Adam Quennoz: Round 2 is about to begin. The air is, as usual difficult to read. We all made our times but landings suffered. The tape is quite a ways out from the deadline which makes it hard to judge the distance.

At least its not too hot!

Adam Q

Chris Lee: Here's our very own Wayne Geffon being interviewed by Higher Plane Productions.

For some reason, he had trouble concentrating on his next flight which resulted in an off-field landing. He blames his timer but I think it's fair to say he was distracted.

Chris

Glauco Lago: Come on guys, almost the end, where is that final push, who is going for that 1100 round?

Muncie air, capricious all the time, gigantic sink holes hidden between weak thermals. If you don’t have a zero in Muncie it only means you didn’t fly there much, it has caught us at least once and for some of us many times.

Glauco

Adam Quennoz: The wheels are falling off of the MVSA cart....at least my cart anyway. I just blew my round 9. 

Brian Molloy: Great showing MVSA guys against some incredibilly tough competion!!!!!   Making your time and landing every round will only get you somewhat close to the top  . . . winning score is 1.5% off perfect after 10 rounds and WITH a new design . . . Wow, very tough.

Brian

Cody Remington and his Jaro Mueller Egida.  Cody won both Unlimited and F3J at the 2011 Nats.

Robert Samuels: Hi Flyers:  I'm too tired to really give a report.  I finished 66th.  Really low.  But I had a great time and I'm being honest when I say every minute was fun.

To give you an idea of the level of flying consider that in the 1st round of TD I got my time within a few seconds but missed my landing.  That put me in 63th spot.  That means that the difference between all the spots above me were only landing score differences.  As I recall, for most of the 10 rounds the top 20 or 30 guys only had landing point differences.   And only a few landing point differences.  This was not "Romper Room" ....... this was graduate school .... Dude!!!!  *

El Roberto

*quoted from Wayne G.

Robert Samuels: Hi Flyers:  Regarding the new MAXA from Barry Kennedy ... it was a really magnificent ship.  Huge, superb finish ... looks beautiful and seemed to fly the same.  However it is now "dust".  Sad end for a $2,600 airframe.  (not a typo)    I suggest we all check our batteries.

In case you didn't see the results of the last round I got a 10:05 and a 90 point landing.  The question is this ... if I could do it sometimes why couldn't I do it always?   I wonder what the answer is. 

El Roberto

Wayne Geffon: I agree with what Robert says..  You cant miss by much at an event like this with time or landing.  Big slides were happening to lots of people.  I landed out on the first day and it slid me from the low 50’s to 77th.

That being said, I flew pretty consistently on day 2 and was able to make ground up each round.

I love the fact that there is movement in the standings each round.  It can be anyones game (if your near the top) up to the last flight. Very cool!

I had a lot of fun.  learned a lot and also learned that I LOVE my new Aspire. I spent all morning today flying it because I cant get enough of it right now.

Wayne G

Mike Johnson: Well we were blessed with fantastic weather for NATS unlimited.  Camping out in 60 degree nights was a relief from St. Louis 100+ heat index days!  As many of you who followed Adam's and Chris's live updates, it was a battle to stay at the top of the rankings.  Not only was the competition tough, we had cross wind or tail wind launches (and landings) both days.  The icing on the cake was a 15 or so foot safety line from the landing point so you really had to struggle to know when to dork your plane in.  I was using my planes shadow on the ground as a relative reference to the 100 which seemed to be working pretty well.  I was doing great with the 10 minute task making my time usually with a short cruise over to a big wide thermal , sometimes launching straight into lift and skying out.  Glauco describes the Muncie air as capricious, and I thought it was an exaggeration until my third to last flight.  This was when the air changed.  I flew out over the field after launch feeling a few bumps I searched around for that thermal I knew was there.  Unable to gain ground I was lead to a plane circling and going up over another field not too far away.  I headed over there, searched all over the place for that bump but missed the ride - it was gone as the plane above me rode it out to make his time while I made a few more searches but landed in the 5 minute range.  The same thing happened the next round which dropped me from 7th to 30th.  My final round was great so I left the NATS feeling good with my 29th out of 115 pilots.  

Chris was doing exceptional as expected until an unfortunate flight was was low over the field trying to find a low thermal.  He made a turn that put him close to the launch area at 20 feet and they penalized his flight.  On a high note, everyone had their moments of dramatic saves.  It was a lot of fun.  I might try doing more events next year.  

I watched Chris fly F3J for a few rounds the next morning before heading home.

Mike

Day one started off great. The Xplorer 3.5 was flying fantastic. Working the small bubbles until they blossomed in to full blown, hat sucking thermals. Last year I was plagued with pop offs. Three to be exact. Two of which resulted in zeros. This year I had one that I believed was initiated by a thermal passing thru right at the moment of launch. Normally my sailplanes don't go behind me after release but this time is did and then whipped off to the left. Before I could get it straightened out it let go. Since there was a thermal close by I made a quick turn back over the landing area. With some guidance from my trusty timer, Chris Lee, I quickly centered on the lift and flew away making my task time. At the end of the first day I was sitting in 16th. A slight fall from 10th triggered by a 58 landing.

Day 2 wasn't so sweet. First round the air seemed light and the breeze was a downwind cross. So I pulled out the 4 meter Xplorer thinking this was the perfect time for it....NOT!! I got a pretty good lauch considering the conditions. Gavin Trussell was my timer. He pointed out some sailplanes working lift out to the right of center. I headed right over and began searching for a ride. I circled fore, aft, left and right. A bump here, and a bump there but I could never get centered on the lift. After a minute or two of searching I had to come home. On the way back I found a good bump and began circling. The big, light 4 meter ship wouldn't retain it's energy in the turns and eventually fell out. Now I'm in trouble! I made a dash back to the landing tape only to find myself settling just inside the field boundry. Bummer, no landing points!! I should have stuck with my Xplorer 3.5. The second bad round was a bad read on my part. I'm still sorting that one out in my head.

I think the highlight of the event was watching Mike fly. His placing didn't really reflect how well he flew. He was landing like a machine. Unfortunately he got "Muncied" too. Chris flew great as usual. I got to time for him quite a few of the rounds which is always a good opportunity for learning. Unfortunately a low pass over the tent by the landing area resulted in a severe penalty. Robert and the two Waynes were hammering away.

We got to witness the skills of many top flyers. One instance was when Chris and I watched Cody Remington come off of launch, turn and fly straight as a string far, far to the west and dead center a thermal. Within minutes he was specked out. Unbelievable!!

All in all it was a great contest. I'm pleased with my performance. Only problem is we have to wait eleven and a half months until the next Soaring Nats rolls around. Until then it's back to practicing and preparing for the next OVSS contest in Chicago.

Adam Q

Chris’ Round 6 flight that got him as high as sixth place in the standings. 
Unfortunately, there was still a Round 7 to come!

Final Standings:

Scores from Rounds 1-4 (since they are truncated above)