Wayne Geffon: The weather guessers got this one wrong.

We had a really nice day at the field. Sunny with a little bit of wind.

Early rounds had some interesting air. Just about everyone could find some lift but nobody seemed to be able to do much with it.

Couple of heartbreak flights where someone would make time but then land just outside of the boundaries to erase all that work.....

Adam is doing a great job running the event. Everything is going real smooth.

2 groups of 3 allowed us to easily get in 10 rounds today.

We were done before 3:00pm

So far these are the standings

1- Mark Gauding

2- Mike Johnson

3- Adam Quennoz

4- Wayne Geffon

5- Robert Samuels

6- Tony Vitielo

Back at it tomorrow morning.

Adam Quennoz: Day one is in the books,and what a day it was! Here I was just two days ago, on the verge of calling off the contest due to a terrible weather forecast. All of the out of town competitors had cancelled. What do we get? Sunshine!!

When I stepped out of my room I found a nice broken cloud sky and nary a breeze. I arrived at the field about 7:00am to set up and found Wayne Geffon already throwing.

After the pilots meeting the games began. The air was nearly identical to last years contest. The temps were warm, the wind finally picked up to 5-8mph and sink was covering the field. Every round it was a race to find a small bubble of lift thru a sea of sink. Those lucky enough to hook a thermal were not guaranteed an easy round. To drift to far to the right or left found the pilot floundering and suffocating in sink. I witnessed several "sucker reads". One of which I was a part of. All three of us launched and headed straight down wind. Mike Johnson just squeaked across the boundary 37 seconds after launch. Wayne Geffon and I got to make the walk of shame to retrieve our planes that landed some 100 yards off field.

Sunday is not looking as good. Surely the forecasters can't miss two days in a row. I guess we'll see. First round starts at 8:00am. Hope to knock out the remaining four rounds before the fore casted high winds take their toll.

The order of standing after day one:

1. Mark Gauding

2. Mike Johnson

3. Adam Quennoz

4. Wayne Geffon

5. Robert Samuels

6. 6.Tony Viteillo
   

Adam Q

Back to highlights.  On Saturday before flying we taped a HowHigh to Mark Gauding's plane to see if his "apparent" high launches were just a illusion.  They were not.  Over 200 ft a couple of times followed by an "easy toss" of 197.  But Adam also has a rocket launch.  197 ft. but ..... throwing Wayne G's Stobel. 

You had to have seen it to believe it but Mark G. went waaaaay downwind (looked to be the treeline at the levee) looking for lift.  He couldn't have been more than 150 ft high went he finally found it and skied out.  But then the long trip back.  Most of the time his plane was barely discernible.  By the time he got back he had been in the air 4:32 (for a 4 min. task) and landed only about 100 ft short of the field.  Darn!

Wayne G's launches have gotten waaaaay better.  And he flies like a real pilot.  Darn!   Mike had a flight today where he went past the tree line at the pond and looked like he was going to settle out beyond the trees.  But he worked the bubbles and the tree slope to make it a great flight.  Considering the wind today that was a might ballsy thing to do. 

1:  Launch height is important. 

2:  Finding lift is important. 

3:  Landing out (many times) really hurts my scores. 

I learned that if I launched high, found lift and landed inbounds I did ok.  Otherwise I didn't.

It was a great, fun weekend.  Oh, yes, another thing I learned is to never believe the weatherforecaster.

El Roberto

Thanks to the club members who helped out yesterday but didn’t fly..

Rich R, Mark and Brendan Miller and Wayne Wimbish who stayed the entire day to help with timing.

Finicky air all weekend but I thought everyone did really well in it.

14 rounds in two days was great.  Getting done early today was also nice.  I was able to get back into Bloomington by 1:30pm.

Adam did a great job with the entire contest and the awards for the top three are very cool!

My pics from today are here:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1397710&page=4#post18304353

Thanks everyone.

Had a blast!

Wayne G

(Lil Wayne)

What a great 2 days!  Very challenging conditions to fly in!  As has been said the forecast was just a bit off on the bad weather but was correct for today in that the winds really started to blow by 1000am. 

Yesterday started off with nice conditions with not too much wind, less than forecast, but it was a very challenging day to say the least.  The first few rounds were not too bad but as the day went on the air became very "Muncie like"  as I remember it, lots of sucker reads and turbulence and abundant sink!  If your group was in a nice lift cycle it was not to bad but if you were flying during the sink round things became very challenging, especially trying to get back to the field after riding a thermal downwind.  It felt like a big hand pushing your plane down the whole way back no matter where you went!  As Robert said I experienced this on the round of "Last two flights",  After launching I did not find much but I saw Mike behind us going up so I thought I might catch a ride on his thermal but did not seem to hit it but kept going back farther and ran into a strong thermal that I was able to sky out on.  The only problem was getting back to the field!  The plane was getting hard to see from the front but also did not seem to want to penetrate back up wind and then you throw a lot of sink in between which gives you a land out!  Luckily that was a throw out round for me and did not hurt me too bad!  You live and die by your decisions!

Everybody yesterday was flying very good considering the conditions.  One of our new DLGers Tony was flying great!  He finally got his Blaster done and was launching flying really well!  Wayne G. better look out!!  At the end of the day I was in first with Mike a very close second (less than a hundred points) Adam in third then Wayne G., Robert  and Tony. 

For today Adam sent out an email stating that we should start at 800am to beat the wind before it got too bad (good call).  We were able to bang out the last 4 rounds by 1015am with conditions becoming very challenging due to the wind increase.  I was able to hang on for the win with Mike still a close second and Adam third, then Wayne and Robert.  Tony did not join us today (we missed ya). 

P.S.  As Robert stated, we put his "How high" on the Stobel to really see how high I was throwing?  I knew it was high but was amazed at the actual number 200ft!  The Stobel airframe really allows me to impart all of my energy into the launch along with how clean it is, it just keeps going!  I knew that I did not launch too bad but at the point where I am pushing the Taboo over the Stobel just keeps accelerating!  I never thought I would launch that high especially after watching Craig Greening and Paul Anderson at the Bruce! 

Mark Gauding

Mike Johnson: Great weekend guys.  I'm exhausted.  Everyone was really on their A-game this weekend.  We were all battling it out for those great awards.  Wayne really got his launches solid and Adam was blowing my launches away.  Everyone already knew Mark's were destroying all of us.  Yesterday was strange in that it seemed like it should have been a booming day but it really was tough to find and stay in good lift. Today was a great call to start early as the wind really started picking up by the time we finished.  Robert was measuring steady 15-17 mph.  I started today knowing I was right behind Mark.  I did my best to get ahead but he did great and held on to first place.  Great job Mark.  

Thanks Adam for putting the contest together, we had some weathermen out there who failed royally but we made the most of it.  See you guys in a couple weeks.

Mike

Adam Quennoz: The hand launch contest went off with out any problems. I owe a big thanks to fellow members Wayne Wimbish for taking time to come time. It gave a few pilots pilots a break to make adjustments or just kick back for a round. Thanks Wayne! Wayne Geffon and Mike Johnson jumped in and helped where ever they were needed. Thanks fellas!

I made it up Friday afternoon about one o'clock. I found Robert already sweating and Mark Gauding assembling his Stobels. Soon we were playing AULD. Eventually Tony Viteillo, and Wayne Geffon arrived. Tony was getting his new Blaster 2 some stick time. I think we all took turns giving him advice and set up tips. Even some coaching on throwing techique. He's coming around nicely.

As the day progressed the wind picked up and the sink became dominant. If you were lucky to find a ride you better hang on tight because it was gone as fast as it came. One highlight of the Friday practice is when we all heard a loud crackle, pop, crunch....."Ah $h8t!!" Robert landed his Taboo in the top of the tree at the little bridge at the cross roads. Apparently he misjudged his distance and thought he had plenty of space to fly behind the tree. After walking around the tree a few times and realizing it wasn't going to get out by itself, I stepped up and began climbing. I worked my way to the top and stepped out on a limb and was able to pick the plane off the limb it was mounted in. After some fidgeting I was able to work the plane to an open spot and gave it a toss. It settled in to the grass nose first with no damage.

Sunday morning was clear and the breeze was already blowing. Tony didn't make the second day so it was just five competitor left to finish the contest. That meant there would be instances where one person would have to time two people. It was tough at times. One round I should have changed it from from the 15 second ladder to something else. There was no way Wayne G. could count down for two people. He did a great job considering.

We flew the last four rounds in no time. Once the dust settled...or should I say got blown away, Mark Gauding stood victorious as this years winner. The order pretty much stayed the same throughout the contest. The only changes were the gaps got smaller or bigger between places. I know we give Mark a hard time about his high launching Stobels but he clearly out flew everyone. Just because one can launch to the moon doesn't guarantee a good round. One must find and work lift. Mark did an outstanding job and earned the place he deserved. Well done Mark!

Adam Q

Full round-by-round scores can be found here.