end of the field. Lenny Strickland tested the strength of his new spread tow Supra with a spectacular blowup of one wing on launch. In the last round, number 7, Luis Bustamante took himself out of the lead by flying the wrong airplane and dropped from first to 16th place.
The final results for the day were John Marien in third place sportsman, Alexander Hall in second and Brandin Wait in first place. In expert third place was John Hauff with 7300 points, second Steve Lucke with 7318 points and first Dave Walter with 7464 points.
All day Saturday severe bands of thunderstorms just missed us to the West. Finally, just as we packed the last items after the contest, the skies opened up onto the field.
Sunday had a similar forecast, but conditions looked good and the CD of the day, Anker Berg-Sonne, decided to jump right into seeded MoM with two 8 minute rounds followed by 10 minute rounds the rest of the day. We had 20 experts and 6 sportsmen. All day the conditions were extremely challenging with many pilots not making their times. MoM kept the scores tight in spite of the conditions. Again, the thunderstorms just skirted us, this time to the East of the field, with just one small delay because of a sprinkle. In round 4 the CD managed to put his Super Supra in the top of one of the 80 foot pine trees at the end of the field. John Hauff climbed the tree and retrieved the plane and now has the CD in his debt for the rest of his life. At the end of the day, after round 6, the sportsman final standings were Jim Otis in third place, Brandin Wait in second place and Dick Williamson in first place. The final expert standings were Tony Guide in third place with 5781 points, David Beach with 5824 points and Luis Bustamante in first with 5937 points. Grand champion for the weekend was Luis Bustamante in spite of his zero flight Saturday.
No contest can be run without several dedicated helpers. John Nilsson spent all weekend at the far end of the field running the retrieval dolly. David Marshall did the scoring, as he has for so many years, this year with the able assistance of Ray Harlan. Dick Williamson provided the breakfast, coffee and donuts, and Ken and Cathy Antonellis provided the gourmet lunches both days. David Spielman ran the winches Saturday and Welcome Bender ran the winches Sunday. As always, the ESL membership was great at helping out. And finally, no contest can be run without contestants. Thank you to all who braved a poor forecast and were rewarded with two great flying days.
David Beach showed us how mixed MoM groups can be run without long breaks between rounds, to keep the pace going. His program, ESLScore, has made scoring contests a breeze. Thank you, David.
The mild winds behind the high pine windbreak line of trees tempted pilots to launch very hard and we suffered more line breaks than we would like Saturday. Sunday the CD requested that pilots backed off a bit, but we ended up with two more line breaks Sunday than Saturday.
Respectfully submitted,
Fritz Bien and Anker Berg-Sonne
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CRRC Soar-In August 11 and 12 2012
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Posted - 08/15/2012 : 11:51:10 AM
