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josh_glaab
50 Posts |
 Posted - 10/09/2012 : 9:05:03 PM
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2012 End of Season Contest
October in PA can bring an array of weather for a competition weekend. This year it seemed like the End of Season contest would have been better on Thursday and Friday than on Saturday and Sunday. In the end, the weather was good enough for 7 rounds on Saturday and 6 more on Sunday and there were a lot of smiles at the end of the weekend!
Friday brought beautiful weather and many gathered to practice or just sport fly. We were visited by some of the boy scouts who were camping during the weekend in the back area. Ed Anderson provided some discussion regarding R/C Soaring as well as some hands-on flight time on a Radian. Very nice.
The forecast for Saturday was for clouds early, then sunny but windy (15 to 25 mph) later. However, the wind did not show-up as early as predicted and we did get four rounds completed in some reasonable soaring conditions. The task was for 10-minute rounds with the C-Delta landing (normalized) landing. We started seeded MOM with Sportsflyers and Experts mixed together. The twist this weekend was for the Sportsflyers to be separated from the Experts for the last round. Proceeding in this manner provided the Sportsflyers with their final decisive flight groups, similar to what the Experts enjoy. It also eliminated the possibility of Sportsflyers being un-recoverably whacked (i.e.; >500 pt hit) by Experts late in the competition. Experts got one pop-off in the first round only while Sportslfyers could have one for the day.
While I was the CD for the contest, it was the nominal mode of operations for the ESL. Steve Lucke setup all the winches, power grid and, spots with some help. Luis and Joanne Bustamante setup and ran the scoring the tent. Sachen (Anthony Procino's nephew?) tirelessly drove the golf cart all weekend. Everyone else pitched-in and helped run the contest and time each other. There were tents and chairs setup, but usually there was nobody sitting down (flying, timing, helping). Most outstanding and the ESL way!
When the wind came up, the lead came out and off we went. Maxes were hard to come by and rounds were being won with 5 minute flights. In round 6 I attempted to shovel Mike L, which backfired severely and I got shoveled hard. I thought I was waaay down the list, but with all the carnage going on, I only dropped from 2nd to 3rd but was now way behind Mike. In the last round, once again I was reaching for my shovel climbing out over the field while the rest of the pack was struggling. An unfortunate decision to do a cross-field dash (into some extreme sink) put me down before Mike. I was expressing my disappointment to Josh Jr (my timer) when he reminded me I should be glad I still have my Spread Tow Supra. Two of the four planes in our group didn't return!
Neal Huffman (Carbon Supra light) went down way off-field to the East, in one of Mrs Nutcase's tree. He found the plane, but Mrs Nutcase said he could not climb the tree or retrieve his aircraft. He could have it back when it fell to the ground on its own. Ay Carumba! Cary Cochrell also went down off-field. His Ralston-equipped 4.0m Explorer was located rapidly and retrieved with only minor damage. Mike L won the day flying his V-tailed Explorer with a 400+ point margin and secured 2nd place for the season. Daryl Perkins was not on-hand for the event, but secured 1st place when Mike didn't sweep Long Island. In Sportsflyer, Alexander Hall shoveled his flight group handily flying his Supra Pro in the last round for a ~150 margin of victory. Josh Jr came in 2nd flying his Supra and did not fly in the last flight group.
About 40 boy scouts and parents came back out in the afternoon to observe the competition. We got them situated in a good location to observe the event and Ed Anderson provided another good discussion regarding our sport. They seemed interested with lots of questions.
After the contest was over Saturday we had our annual business meeting which took about an hour. Having the Sportsflyers fly against each other in the last round was well received. All the current ESL Board of Directors accepted to continue serving for another 2 years. We left just before dark.
The forecast for Sunday was for rain all day long. However, it was not raining at sunrise and we setup and got going just before 9am. The task was for 3 8-minute tasks to get "legal" then do 10-minute tasks after that. No round would start after 2pm. We managed to get 3 rounds completed enduring what I would call very light rain for most of rounds 2 and 3. We took a short break to let some heavier stuff move through on the radar near the end of round 3 and got going again. We ended the 6th and final round of the season around 2:15pm.
I managed to fly off of winch 1 in the last group all day long and finish the season on a strong note, moving into 3rd place for the season just ahead of Luis B on the last landing. Mike L came in 2nd Sunday and won overall for the weekend. Luis B came in 3rd for the day and flew his Supra Pro most of the time, except when the wind came up Saturday, then he switched to his sacrificial (?) Pike Perfect.
First place in Sportsflyer for the season was still up for grabs when Sunday's contest started. Anthony Procino had a 0.05 pt lead over Paul Sullivan for the top Spot in Sportsflyer. Paul had to pass on Saturday's competition to take care of his father and Alex Hall stepped-in to win Saturday and prevent Anthony from locking-up the season. Paul returned on Sunday to settle the season. It didn't go well for Paul who had an unfortunate 2nd pop-off in the 3rd round flying his safety-orange Supra Pro and couldn't get the max. Anthony flew his venerable Graphite-2 very well all day long. In the much anticipated last round, we managed to get all 6 Sportsflyers in the air in one group using the 4 ESL winches and two launches on the pop-off winch. Some very good lift got 5 of the 6 pilots to the max flight time and reach altitudes of at least 2,000 ft near the cloud base. Josh Jr won the last flight group with good down-wind landing technique , but Anthony won the day and the season in the last round. Josh Jr came in 2nd for the day and move into 3rd place for the season. Paul came in 3rd for the day and second for the season.
We managed to get all the scores calculated and awards handed out by 3pm. Just as we were finishing the load-up at the end of yet another outstanding season for the ESL, the rain started again. We drove through moderate to heavy rain all the way down the Eastern Shore, Waze-ing all the way. See you all in May for the 2013 ESL Season.
Josh Glaab
ESL President
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Edited by - josh_glaab on 10/09/2012 9:11:38 PM |
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bitzerj
4 Posts |
Posted - 10/10/2012 : 5:47:49 PM
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All,
We have been told for the past 20+ years not to land on her property. The message was and is always the same, if you land there you probably will not get your plane back and if you do it will be when she wants to give it back to you.
Not sure that calling her Mrs Nutcase is the best way to make friends. She is fully within her rights to allow or not allow folks on her property. We need to respect her rights, not call her names.
Sorry to hear about the lost plane. I would suggest talking to Lois Z. to see if someone local can help you out.
John |
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2012 ESL End of Season Contest
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