Two Channel Contest Director Dion Dunn is back with his final wrap-up:

Well, we finally made it to the end of the 2-channel contest series, and what a great ending it was.  Round 7 had a mix of everything today, and Mother Nature was once again kind to us and provided some good lift and signaling birds as a bonus.  10 pilots came out to enjoy the Fall weather

Let’s cut right to the chase this time – Gordy kicked our butts with the Gentle Lady.  But you know what the difference was besides the fact that he is tuning up for the big Texas contest next week?  Landing points, landing points, landing points.  For example, Tony and Gordy were only separated by 9 seconds of flying time yet Gordy won by 150 points!  7 out of 10 pilots scored landing points today, but it wasn’t consistent, and I was one of the 3 who didn’t score any.  I’ll admit, I haven’t been practicing and it shows!

More after the jump – and make sure to check out the end-of-season scores on the Club Contests page!

Round 1 started off hot with 7 out of 10 pilots hitting (or exceeding) the 5 minute task.  As we have pointed out before, having the most expensive ship isn’t always an advantage in a contest like this as Hank can attest to.  Hank managed a 6:42 in a 5 minute round because he couldn’t get that big beautiful AVA down to the ground!

Round 2 kicked everyone’s butt in more ways than one.  Let’s start with condolences – John Forney and Tony Utley tried to obtain the same air space in the landing sequence, and the CF leading edge of Tony’s AVA won the battle.  That poor old K-brid couldn’t stand a chance against the AVA….It sort of looked like a hot knife going through butter.  Tony saved it and landed with not much of a scratch, but the K-bird wasn’t so lucky.  John, let’s get her fixed up for next season.  Allen Burnham won the longest flight time of the round with a 4:02 with his Riser, and Dave Flanigan managed a 96 point landing with his Handy hand launch.

Round 3 was once again an active thermal round.  The times were a bit higher and the battle came down to Tony and Gordy flying head to head – a beautiful AVA against a 30+ year old Gentle Lady.  The Gentle Lady won….. John Hoskins also managed a very nice 5:28 with his Vista and also managed to secure a well-deserved 3rd place for the day.

I really think this last round of the contest series summed up what this contest is all about.  New state of the art planes, tried and true classics, ex-contest planes, hand launchers, floaters, hybrid/home-builts, you name it and it was there….but that’s the point – they were all out there flying and having fun together.  I hope everyone has had fun this season with the contest – I know I have and I hope I’m a better pilot for it.  Some thanks are in order as well:  thanks again to Gordy for coming up with the idea and getting us all out there, thanks to everyone who brought a high start out to the field and for letting other people abuse the crap out of them, thanks to Ed Wilson for donating prizes in the middle of the season, thanks to Dave Flanigan for making the balancing units for the top 5 points leaders, and thanks to Grody once again for the Easyglider prize to the points leader.  A special thanks goes out to Ben Wilson for posting scores and pics on the webpage every month, and a final thanks to Allen Burnham for taking over as CD for next year’s 2-Channel contest series!

The top 3 scores for today:
Gordy Stahl – Gentle Lady         1098
Tony Utley – AVA                      948
John Hoskins – Vista                 732

Top 5 Series placeholders:
Dion Dunn – Vista / Sagitta 900  (consistently showing up pays off)
Dave Flanigan – Handy / Sagitta 600
Allen Burnham – Riser
Steven Spratt – Bird of Time / Thermik
Ed Wilson – Hobie Hawk

Until next year,

Dion

Thanks to all who came out and braved Mother Nature for today’s 2 Channel contest.  9 pilots were rewarded with a pretty decent day after a few rain drops before the start.  The lift turned out to be pretty decent, and as usual, I got a good burn on my neck and face.

Hey Gordy, how’s that old saying go?  If you can’t buy a better plane, find a better thermal?  Translated into ‘become a better pilot’?  Well what happens when you take a darn good pilot already, and arm him with one of the best RES planes in the World?  You get today’s winner – Tony and his AVA took home the honors in fine fashion.  Congrats!

Read more after the jump or check out the scores on the Club Contests page!
But wait, the biggest isn’t always the best.  Coming in a close second was Gordy and the venerable Gentle Lady.  After a shaky start at the field, the Lady was hooked up and nailing thermals and crashing the landing tape like it was a new high performance 2-meter or something.  The nerve of some old women…..

Harold Jackson made the long trek up once again and put on a pretty good show with the Vista.  Thanks for making the drive Harold.  Speaking of Vista’s, we had another show up.  Sean (sp?) brought his out and got some hands on flight training with a high start and the winch.  All at the best field and best club in the Country.  How’s that for an introduction to the hobby?!

Allen tried to fulfill his LSF Level 1 requirements all in one day (and I think he did it).  Lee was treating the Monarch like a rocket ship on launches and brought in a heck of a flight at the end.  And once again, the purple people eater could be found floating around the sky.

The Renaud Brothers would be proud as there were 2 Sagitta 600’s and one 900 on the field today (Ed, Dave and myself).  And at one point or another, they all flew pretty darn well.  But the key to today was landing points.  In the first round, 5 out of 9 pilots hit the tape for points.  However, after that the magic repellent of the tape kicked in, only 4 more pilots hit the tape in the next 2 rounds combined.  When they did, they hit it strong.  Gordy had 3 landings in the points; 78, 99, and 70.  Tony had 2 in the points: 88 and 97.  Ed also had 2 in the points at 89 and 91.  Strong landing scores for not having any landing control, although I don’t think the Gentle Lady was designed for “crashing screen door” landings.

So, all in all it was a pretty good day and best of all, the planes went home in one piece.  To top it all off, Dave Flanigan was nice enough to make up some home made CG balancing rigs to be handed out to the season points leaders next month.  These are beautiful units, and Dave did a fine job putting them together.  Thanks much Dave!

The next contest date is Sunday, October 4th at Noon.  This will be the LAST 2-channel event of the season, so come on out and have some laid back contest fun for the last time this year.

The scores will be sent to Ben to post on the website, and here are the top three for today:

1)  Tony Utley                AVA
2)  Gordy Stahl              Gentle Lady
3)  Dave Flanigan          Sagitta 600

Dion

Contest Director Dion Dunn gives his report below:

Well after a pretty crappy week of weather, Mother Nature was kind to us today wasn’t she?  And if you were lucky enough to be at the field, it was a pretty good day too.  Lift was there, although so was a lot of mixed wind, draws, and downdrafts, so it was a tricky day at times.  A big thank you to everyone who came out.

Read on for more exciting details and check out the August 2 scores and series standings here!
Round 1 (5 minute round) got off to a good start with everyone putting in pretty good times.  We had 3 highstarts running at a time and 7 pilots went up and came back down in one piece.  John Forney looked like he was going to take us all to school again with the K-bird, but Allen had his Riser flying nicely again right out of the gate and took an early lead.  It must be all of that control-line flying, although I can’t figure out how that help’s Allen’s thermal flying….  The landing zone was tricky today, and the multiple currents and draws were making it tough too, but 3 out of 7 pilots managed to score some landing points.  Remember for all of you readers out there, we aren’t using any landing control.  And this month we didn’t have to see Ed Wilson trying to murder his Hobie Hawk.  Ed put up a good time with a borrowed Spirit.

A big thanks to Ed Wilson and the LSF organization for supplying 3 polo shirts to the top 3 pilots today.  That was a great touch, and totally unexpected.

Read on for more details after the jump, or check out the scores on our Club Contest page!

Ed Wilson flying the Hobie Hawk and Allen Burnham flying the Riser were up next, and although Ed used the crappy hi-start and only got about 25 ft off the launch, he managed to play around with a bunch of low level lift until his control horn decided to break and end his day. Luckily, the plane seemed to survive the spiral landing. Allen showed us all how to fly in the first round by posting a 5:07 (in a 5 minute round) and just out of the landing points. After fighting with trim issues during my first flight, I managed to capture some landing points (49) after a fairly short flight.

Round 2 was a 7 minute round with John and Dave both showing the way at a 7:29 and 7:25 but no landing points. I’m sitting there talking to Ed and we hear this loud screaming coming from the field – It was the Sagitta diving to the deck with Dave trying to get that thing DOWN to make his time. On those two flights, John and Dave could have stayed up all day. Since Ed was out of the competition, Allen and I fly the next set but neither of us fair too well. After a crappy launch, I overshot the landing area and tried to get fancy with a down-wind turn. Please remind me not to do that again as I managed to spiral it in and break the rudder. My day was done.

The final round was fairly uneventful, with John Forney managing 3 landing points, and Allen staying up for a 5:11. Only 2 landings in the points today, so we still need practice at those landings. But in that final round, John managed to pull out a second place by 1 second over Allen! Congrats to Dave today for taking home the imaginary wood. The final standings are as follows:

Dave Flanigan – 1st place with 836 points
John Forney – 2nd place with 728 points
Allen Burnham – 3rd place with 727 points
Dion Dunn – 4th place with 242 points (2 rounds)
Ed Wilson – 5th place with 107 points (1 round)

The next contest is Sunday, August 2nd.

Dion

Mother Nature really gave us a good one today.  The air was clear, the sun was hot, and the winds were stronger than the predicted 6 mph at times. However, there was also a good bit of lift making its way through the field.  Launches were pretty good and many pilots were popping right into lift off the line.  This also made for a rats nest of high start lines during the second group, so we decided to move them to try to compensate.  It sort of worked…..we still needed vigilant shaggers to catch the lines after release and pull them back in straight away.  Speaking of shaggers, we had a couple of people out there who weren’t even flying.  Thank you very much for you efforts.

Next contest is JULY 12th, 2009! Got a 2-channel (rudder/elevator) plane? Bring it out!

Go check out the final scores for the day or read on for more tantalizing details after the jump!

Some highlights of the day?  Picture this – Ed brings his beautiful Hobie Hawk back out for another go and proceeds to rip a wing and stab off as he crosses another highstart line just off the ground.  He says it’s fixable, so out of pity I give him another launch….then he settles in for a nice 4:59 flight on a 5 minute task.  I shouldn’t have had pity. The second flight he tries to rip the wingtip off while landing, and it gets taped back on for the third flight. All in all, not bad for a 5th place!  At the other end of the spectrum Tony brought his little Handy hand launch out and has some great flights with a mild toss.  I remember when Dave kicked all of our butts with his Handy, and knowing Tony is a good stick made me a bit worried.  But that little plane just couldn’t figure out how to go up the line on a high start.  Once again, Harold Jackson drove up with his Vista from TN to party with us.  Thanks Harold.  Gordy brought the only foamie to the field with his Easy Glider.  Based on his times, we should have used it to keep my water bottles cool instead.  Just kidding Gordy…..

Landings seemed a little better today with myself, John O., Lee, Gordy, Tony, Rick, Dave F., and Brian all having one or more landings within the tape.  That was no easy task today with wind, lift and no landing controls.  Speaking of landings, Brian tried to nail a 100 pointer with his Photon by diving it straight in from about 150 ft off the ground.  Unfortunately, he missed the tape and his wing needs a tad bit of work.

But today was mostly about flight time.  No big landing points to catapult anyone to the top.  Rick and his Vista mastered the skies with a total score of 792 with only 17 of those points from landings.  Steven and the Purple People Eater were really floating today with a total time of 750 points (seconds), but again, no landing.  I think we were just lucky it actually came down.  Somehow me and the Sagitta 900 managed to come in 3rd with a total score of 643, but I did have 64 landing points pulling me from what would have been a 4th place finish up into the 3rd spot.

Here is the top 5:
1) Rick  792
2) Steven  750
3) Dion  643
4) Dave F.  621
5) Ed  620

Full scores for the day and the ongoing series are up on the Club Contest page!

Again, a big thank you for all who participated in today’s contest.  Just a reminder as voted on during the scores readout (by all who were standing there), we will be moving the July contest to Sunday, July 12th instead of July 5th.  Yours truly and a number of others would be out of town for the Holiday, so our turnout might be better moving it a week out.  Besides, without me there who would write these exciting, Pulitzer prize quality reports?

Dion

Bruce Davidson launching under stormy skies, St. Louis

Our own Bruce Davidson just capped off a few weeks abroad in Europe, competing in the German F3K Open in Dresden – a huge, multi-national handlaunch soaring event. Bruce placed 35th out of a huge field of 94 pilots, and 2nd among all US pilots. Check out more conversation about the German F3K Open on RCGroups.

Bruce and his wife Christine then embarked on a week of sightseeing in Italy, making their way back home just in time for the MVSA’s Gateway Handlaunch Contest! Bruce battled with the ever-stronger St. Louis crew and ended up on top after two days of good flying. Read the MVSA contest report here!

Be sure to read Bruce’s German F3K Open report after the jump!

Another great contest is in the books. First off I want to thank all of the people that were working so hard to make this a must attend event. Christine and I had a big time and the bus tour to Dresden was one of the high points. That place is incredible and providing us with an interpreter was over the top. The contest started tough for me with a bit of bad luck on top of a coupe of bad decisions. By round three my chances were gone. The level of skill in this event is unmatched. My goals changed from getting in the flyoffs to supporting the team and putting the hurt on as many pilots as I could. I was taking a few more chances. As much as we bitch about bad conditions it is situations like this that make a great contest even better at sorting out the best on the field. Friday started with rain and we had a short break around noon for a pilots meeting then one flight group before the real storms came in. Team MMT had a big tent and I had about 8 pounds of snacks so we had some quality time while we waited it out. After three rounds they called it a day and we hit a local eatery for some great food and local beer. Saturday was the day of wind. I had the ballast box full all day and was quite happy with the way the Sirius handled the conditions. I only landed out once and that was mostly due to focusing on the plane and not my position down wind. When the ground came into view it was an oh crap moment! I felt like I could have pushed harder when I left the thermal an made it. I had moved up quite a bit in the standings by Saturday evening. Flying was over around 7 as we made our way to the on field dinner. It is hard to beat the Pole Cat pig roast but these guys did an outstanding job. They put a full champagne glass in everyones hand to kick things off with a toast. The buffet had all of the standard German fare and plenty of it. After dinner the live swing/brass band kept things hopping while the beer kept flowing. The band thought they were done for the night but the crowd was relentless and they could not refuse an encore. Sunday morning we finished the rest of round 9 and only had enough time to complete the 10th round before the flyoffs. I finished in 35th place with 92% of the top score. After my rough start, I was happy. For the finals I was tapped to call for Jonas Ekman. We started with 5×2 and he nailed all but the final transition with a small overflight and a stumble on the catch giving up about 4 seconds to much. Next round was all up, last down. The first flight was an easy get for the entire field. For the second flight we moved to the upwind corner of the field and got a good read before launch. It was forward and way right and as soon he hooked up the entire field joined us for another max. The third flight was dicy and nearly everyone landed in the order they would finish in the standings with just a couple of pilots getting the max. The last task was last flight counts with a 5 min max. On the first throw most went downwind and caught a fast mover with lots of energy. It didn’t take long for everyone to be way up and way out. As we discussed a strategy to get home another thermal popped at the end of the field so Jonas pushed to it for some more altitude on the way home. Big Congratulations to Christoph Mebus for not only winning the big dance but also winning the Junior class. YES HE IS A JUNIOR!

I learned a lot hanging out and flying with my new MMT (Sirius) team mates. That was some impressive flying Mattias and Jonas, congragulations. I have a new set of skills to develop.

Now to get everything packed up and ready for the flight to Rome.

Bruce Davidson

Check out Gordon Buckland’s Saturday and Sunday reports at RCGroups!

The grass was wet, and that was all of the moisture we saw until we were almost packed up.  The air was actually pretty favorable with some lift blowing through the field and nice launches being had by most.  I think I even spotted the sun a couple of times.

We flew in 2 groups of 3 even though we had 5 high starts laid out (see above).  The first group was John O., Lee, and Ed.  Lee brought out his nicely constructed OlyII picked up (or should I say stolen?) at Toledo and proceeded to grab a 15 second flight after a pop off.  Everyone at the field breathed a sigh of relief as we all thought the little master was beatable on this Sunday – stay tuned.  Ed decided to bring out his beautiful Hobie Hawk.  After some shaky trim flights and a determination that it had negative washout, he hooked it up anyway and managed to bring it down in one piece at a 1:28.  That sure is a good looking bird in the air.  John finished up with a clean, but shorter 1:17.  NO landing points for anyone.  OK, well, this could be a really short day.

The second group stepped up and took a crack at the air, all of us feeling confident that we could move into the lead.  Harold had a respectable flight with his Vista at 1:49, but missed the landing.  Steven had the purple people eater out (officially a Thermic 100), and we all kept our fingers crossed that the spar would hold up.  Well it did, and Steven managed a nice 2:08 but also missed the landing.  My turn with the Vista, and I managed to grab a 3:47.  My thumbs were feeling good on this day, but again my landing (or lack of) skills got in the way and I almost took John’s head off.  As a result of the landing, I stripped the elevator servo and almost lost the ship during the round 2 launch.  My day was finished.

I won’t go into all of the detail for rounds 2 and 3 because none of the times were much better than round one.  As a matter of fact, that 3:47 I nabbed in round one was the longest flight of the day (see, don’t you wish you would have been there?).  However, Lee came charging from the back and scored 60 points on his round 2 landing and 94 points in round 3 with flights of 1:46 and 1:47 respectively.  How much do landing points mean in a contest like this?  Even though I only had one good flight, I had more flight time than Lee but he managed to nab the overall win.

So, everyone took their planes home in one piece and a good time was had by all.  A big thanks to Harold who wins the furthest distance travelled award.  Tony also came out and snapped a few pics and showed us his thumbs still work by nicely guiding Lee’s Oly around the field after the contest was over.  Tony, we need to get you flying again.

The final results:

1)  Lee              382 points
2)  Steven         333 points
3)  John O.        330 points
4)  Ed              306 points
5)  Harold          291 points
6)  Dion            244 points

Practice your landings!

Dion

After 11 long years, Bruce Davidson finally nabbed “THE BIG ONE” in the handlaunch soaring world – the Torrey Pines Gulls’s International Handlaunch Glider Festival. Bruce beat out 60 of the best handlaunch glider pilots in the world to end up on top. It’s been a long time coming for one of the hobby’s greatest proponents and best pilots, and now he’s got his!

Bruce posted a great write-up on the contest over on the IHLGF 2009 thread @ RCGroups, or you can read it after the jump below. But first, don’t forget Bruce’s First-ever, First-Annual Handlaunch contest, dubbed “THE BRUCE” will be taking place August 28th-August 30th 2009 at his homestead right here in sunny Kentucky! Sign up now!

Bruce sez:

What an awesome weekend. Most of you guys know that I got new airplanes about a month before the contest. I skipped out on lots of work to get in plenty of flying time before the big event. I had to learn a new flying style with no rudder and a plane that likes to fly much faster than I am used to. I had about 16 hours flying time with the new toys before heading west.

I got to the field on Thursday afternoon and quickly got things together to put up a few flights. I believe this is my 11th year attending this event and every year I am amazed at the strength of the thermals in SoCal. A big part of the IHLGF is the social aspect and seeing old friends that I only get to see once or twice a year. The other part that makes this a must attend event is the efforts from the TPG crew trying to stay one step ahead of us and ensuring every aspect of the event is planned out and checked off. I don’t know how many of you guys were there but your efforts are greatly appreciated. I tried to hit every one of you with a thank you while I was there and if I missed any of you I am sorry, thanks again for your hard work to make sure we enjoyed our time on your field. A big Thank you to Craig Allen for all you do to make sure all the visiting pilots have a place to sit in the shade and a cooler full of drinks. He puts out a great spread with about 4 shade canopies and an electrical grid to tap into and charge our toys. After a few flights and lots of catching up a bunch of us headed to the local rib hot spot for some cow and beer. Thursday evening ended with a few of us trying to keep up with team Kiwi and a bottle of Jack. That leads me to a very foggy Friday morning but lots of fun with a full field of like minded individuals and great weather.

This year the flying field was moved much closer to the road with a row of trees that came into play all weekend. The wind was a bit stronger than years past and set us up for some very challenging conditions. Saturday morning started our day with the first of many gut check flights. Task H, “the ladder” is a rough way to start because you either get 1000 points or 771 points or less, ouch. This is a task that should be reconsidered as the penalty is extreme for just missing a few seconds, I survived it. Round two was task P, 1-2-3-4. I missed the cycle on the first launch and had to listen to all the other callers talking to their pilots getting a 4 while I scratched out a 1 in sink. As a left hander I tend to launch with a natural arch to the right while the rest of the field goes left and this time it hurt me. The lift was already moving fast and they left me behind. My next throw was short of 2 minutes still in the sink cycle and left me with some free time to make a good read for the next launch. I managed to pick off the 4 and then the 3 to end that round with a 848 that was to be my throw away round.
Round 3 was task M, 5×2, I don’t remember many details from this one but know that I did drop a few seconds to end up with a 924. The wind was starting to pick up. Round 4 was task C, next to last and last with a 4 min max. By this time the wind was cranking but the lift was strong so I was flying with 2 ounces of ballast. The strategy in this round was not to let anyone get away and that puts the pressure on your caller. This year I teamed up with Adam Weston and he was focused for the entire weekend and some rounds he was doing everything except touching the sticks for me. We have worked together in contests many times and have a similar flying style so he knew when I needed a push. The huge lift in Poway was always followed by the worst sink you have ever flown in so chasing something downwind was a big risk and quickly put you in the hero or zero position. First launch we managed to get a good read and put it right into lift for the first 4. Now the pressure was on because the next flight was gonna count. We had a read on lift to the left but I held my plane until someone flew into it to verify. It didn’t take long before someone verified our suspicions and I chucked right into it for an easy 4. Round 5 was task E, all up last down. This one is another gut check with three throws that you gotta eat. On this task I watch my streamer while Adam studies all the other indicators and with 15 seconds to go we agree on the direction. With the wind you were pretty much committed to stick with your choice and we made three good ones in a row for the grand. Task J for round 6 is best 3 with 3 min max limited to 6 throws. I don’t remember anything about this one but the score so the air must have been good. Last round of the day on Saturday concerned me quite a bit with task B. Last flight counts, 5 min max. I have missed the train on this task before and got crushed but a good read put me into it on the first chuck and I walked off the field 3 minutes early with 1000 points. I try very hard to just fly the task and not get caught up in score watching so when they passed around the scores at the pizza joint I was happy to see me in 3rd. place with a strong throwout round. So pizza, a couple of beers and some ice cream and we hit the sack early for the last day.

Sunday morning starts out like a normal SoCal day with lift kicking off at sunrise and light winds. Our first task was E, all up and I had a bit of concern when we first got to the field but by the time my round came around the lift was great and I managed to grab em all. Round 2 was B, last flight 5 min max, I got the grand but don’t remember any details. Task M, 5×2 for round 3 and again I know it went well but not much else. Must be the whisky. We ended normal flying with task J, 3×3 with a 6 throw limit. I popped the first one right off. On my second throw I tried to go after some lift downwind and the sink was naaaasty. I landed way way of the field in like 45 seconds. By the time I got back Adam was standing there like the statue of Liberty pointing our the lift and put me into it for 2 good flights to get a 881.

Now to the finals, Adam and I did such a great job for each other we were both in and had to look for another timer. I tagged Lex Mierop to guide me through it. His first question to me was what are my intentions, to win, hold my position or just be conservative and get through it. I said we came to win so give me all the information you can and I will take care of the balls. After that things get a bit blurry for me so maybe Lex can chime in here. I do remember him spotting some big saves for me. I must have dropped a few seconds on the first task, 1-2-3-4, but I came out with a 955. I do remember in the next task, all up, on the second flight it was all sink and we were all down in less than 2 minutes. On the third flight I was just hanging right over head and everyone on the left was sinking fast. I look upwind and Jun was on the other side of the trees working some light stuff. There was two ways to get to the other side of the trees, launch over them or fly over the pits up the window and pass through. I was already to low to go up and over so up pit row it was and as soon as I took a right to get under him I hit the sink and nearly cried. I pushed on to pick it up low and fortunately the lift came back through the window and I had to scrach for everything as it passed over the field. It seemed like forever but it finally broke loose and Jun and I got the time, whew. I believe Oleg was the only other that got the time as he headed down wind hard on launch. Round 3 started with some big sink for the 5×2 task and I thought it was over when I landed way downwind and out. Fortunately for me it was bad for everyone else and I managed a 838. Last round of the contest was 3×3 and I started with a short flight but long enough to be a keeper. On the second flight I tried to catch up with all the guys that took it downwind and got pounded on the way. It was looking very bad and I was about land way out when all of the sudden I hit the biggest lift I have ever flown in. It was crazy, I was full aileron in the opposite direction and still standing on a wing tip going up so fast it was funny. It finally calmed down a bit once I got on top of it but what a ride it was. I finished that round with a 983. After the flyoffs I was hoping I just held my position, the conditions were tough and I didn’t think I had enough to take it all. There were some really strong pilots in that flyoff and some impressive flying.

I guess if you wanna hear more you should plan to attend the Pole Cat Challenge this year. I have some more fuel for the clinic!

I had a great time and it will be quite a while before the smile is gone.

Bruce Davidson
Team, we don’t need no stinkin rudder, Sirius

First off, a big THANK YOU to all who attended today’s first points paying contest of the 2009 2-Channel “fly what you brung” contest.  We had 8 pilots attend today’s contest, Mother Nature was very good to us, and I think fun was had by all (although Steven may not have had too much fun – see below).

See more photos in the 2009.04.05 – Two Channel gallery!

It was a little iffy going into today’s first round.  The weather looked variable, and not many people responded to the email reminders.  But, the morning looked promising so off to the field I went. I was pleasantly surprised to see 8 people show up with planes and an absolutely beautiful day in the 70’s with around 8 mph breezes coming out of the South.  Rick started the day with a warm-up flight of his Vista while everything was getting setup.  Great, we’ll all see how the air is – 11+ minutes later we had to threaten Rick so we could get the contest started!  Yes, the air was good.

Read on for more – and make sure to check out the scores on our Club Contest page.

The first group launched closer to Noon on this day, so we were off to a better start.  Rick, John O. and Allen started the day off in fine fashion with the first round being a 5 minute task.  I was timing for Allen when he lamented that he had never done this before, but hopefully I made him feel better by telling him that this was only my 3rd contest myself.  Allen ended up looking like he had done this many times.  The first group struggled with the sun as it was in direct line with our hi-starts.  After Allen got the nervous twitches out of his thumbs, and John showed us the way with the Aspire, the first round was in the books (Rick forgot where the lift was when the points mattered….).   Unfortunately, my launch in the second group didn’t go so smoothly.  I completely lost the plane in the sun about half way up the line for about 15-20 seconds.  I did a couple of turns to try to get it back in view with no luck.  Even worse, no one around me could see it either.  Then all of a sudden Allen’s Wife (sorry, didn’t get your name – but thanks!) says, “Hey, is that your plane over there?”  At this point the plane was already off the line about 100 yards downwind behind us over my right shoulder.  Luckily, it was still at about 350 ft. and I still managed to get my best flight of the day.  To finish off the first round, John F. and Dave showed us all where the landing ribbons were and ended up with the two best flights of the round.

The second round (7 minute task) was fairly uneventful.  Rick managed to grab a 7:38 flight, but missed the tapes (come on Rick, there was 3 of them out there!).  Once again John F. showed us how to land but had a low time.  By this time, variable cloud cover had started to move in and it made the launches and flying much more enjoyable.  Remember rookie Allen back in the first round?  Yep, he comes in strong with a second place flight in this round.

The Third round (7 minute task) had its moments.  John O. once again came alive after a bad second round and manages a 5:29, but missed the landing.  Landings were tough today.  I think we were all over-estimating the landing pattern and falling short of the tapes.  The Vistas just hung there and dropped straight down when they were anywhere below 30 feet.  Steven gets up in the second group with his big Bird of Time, and just like a few weeks back, the ping got him.  Up the line she went for a nice launch.  Just as Steven pinged it, the right wing snapped and down she came.  At least this time the plane came down in a more gentle fashion and it appeared the fuselage was fixable, if not the whole plane with some work.  Allen once again put in a respectable time of 4:08, but missed the tapes.  The Vista contingent (Rick, Dion, John H.) struggled in the third round with low times and no landings.  John F threw up a big time of 7:20, and even with that he was racing the thing to get it down to the ground.  What was that you said John, “where are my spoilers?”…..  J   And finally, in the smallest plane in the field and surely the lightest, Dave and his Handy handlaunch puts up a 7:18 and 51 landing points!

All in all, it was another great day of flying.  We obviously all have work to do on our landings, but hopefully we all got a little better this time.

I’ll paste the scores below and also send them off to Ben for posting on the website.  You will notice we did not normalize the scores.  We are keeping it simple and just doing total time and landing points.  That way, it’s easier to see how you have improved throughout the year.  Also, I’ll send Ben some photos and send some with this email.  Please post any other photos taken as well.

Dave – 1st place
John F. – 2nd place
Rick  – 3rd Place

PILOT	Place	Points	Plane
Dave	1	863	Handy (HLG)
John F.	2	843	K-Bird
Rick	3	729	Vista
John O.	4	665	Aspire
Allen	5	562	Riser
John H.	6	451	Vista
Dion	7	422	Vista
Steven	8	193	Bird of Time