Just got back early this morning. I want to congratulate the Turkish AeroClub for raising the bar in contest organization. This was undoubtedly the finest Competition that I have ever attended. For those of you who do not have any knowledge of Turkey it is a modern European Country and a staunch ally of the USA. All Competitors were very friendly with camaraderie, good sportsmanship and large quantities of Alcohol made for a week long party. There will be more details later but I can give you some information now. Fist this is an invitational meet, this was the 3rd annual contest and the first for American attendance. This year they invited 100 contestants with 4 Americans Jim McCarthy, Skip Miller, Joe Wurts, and myself. The contest was Friday and Saturday with one of the Fly off rounds Sunday morning. We flew 6 preliminary rounds with one throw out.After 5 Joe was first with 4998.7 I was second with 4998.4 and Skip was also in the top 12 with a score of 4990 plus. The weather was very Northern California like, with cycling conditions and trigger temps reached by 11:00 am each day. The top 12 flyers gathered late on Saturday for the first fly-off which had to be reflown. All 12 pilots were within one minute of the max, this achieved by launching and flying to a hill face that was in the right direction of the diminishing breeze where they slowly sank for 15 minutes. Sunday morning the second round was flown in buoyant but not defined conditions. We launched downwind so it was sporting conditions. Since the US was lucky enough to put 3 into the fly-offs, and We did not take towers,the organizers graciously supplied towmen, who were eager but,as expected there were some communication issues. During the prelims We took care of the communication deal by kicking at 4 seconds,and hoping we had tension prior to the horn, but often waiting one or two seconds in to working time to launch. I didn't really get a launch in the last flyoff round, and as a result I got to watch Joe and Philip duke it out in a hang contest. Joe put up a gallant flight but had to negotiate a path to the circle that would not give him a safety penalty. Philip had a better spot and was able to get Joe by a few seconds.I think it was about 8:30 ish for flight times. After F3J there was a 3 round Speed contest. The highlights for me, was the F3B model Launched on 400 meters of speedline being towed on the back of an ATV. This achieved unbelievable altitude, probably a 12 second zoom. And, oh Yea the Salsa Dancing on Friday night at the field that even had a US pilot with 2 left feet dancing in front of the crowd. For just a second I felt like Gordy..... I will leave more for the others, but have never had a better time. Special thanks to the Turkish Aero Club and Mustafeh Koc for making this all happen. Best Regards Larry Jolly
