Well, I guess I have had enough time to decompress after the Masters. I gotta say, I think I like Muncie. Or maybe it's just that this year, Muncie likes me. Either way, I am not complaining at all.
What a great event. Honestly though
after every flight on Friday and Saturday, I felt like there was
bite taken out of me. A piece here, a hunk there. Man if
there were many more rounds in that kind of weather I am pretty sure
there wouldn't have been anything left at all. The only strategy
I identified in that weather was one of DON'T GO DOWN WIND. The
caveat to that is "unless you have big enough lift to be able to
penetrate hard upwind and still make the spot and task time".
While timing for Daryl, Rich Burnoski was in the first 4 rounds with
him and imediately after launch, I thought we were toast. Rich
had assumed a downwind position after a killer launch and with the
Espada, I was quite sure that he would be able to penetrate efficiently
enough to not get hurt too bad. Well after about 6-7 minutes of
surfing and bump riding, we spotted Rich returning from downwind.
By the time he got back to our position, he was about half our
altitude. Reason? My only thought other than what might be
the obvious (bad air) is that if you have to penetrate upwind, you will
be sinking much faster than the guy would can hang out at closer to a
minimum sink airpseed. There were other examples of this, but
this one I thought best illustrates the point.
The name of the game in prelims was stay
alive. I tried to fly a different game plan in one round against
Tom Kiesling and he schooled me hard. I just pushed upwind in
hopes of finding the ellusive upwind thermal so I could work it longer
while it drifted down wind. Essentially, I got tired of launching
and just hanging out, but man, that plan bombed! Tom handed me a
660 something in that round.
Sunday was a completely different story, and
let me say right now that I was very fortunate to get not one but two
timely low level thermals this day. The first was while I
was trying hard to earn only 500 flight points in round 10. I was
done about 5 minutes into the flight and others in my group, Arend Borst
being one of them was up and out and downwind looking to max.
So, there I was floating over the concrete pad just east of the
landings, when Daryl spotted a little lift. I turned in it, twice
I think, but I didn't like it. All I could think about was landing
off field and getting that big fat goose egg. So I gave up and
slid over to line up on my spot and then ran smack into this little but
strong thermal. I had enough airspeed to crank the Sharon up on a
wingtip and stay in the core until I was high enough to let the glider
fly a bit more relaxed flatter bigger circles. Got the 12.
The second stroke of luck came during round 5
of the flyoffs. Even though I was tapping lightly on launch, I
got my second and last line break for the contest. Had to
relaunch, and got off at the same time as the last guy in the
group. I have to think that for this round that was an
advantage. Aaron Valdes was my caller and was giving me info like
a computerized weather ticker, but for this round all he said was "I got
nothing". That is until he spotted Ben Clerx and young Cody
Remington working the only tiny bit of lift within range, and got me
there. This was probably the most rewarding flight that I have
had in my 30 year RC soaring career. Thanks Aaron, great
calling.
I really enjoyed the event. It was run
with Nats like efficiency. Mark did his usual fine job of keeping
everything flowing along and trying to squeeze flights in between the
approaching storms. The crew from Marna and the transmitter
impound folks to Robin Meeks and his wife, to Jodi, Caroline,
and the others doing turnarounds did such a great job. I
really appreciate the fact that you all took a weekend and dedicated it
to helping run this fantastic contest. I like the format a lot,
and I am looking forward to the next one. A big thanks to all of
the sponsors...Radio Carbon Art...Castle Creations....Barry Kennedy,
Kennedy Composites....the LSF...Quiet Flyer....and Horizon Hobby -
JR. You all came through in a big way.
As always I enjoyed the people. I always
seem to have a great time out there flying and hanging out. I am
starting to get familiar with Muncie....aaaahhhhhh! Just
kidding.
Take care all
Mike "Muncie 2006" Smith
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