2017 Adam Quennoz Memorial Gateway Soaring Open - Mississippi Valley Soaring Association

Mike Johnson – 2017 GSO Overall Winner!

GSO Saturday 6/3/17

Had a great day today. Light (to sometimes non-existent) breezes from SE. Lots of times made by the leaders. Lots of reasons why not by the stragglers. An exceptional time was had by all.

The top five at the end of the day (7 rounds) were:

Mike Johnson 7637.98 1000.00

Frank Burnoski 7614.66 996.95

Robin Meek 7545.64 987.91

Jerry Shape 7407.67 969.85

Robert Samuels 7106.16 930.37

The final results and the play by play are attached.Looking forward to another great day on Sunday. Should have some photos to post Sunday as well.

Wayne

Robert Samuels – Highest scoring MVSA member – Saturday

GSO Sunday 6/4/17

Hi Fliers,

Another GSO is in the books. Thanks to all who came out and flew and worked and visited and endured the heat and the rain and shagged and…. well you get the idea… fun was had by all! and you all were the guys who made it happen.

Thanks especially to Glauco for some absolutely stunning awards and also to Bob Williams for hauling all of our ‘stuff’ that was needed to make it work.

Today Mike Johnson got edged out by Frank Burnoski by 3pts for 1st place, but held on for the Overall award for the weekend. Congratulations Mike. Mike was flying a vintage Pike Perfect like it was brand new and flew it like it was on rails. Equally impressive was the quiet show that was put on by Bob Gill who took 3rd with an Ava and showed that high tech was not necessary for high caliber flying.

I’m sure the word will soon get out but I found out the hard way what happens when you take your eye off your plane for a second and then look back at someone else’s plane. It this case it was Robert’s Aspire that I was looking at while I wondered why it wouldn’t do what I was telling it to do. The first 6” of my fuse was buried so deep in the sod that a shovel will be needed to remove it. The only piece that wasn’t destroyed was the stab which didn’t have a scratch.

When it was all over, here is how the top five stacked up:

Burnoski, Frank 5,463.55 1,000.00

Johnson, Mike 5,460.44 999.43

Gill, Bob 5,444.00 996.42

Samuels, Robert 5,200.71 951.89

Poti, Norm 5,156.77 943.85

After everyone has had a chance to recuperate, we aught to start a conversation as to whether this type of an event is something that we think we can continue to pull off in the future…

Wayne

Bob Gill – Highest scoring MVSA member – Sunday

From Tony Estep:

I made it to the sod farm to watch the final round of the GSO. Even though I didn’t see much, it was obvious that Wayne had done a truly great job at putting together this event. He gets a big round of applause. So does the Sunday CD Glauco, who not only ran the contest but made an absolutely stunning set of trophies on his 3D printer. He showed me all the details that went into making the trophies — many, many hours of work that Glauco dedicated to this activity on behalf of the club. Thanks and kudos, Glauco.

The cruel CD called for a 15-minute round to cap off the contest, and when it was time for the final group to launch to decide the winners, the breeze shifted to provide a direct downwind launch. Bob Gill, launching first with an RES plane, was at a big disadvantage with no flaps and a less-robust wing. But he came off tow into a nice thermal and soon had the plane nearly out of sight.

The rest weren’t so lucky; everyone else got better launches, but worse air, and soon they were all scratching over Highway 79, trying to hang on for a long ride. Mike Johnson, the leader at that point, had the worst of it, and it looked several times as if he was done.

Mike hung on for a long time, but he finally had to set up over the corn for what looked like a landing pattern, about three minutes early At that point it looked like Frank Burnoski was in the driver’s seat. But lo and behold, Mike caught a good bump, climbed back to a safe altitude, and began to set up for a comfortable landing.

This meant that it was going to come down to the landing, because Frank trailed only by a couple of points. Frank nailed his time and a 93; Mike’s plane stuck next to the tape, bounced, and stopped at the 89. Those 4 landing points, plus a couple of seconds difference, gave the victory to Frank. Exciting right to the last!

Mike wasn’t to be denied, however, for the overall win, because his Saturday margin had been more than 20 points. So each of them got a terrific one-day First Place trophy, and Mike got the masterpiece wood-grain Overall Champ trophy.

I didn’t know everyone, but I did see Jerry Shape and Tom Scully for the first time in years. In the final round, Tom flew the legendary Supra 51 built by Glauco several years ago. What a magnificent building job!

Wayne suffered a very unfortunate accident with his Aspire, which leaves him plane-less for the moment. I wish I still had something in inventory to serve as a replacement, but I’m down to nothing but a 2004-vintage RES. Anyway, I hope he finds a replacement soon.

Again, cheers for all responsible for putting on the GSO. It’s one of the last significant contests here in the Midwest and a credit to MVSA.

Tony