Chris Lee: We did it! Finally, on the fourth attempt (thermal duration postponed twice and hand-launch postponed once), we got in an April flying contest.

We needed to be hardcore early on as during the "warm-up" flights we were faced with 12mph winds and a significant wind chill. Expecting the worst, everyone put on every layer they had and any plane that was not "pre-ballasted" from the building bench got a little lead. Magically, the first round opened and the winds died off. Not only that, but we had some great lift for the first task, three 3-minute flights.

Rest of the day progressed up and down with cycles of wind and the lift actually got scarcer towards the end, which really made some of the tasks tricky. I got caught making a series of poor choices during the Last Flight Counts task, standing on the ground watching Robert sky out while the wind was blowing a gale. I figured after

the big blow, there would be lift, so I waited and then launched multiple times into heavy sink as Robert danced away with a five-minute max. My normalized score for the round was 243 (out of 1000).

Speaking of Robert, he was flying out of his mind today, Jim commented that he repeatedly called him "Chris" as in "nice flying, Chris... er, Robert" while timing for him. Robert continued a streak of excellent flights through the first four rounds and had a healthy lead while I languished in the "other" group, unable to challenge him directly. Possibly the adrenaline of constantly winning (or old age) finally caught up to him and the reason I make these contests seven rounds long became apparent, keep throwing until everyone's fingers are bloody and raw, then tack on two more rounds.

The F3K-designated drop round does make the contest more interesting, a little wildcard towards the end that could affect strategic decisions in the last task. However, as with last month, the dropped scores did not affect the final standings although the point-spread did shift a bit.

Cumulative scores after:

Round 1 (3x3min flights): Chris 1000, Robert 1000, Jim 899, Jeff 883

Round 2 (Last Flight): Robert 2000, Jeff 1883, Chris 1243, Jim 1210

Round 3 (Poker): Robert 2992, Jeff 2883, Chris 2243, Jim 1381

Round 4 (1,2,3,4min flights): Robert 3992, Jeff 3679, Chris 3243, Jim 1999

Round 5 (All Up): Robert 4397, Chris 4243, Jeff 4181, Jim 2360

Round 6 (Poker): Chris 5243, Robert 4980, Jeff 4974, Jim 3360

Round 7 (5x2min flights): Chris 6243, Jeff 5974, Robert 5732, Jim 4095

Calculating in the one dropped score:

Chris 6000

Jeff 5473

Robert 5327

Jim 3925

A challenging morning turned into a beautiful flying day, made even better by the fact that we flew a contest!

These things will only get more fun as we get greater participation numbers. Looking forward to some great showings this summer when the weather doesn't hold people back. Even today's breezy start turned into a wonderful day.

See you all at the next one, in two weeks,

Chris

And Jeff was also there before me.  It was a bit chilly.   No, I lie.  Initially it was cold.  I needed a heavy jacket, gloves and Chris Lee Signature Hat.  Mostly due to the chill and wind.  But it warmed up very quickly when the wind dropped.  So... we had a solid field, it got warm and calm and the lift was plentiful.

And I was flying waaaaay over my head.  I kept accidentally stumbling into the lift and making great times.  Until I stopped accidentally stumbling into lift.  If we had had two throw out rounds I would have been a contender.  But we didn't and I wasn't.

Chris and Jeff were the "Flying Big Dogs" of the day.... as usual.  Jim was making a mighty effort but he kept complaining about his back, his knee, the wind, the lack of lift, my lousy timing, my flatulence.... etc. 

So it ended up with Jim and I fighting it out for 4th place.  He beat me out for the honor.

Once again Chris insisted that we fly the dreaded Poker Task.  I don't really like it because if the flyer misses making a called flight he gets no credit for that throw.  When I flew it we were in a sink cycle.  My first call was 90 seconds.  I made that easy, then I called 105 seconds.  But I never could make that time.  I came close, within a couple of seconds, a bunch  of times.  But in Poker it's "Close...but no cigar....."

That would have been my second throw out...... but there is no second throw out.     Darn!

But the climax of the day came in the last round.  It was a 5 best flights up to 2 minute max.  On my last throw of this last round I gave my plane a mighty heave.   It left my hand level at 100 mph and rocketed straight into the ground.  The "only" damage was a badly shattered boom and loosened stab.   DARN, DARN, DARN!    and DANG!!!!!!  The postmortem showed that the solder joint of negative lead from the battery had separated.  I don't know if it was from the crash or caused the crash but I found no other reason for the crash.  Darn!

I've been flying for a while now and even when I lose, nothing, repeat, nothing is more fun than HL.  Ya should have been there!

El Roberto