Yes, Jeff McKee was there and guess what, he is still the same Jeff we always loved, glad to see him back.

Too tired for a long report and still have to prepare a few things for tomorrow.

Come watch if you can.

Glauco

The conditions were brutal.  High wind and little bits of lift ... occasionally.  These guys would launch to the moon (an understatement) and then run downwind ... really downwind ... work single turn puffs ... sometime get some real lift ... and then face the long run upwind to get back.  I saw magic being performed many times. 

And then there was the "fun" part of HL.  Midairs were a regular happening.  Didn't faze anyone.  Take a hit and keep on going.  Landing out of bounds was another regular happening.  It was not uncommon to see guys start running while still flying long before their plane was back.  They knew they weren't going to make it.  I ended up with 2 ounces of ballast in my plane even though the wind was not really, really high.  I tried 1 ounce but it was not enough.  I normally fly without ballast but the conditions this weekend demanded it. 

BTW I saw the report of the Vista contest held on Saturday.  They experienced low wind and nice lift.  I wonder what part of the country that contest was in. 

And then there were the spectacular flights made by the spectacular fliers.  Some ran waaaay up wind, some ran waaay downwind, some ran waaaay crosswind and when they found something they would sky out.  Most of the times it would be 1 or 2 guys who found lift and the rest would be on the ground in 1 minute.  That's what I call interesting. 

Glauco and Chris ran the contest very well.  Everything was organized and ran smoothly.  The lunches, provided by the Isabella Lago Catering Service was first class.  Lots of comments that the Fly'n Brian sound system was first rate.  And Bruce commandeered it after the contest to use at his contest.

Sure it was hectic, very fast paced, difficult flying conditions (an understatement).  I was tired, sore, hot ....  etc.  But I was also pushed far beyond my flying ability and from that learned what I would have been able to get in about 10 years of flying practice ... all in two days. 

It was nothing short of great.  I'm glad I was there.

El Roberto

Steve Meyer “steers” his plane into lift as Ben Roberto calls for him.

As Tom stated in his post on RC Groups the lift in the morning before we started wasn't bad but the wind started to pick up and made things very interesting.  Reminded me of the Nat's this past year for me.  If you didn't hook the thermal and ride way downwind hoping to make it back your flights around the field weren't more than about a minute or so just surfing.  Now if you could launch like Gavin, Bruce, Steve and John that made things a little easier with either surfing a little longer or ranging out farther to chase something downwind. 

My first round started with me breaking off the top of my throwing peg on my Taboo!  I was able to finish the round with a decent score but was not happy about that!  I went to my new plane for the rest of the day which is a new Taboo wing with one of Tom Siler's fuses and a set of Bowing tails.  I was using one of Robert's T-Blade launch pegs for the first time on this plane and I an not sure if I like it or not.  I was getting ok launches but felt I was leaving something on the table.  I didn't feel like I had control of the airplane on the reach back like a peg that is inset a bit from the tip.  I flew ok the rest of the day but nothing spectacular since I was in 11th place by the time we stopped.  A bunch of us had a nice dinner at one of our local Microbreweries called Trailhead to finish the evening off.

My day started off good for me with 2 1000 pt rounds back to back with another 1000 later on.  That made me feel a whole lot better and I felt like I was reading the air better than Sat..  My last three round of the day were nothing to write home about but I was able to bring myself from 11 place up to 6th place!  Granted I know we had some people drop out early but with the caliber of pilots we had I felt pretty good with my finish! 

All in all a great weekend!  I would like to thank all of the people who drove in from out of town to support our contest along with Glauco and Chris for keeping things moving smoothly!   I hope Scott and John are feeling better! 

Mark Gauding

As usual, Gavin's alarm clock went off at about 4am local time. So much for sleeping in. We had breakfast and hung out for a while and headed to the field. Of course when we got to the sod farm, there was nobody there. About a half hour before the pilot's meeting people started trickling in so we set up our airplanes and got ready for the day. I shouldn't be surprised that both of my airframes and my transmitter were still covered in a fine layer of Poway dust. I need to fly more.

Lift was easy to come by before the contest but as the dew burned off the grass (helped by a bit of wind, even early in the morning) we quickly got to air that was shifty, fickle, and unpredictable. We flew alot, everyone landed out, and the contest marched on. I had a horrendous start to the contest and just couldn't put anything together. I'm not sure what was wrong but it just wasn't happening for me. I wasn't too worked up though because Glauco (CD) had announced his intention to get 24 rounds in, so we'd have some drops... presumably about 4.

As the day went on, it was clear that the way to stay on top of the leader board was to never leave the field boundaries. The air was very hot and humid, and the thermals seemed violently strong but also very tight and they would break apart rapidly. You could be 30 feet away from someone who was going up like a rocket and just not see positive air sometimes. I think I was on both ends of that about 15 times for the weekend.

Steve Meyer was holding up the "Phil Barnes" award at the end of the day. He either won his flight group or landed WAAAAY out. There was no inbetween. He's getting alot better and is really dangerous because he loves to take chances.

We had dinner with many good friends on Saturday night. This is the part of the contest I like best. BSing with friends old and new, a few beers, and some grub. We went back to Chris's place and crashed hard for another long day of flying. We worked on airplanes for about an hour, with Bruce's ship getting a new vertical and my Blaster getting some slop taken out of the elevator pushrod. I figure with 60+ launches in that wind it's amazing that everything held together at all. As we were finishing up the airplanes on the kitchen table, Bruce's brother Chris says "If I made dessert would you guys eat it?" Next thing I know he's handing over strawberry shortcake and we had a bedtime snack. I don't remember laying down.

The end of Saturday showed Jeff in the lead with Gavin a close second. I knew my contest was over as far as winning, so my attention turned to trying to help my bud get his first win.

That opportunity presented itself on Sunday fairly early. You know its going to be bad when guys are putting slugs in before the contest. The wind direction shifted just about 30 degrees as well, taking the only sloping opportunity out of play, and throwing a nice rotor over the middle of the field from the hill and trees across the road. I was still flying my 10.5oz blaster with no ballast. There were times I was tempted to ballast up but flew the Jingo instead with a slug in it. In about the third round of the day I had been watching the cycle and I thought we would have some workable air early in the round. It was all up last down and Jeff was in my flight group... also rockin a blaster. My launches were getting better this weekend, and I put the full monte on the first flight of the round. Nobody got anything really workable, most of the group was down after about a minute, and I think the winner of the first flight got around 1:20, never turning... just surfing. I think I had 1:05 off a killer launch and decided I had to take some chances or I couldn't help Gavin out. On the next flight, I launched flatter and pushed in reflex all the way to the road, then turned downwind and cambered full. I climbed slightly as I went off into my own sky while everyone else surfed over the tents. I was getting way downwind but the airplane was getting happier as I cruised and I could tell something was pulling me back there. About the time I got to the treeline (probably 300 yards downwind) the green blaster rocked up and I saw the white splashes on the tips leap. I stood it on a tip and pulled full back and she climbed about 50' in the first three wraps. I remember Gavin saying "everybody's down except you and Jeff, and he's hurtin." Jeff landed his Blaster about 55 seconds in to the window, the timer said "two minutes left" and I heard Jeff ask his timer who was still up. "Where is he?" was the next question. His timer pointed back to where I was booming out, super deep but now getting rediculously high too. I was able to put a full two minutes on the whole flight group in that one, which really felt good. If I couldn't win myself, I wanted to at least help "team Ohio" with a little scoreboard shuffling.

As the last couple of rounds went by, things worked out that I was able to time for Gavin every round. We were all tired, sunburnt, and beaten. Steve and Chris were both making a drive through the pack, and Bruce who had the worst Saturday I've ever seen, was posting grannys like whacko jacko posted #1 hits in the 80s. Gavin started talking about covering Steve or covering Bruce and I pretty much chewed him out and told him that being aggressive is his best weapon, don't put it away now. Over the next three rounds he tortured his airframe and pushed it to the limits in the wind. Going into the last round he had a few hundred point lead and the task was five twos. The air had shut down alot and he posted five flights between 1:15 and 1:45. He had his first win.

The drive back was uneventful. He drove until we gassed up just east of St. Louis, then I took it home. We rolled into my driveway right at midnight local and unloaded the car. Whipped, exhausted, burnt, tired, stiff, sore, and beat.

A 24round HLG contest is like drinking, fun while your doing it, the day or two after is rough.

Don't get greedy in poker to make up for lost time. "1min, got it. 1:30, got it. 2:00, launch hello sink cycle"

Blasters and midairs are not a good combo

Know your tasks before you fly them...1,2,3,4 can be in any order doh!

Make sure on certain tasks to always fly in 1sec excess of the target time for the task. What do you mean I was 1 sec under on my 2:00 flight on the 15sec ladder task?

This is a lot of fun...when is the next contest?

I was very satisfied with how things went with my flying.  Short on practice I learned quite a lot and think I improved my launches, reading air and improved my strategy a hair.  I flew my pieced together plane on Saturday and felt it flew very well despite my standings stuck in the middle of the pack.  The last round I flew my lightspeed as I noticed the elevator starting to crease on the top center.  Later that night I discovered the homemade elevator pylon loosening up so reinforced both the elevator and pylon Saturday night.  Sunday morning was a disappointment when I launched my creation with my lightspeed program into the farm equipment with a reversed elevator.  Despite that I flew very strong with my ballasted lightspeed (1/4 oz for most of the day).  Robert insisted I needed a full ounce so I doubled down with a full 1/2 oz and loved every minute of it.  My launches improved and my range doubled.  That 7 1/2 oz AUW might have been a handicap all this time!  

Glauco needs a huge hand for everything he put into this weekend including scoring, CDing, and even providing lunch and drinks with a smile.  See you all,

Mike J

Glauco Lago: In name of MVSA I would like to thank all pilots who came to our contest.

I knew most of them but my CD/scorekeeper duties didn't allowed me to interact too much but I appreciate your effort to come to St. Louis.

Still impressed by the quality of flying, from Robert Samuels that not only flew all 24 rounds with gusto carrying all his 70 years of age with a smile but timed someone also at most rounds, to Gavin that deserved the win. You can win a round by luck or others mistakes but to win a 24 round contest you have to fly really well.

Jeff Pfeifer was at the top place for most of the contest which is really impressive for someone who doesn't even know the tasks well but a mid air on Sunday seemed to bother his flying a bit. And to close the top five, the one and only Bruce, always glad to see him at our contests and how well he flies his Sirius.

About the 24 rounds, interestingly enough, I don't remember anyone coming to me and asking to slow down or take a break during the contest. I did hear through other pilots some commenting about the pace.

Well, to start, we had only two groups. Yes, could have three but with two we had all the pilots flying against each other most of the time. Also if you think about time, we started flying on Saturday at 9:30 and finished by 6:00, which is 8.5 hours at the field. We flew 13 rounds which we can say most where 10 minutes so 130 minutes of flying and 130 minutes of timing. That leaves us with a bit more than 4 hours of not flying or timing. Yes, I know there is the walk and the prep times but most pilots elected to throw a bit more for Chris' videos after the contest was over

Anyway, at the next contest check if the CD is flying or not and if he has a grin on his face when you look exhausted

Thanks

Glauco

Steve Meyer: I'm really exhausted. Rolled in just after midnight. And then to top it off I had to be up early for a training class today, could have used 2 five hours...

These old bones were running out of steam half way through Sunday. I was getting frustrated as my arm was tired, it was hot, and the thermals were much more elusive on Sunday.

I had a bit of a problem determining if I should ballast or not. I put it in then took it out, in then out. It was definitely a trade off of high launch and speed to not climbing out. I was really impressed how the Vandal would hang. Many times I had at least a 45 second flight just hanging at 10 feet or less.

Memorable moments.

On Saturday we soared with a bald eagle! I kept thinking it was a Salonit, the whole sky was DLGs and I was avoiding traffic, so it was difficult taking in the whole picture.

Hooking a thermal just up wind of the field and watching others fall out as they tried to get into the ride. I think it was last and next to last. I took it all they out to the tree line for a solo 4 minute ride!

I survived the DLG marathon 2010.

Tom Bruce and stayed at Bruce's Bro's house (Awesome)

Thanks Glaco and Chris for running it.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words.

Thanks for kicking my #@$#@ in pingpong TOM

And a specilal thanks to my Beat up Stobel for hanging in there when all I wanted to do was rip it in half.

Now its back to throwing my chain and off to my secret lab to make a few new things for the Bruce.

Thanks Gavin

    

Final Scores

1. 1.Gavin Trussell 18053

   

   
   

2. 2.Steve Meyer 17757
   

3. 3.Chris Lee 17726
   

4. 4.Jeff Pfeifer 17439
   

5. 5.Bruce Davidson 17086
   

6. 6.Mark Gauding 15549
   

7. 7.Tom Siler 15215
   

8. 8.Ben Roberto15202
   

9. 9.Mike Johnson 14503
   

10. 10.John Diniz 13359*
    

11. 11.Robert Samuels 13103
    

12. 12.Adam Quennoz 12886
    

13. 13.Scott Zastoupil 9689*
    

14. 14.Jeff McKee 8219*
    

15. 15.Ryan Thompson 7708*
    

16. 16.Garth Kolterjahn 7549*
    

17. 17.Mark Miller 7041*
    

18. *Did not fly all rounds
    

Round-by-round scores are here.

Tasks flown:

View the original registration info page about the Gateway 2-Day Hand Launch contest.

Enjoying one of the rare breaks during the contest.

The Chicago team staging area.

JR’s John Diniz welcomes their newest team member, Bruce Davidson.

Ryan Thompson and Scott Zastoupil traveled the furthest for the contest, hailing from Wisconsin.

Join the discussion on the RCGroups thread about the contest.

More photos from the contest can be viewed in this gallery.

LAST MAN STANDING: Contest winner Gavin Trussell and his Stobel V2. 

Below is a collection of video clips of contestants launching their discus-launch gliders.  The videos are shot at 210fps and played back at 30fps for an effective seven-times-slower-than-real-time look at the launch phase.