I liked what CSS was doing with winch assignments at this contest, it was placing the top seeded pilot on winch 1, the second on 2 and so on... the idea being that the guy in first place has to launch first in the sequence with no models to poach on.
There was some tough competition today, and the last two flight groups were fairly close. I had worked my way up the ladder into first place by the last round, Gordy was just 4 points behind me. Marc Gellart, Rudy Siegel and Ed Wilson filled the rest of the flight group, all of us were flying strong. Facing a 15 minute task time in late, cool, overcast windy conditions, anyone could win this contest. Jon Stone asked if he could come out and watch Tom Kallevang (TK, the current LSF president) and I fly this round, naturally we agreed. I was very fortunate to have TK as a timer in this round, we work very well together but usually I am flying in the same flight group at this point.
The previous flight group had gone down wind off the launch behind the winch line and had done fairly well. But the wind had shifted and was headed straight out towards the turnarounds. TK says, "where you going now?" smiling at me. I replied, "I know, I was thinking about that run behind us but the air is in front of us now." "Yep." he then says I am going to give you an over the shoulder launch with a lot of tension, "Great". "15 minute clock?", "Check." I mention to TK I wish I dropped a pipe in my ICON as the wind starts to pick up.
I am on winch #1, and have to launch first. The winch master bellows, "Launch 1" and I step on the pedal. TK tensions it hard and rotates my ICON in the air, it doesn't bite at all. I drag it downwind through the molasses with all the winch has, and about 2/3 up the line the wing finally bites, I rapidly work up the tension, clean the wing to accelerate and hit a quick ping. Marty saw me struggle to get the most of that from the pits and I heard him cheer for me. I realize again this is a 15 minute task and the group is about to take difficult, short launches. I head straight downwind which is in front of us, gaining altitude the entire time. Gordy launches #2. Gordy heads back behind the winches... I mention to TK to track him, I'm OK going forward. The rest of the group launches and goes forward into the lift, and we fly as a pack (or so I thought). TK reports that Gordy is struggling on the path he chose and will be landing soon, and starts monitoring the group in front and makes sure I am in the best air I can be in.
It's all about smooth at this point, and it seems no one is giving an inch to anyone in the pack. At about 11 minutes in, Ed comes flying over the pack at cloud base and I said something like "Oh, shucks!" I didn't see Ed get away... at this point I think I have Rudy and Marc covered but we are not going to max the task. TK keeps reminding me not to compromise the landing, work field position, we have worked too hard to drop those points. Marc, goes down first and gets a landing, and then me with a decent landing, and then Rudy with a landing. I don't know how much time Rudy dropped, I'm thinking less than me and I didn't cover his launch differential either. I dropped only :58 seconds. Ed went on to max the task and win the group. The adrenaline rush I had after that flight continued for about 5 minutes as the pilots within the group rapidly discussed their tactics and decisions and replayed the flight with smiles on their faces.
So it was anyones guess what the results were going to be for the day until announced by C.D. Steve Siebenaler. Again, what a fun contest.
Rudy Siegel won the contest in the final round with some very smooth flying and some great decisions over the most important 15 minutes of the contest on Saturday. Congratulations!
At 10:00 PM 5/21/2005, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Even more amazing, I not only beat Gordy but I won today!Rudy was deadly today!
I hung out at the top or top three by a couple of points today for all the rounds, but the final round was a 15 min and the air went pretty stale. I was on winch #1 and decided to go for my own air instead of covering the pack...
I came off the line and immediatley turned and burned down wind where I was sure there would be fabulous air which would end up crushing the rest of the guys, but boy was I surprised to find myself immediately at about 100' and scratching...scratching for over 12mins.
I worked a fart from TJ (current LSF Pres, or at least I think it was from his vicinity) across the field while everyone one else sucked on each other's air....I got so far down and away that my Pike was barely visible and not much higher than the treetops...
Needless to say it was time to try to limp back to the landing spot, and I did, nearly taking off the heads of most of the pilots and landing thru the backside of the landing area for about 80points, well that is if it counted :-)
Rudy? He just plain out flew us. Congrats, and good luck tomorrow, I'll be on my way to Denver for the F3J in the Rockies thing this coming weekend.
A good time had by all, and wood to boot!
Big atta boy to Ed Wilson who has been in a dry spell for about 15 years wood wize in Unlimited...he beat me too :-)
And congrats to one of our newbies....who managed an average of 2:50mins each round of 10, but when faced with a 15, got his Spirit Elite together and his thumb working for 15mins and a 44 landing, to finish off his flight time LSF tasks for LSF2!
Gordy
Downers Grove, IL
Member of the Chicago SOAR club, and Team JR
AMA 592537 LSF 7560 Level IV R/C Soaring blog at www.jimbacus.net
