The good stuff first. In order below find, 1st through 10th, with the total points after 10 open rounds, (over two days), and 3 flyoff rounds, (Sunday afternoon). If I butcher the spelling of your name, my apologies. I am taking this off the final printout. Look for the complete list at www.Torreypinesgulls.org in a few days.
Open Class 1st Phil Barnes 11,989.45 2nd Paul Anderson 11,868.11-(TPG Member) 3rd Joe Wurts 11,700.39 4th Michael Smith 11,672.72-(TPG Member) 5th Bruce Davidson 11,641.67 6th Mark Drela 11,594.20 7th Adam Weston 11,593.29 8th Tim Johnson 11,529.05 9th John Erikson 11,510.46 10th Thomas Kiesling 11,345.70 Eagle Class 1st Martyn Cowley 7,803.25 2nd Bryan Jonathan 7,800.10 3rd Dave Leedom 7,532.95 Junior Class 1st Allen McGowan 7,055.58 2nd Chris Adamczyk 6,928.63 3rd Nick Tasto 5,883.48 The Day: Let me start by saying the conditions today were much more challenging than on Friday or Saturday. The Marine influence was very heavy overnight and throughout the early morning hours with light drizzle in some areas. Early rounds found very light lift in heavy wet air. It never completely burned off during the day. Conditions improved by about 10:30 as the "June Gloom" thinned enough to allow radiant heating to provide a more predictable cycle on the field. It didn't last long. Conditions became downright brutal by late mid-day into early afternoon. The wind picked up again and reliable lift disappeared. The conditions began to separate the men from the boys. (I had to retire briefly behind the impound tent don my knickers...) We were running 10 to 15 contestants each heat. If somebody launched and circled more than once, he immediately had 14 new close friends. Mid-airs became more common as the lift areas were small and moving fast downwind. Insanely high launches and screaming downwind runs to disappearing thermals were common. Many, many "Walks of Shame" were seen as contestants that squeaked back to the line by inches on Saturday, fell prey to making "just one more turn" in bottomless air down wind... Very entertaining to watch, but a real pucker factor if it was you. In the end there were ten survivors. 80 something battered contestants got to watch the top ten flyers in the closing three fly-off rounds. By this time in the afternoon conditions truly sucked. The heat of the day was gone and the wind was blowing. The Mylar indicator tapes around the field pretty much all pointed downwind with nary a bobble. People in the pits started putting on jackets. It was just ugly... From my notes, this is what was flown in the fly-off. Round 11 was identified as Five longest flights, two minute max time per flight, with a twenty second penalty awarded for each throw after five throws, in a 10 minute window. Round 12 was Three longest flights, three minute max time per flight, with a 30 second penalty for each throw after three throws, in a ten minute window. Round 13 was a One minute, Two minute, Three minute, and a Four minute flight, (in any order), in a ten minute window. Things got a little tense, things got a little exciting. Since the air was pretty bad, and there was no working time in Rounds 11 & 13, everybody got to give it their best guess and launch at once. Since these guys are no slouches, the launches were just awesome. Ten strong pilots with high performance DLG's, launching with maximum force, in the wind, makes an very impressive sound. Call it a POP!-Thruuuuummm-Swisssssh times ten. Since all of these guys are more or less reading the same air, success or failure of their decisions became quickly evident. Do you go with the group to avoid getting buried, or do you see something that nobody else sees ? If you went with the group late, you sometimes missed the bottom of the bubble and fell out. If You went early and fell out, then everybody else got to learn from your mistake and look elsewhere with their remaining altitude. If you struck out on your own, or fell out of sequence with the group, you could be a hero or a zero. Your fate was in your own hands... You could hear the gears upstairs clicking from across the field. In round 12 there was one minute of "working time" allowing you to watch the conditions and the other pilots. If you launched early then you were a target or a goat, depending on how accurate your assessment of the air was. If you launched late then you risked pinching off or running out of flight time. All of the top ten and their timers had their eyes open and their heads up along with the whole gallery. I've never heard a contest as quiet a this was during the flyoff rounds, as casual gallery conversations dropped off, with everybody watching the action. In the end, the guys that made the least mistakes, the best decisions, and were most consistent, finished well. Congratulations to Phil Barnes, the IHLGF winner for 2005. He fought off 92 other registered pilots to finish in first place after two days, for what turned out to be very challenging conditions in Socal. On behalf of the Torrey Pines Gulls, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the contestants who participated in this years event. We hope your had a good time. Without your continued support and attendance, we would not be able to continue the tradition of the IHLGF. We are looking forward to seeing all of you again next year. Thank You Garth Warner Torrey Pines Gulls RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
