The May TD Contest

The May TD Contest - At Last!

Tony Estep: That was FUN! After so much bad weather and disappointment, the pent-up demand was strong, and thirteen eager MVSA pilots gathered on top of a squishy sponge at the end of a slick-mud road to fly the long-delayed May TD contest, RES and Unlimited.

When I woke up, it looked hopeless and I didn't even pack the car. But around 7:30, Jeff emailed the group that the contest was ON, by decree of His Glauconess. So off I went, without much actual hope.

We set up on the west field, right near the road junction, launching to the west. The landing approach involved trees, cars, the winch, and the spectators, and I messed up my pattern just about every time as I got confused by all the obstacles. But never mind -- we were flying!

Jeff made the first TD launch of May (on May 31) at about 9:30. The slow start, resulting from the bad field conditions, meant that we could fly only 3 rounds, but what the heck. Up we went, and the first guys quickly found out that the air was challenging.

The first group tried to fly upwind (toward 79) with hope of surfing, but found nothing. Brendan, last to launch, naturally headed straight downwind, hooked a beauty, and buried his clubmates with an 8 minute max, a result that left Jeff grumbling all day.

The seldom-seen Steve Hall was a very welcome addition to today's lineup, and he parked his Sailaire in lift just to the right of the launch point to win the second group. The third group was more evenly matched, as I narrowly outhung Ken and Harold.

When it was time for Unlimited, things seemed to be changing, and the whole first group made their times, and then the second did as well. However, this was the only time all day that happened.

I livened up the proceedings when the elevator linkage on my Supra failed on launch and I piled it in from 400 feet. Despite the ugly-looking descent, the plane speared into soft mud and seems to be undamaged! I'll follow up when I dig into it.

The air changed again, and the next round saw few max flights: only Jeff and Chris in Unlimited and me in RES. The standings were spread out in RES, but bunched tightly in Unlimited. The stage was set for the final round. In the final group of Unlimited, 77 points separated the four flyers.

But first came RES, and the proof that a big lead isn't necessarily a safe lead. The money group launched into hideous sink, and the #1 place guy (me, unfortunately) got smacked to earth in just over 2 minutes! This enabled Harold to make a 3-minute flight and overcome a 215 point deficit to win the event, a well-deserved victory gained by consistent flying and good landing.

When the final group launched in Unlimited, all four of the flyers had high hopes. Chris, Robert, Jeff and I all attacked the launch for every inch of altitude, then searched for the lift that could deliver the elusive first-place plaque. I got a great launch, headed downwind in fairly good air, and eventually found a nice thermal far away from everyone else. Maybe, I thought, it's too far for them to reach, and I can get that sweet burial. I climbed and climbed, and went farther and farther away. Surely now I have it, I thought, and my timer Art thought so too. Then suddenly he said, "Uh-oh."

Chris had found lift in a different spot, but his thermal and mine were merging, and it soon became obvious that we were both going to make the time. Not good -- he had started the round 30 points ahead, and I knew perfectly well that I wasn't going to make up any points on the landing. In rounds 1 and 2 his landing scores were 93 and 90. And sure enough, he pegged a gorgeous 95 landing in the final round to hammer the last nail right into my coffin. A great performance by our club champion: 3 seconds off perfect for the day, and a total of 22 landing points missed out of 300. Really, one of the best-deserved victories I've ever seen in an MVSA contest.

As I said, I crashed but my plane wasn't damaged. Mark Miller flew his plane into Busch's property, but connected with the folks there and expects to get it back as soon as the ditch drains a bit to make it accessible. Other than that, no carnage. Lots of fun, great times with flying buddies, beautiful blue skies and light winds, and a memorable day at the old sod farm.

RES

Raw Name Norm

3080 Harold 1000

2940 Tony 955

2812 Brendan 913

2650 Jeff 860

2298 Ken 746

2183 Art 709

1805 Steve 586

1750 Gene 568

1153 Robt 374

0 Mark 0

Unlimited

Raw Name Norm

3278 Chris 1000

3206 Tony 978

2831 Jeff 863

2753 Robt 840

2704 Paul 825

2579 Gene 787

2549 Glauco 777

2490 Art 760

2412 Harold 736

2141 Steve 653

2043 Brendan 623

1475 Ken 450

1351 Mark 412

Jeff McKee: I’m upset I forgot to mention in the closing ceremony Mark and Brendan Miller for making sure the equipment was available for the last two months with all the weather delays. The equipment worked perfectly today. I can’t think of any equipment related problem today. Thanks Mark and Brendan! Without equipment nobody would fly. Thanks again to Glauco who is an excellent CD and Tony for scoring.

I haven’t got the raw data from the contest yet but on a personal level I thought everybody flew pretty well. Something that I thought separated the men from the boys was our field boundaries. It was very tough today and it was clear you had to make sure you could get back to be a contender. My RES plane a Danny is definitely good enough to compete with the Bubble Dancer’s and AVA’s and Soprano’s. I got spanked the first round because I didn’t have any ballast in. I put in 9.6 oz for the 2nd and 3rd round it made a big difference I think mainly because I’m use to flying higher wing loading type planes. I definitely felt better being able to move around the field better. I have enjoyed RES this year and looking forward to getting better.

Once again without looking at the data my observation on Unlimited is there were lots of blowouts. I feel honored to come in 3rd behind Chris and Tony. Those guys can fly and I’m not sure why I didn’t follow them in the last round although it wouldn’t have helped. I guess I was going for it all by going my own way. I thought I had learned that lesson but I guess I didn’t.

I enjoyed talking to Ron from Idaho. Glad you could make it to our club contest. Next time through STL we expect you to have a plane to fly. You are always welcome to fly with us. Please keep in touch.

The next club contest is June 13th, RES & 2 Meter contest. We don’t have a CD for this. You don’t need any experience/AMA certificate to CD our club contests.

Gateway Open Hand launch Contest Friday June 20th

Gateway Open June 31st and 22nd

More later,

Jeff

Brendan Miller: What a great time, I have been itching for a contest and with the storms last night I didn't think it would happen, but it did. When me and my dad got to the field people were setting up planes and talking with each other. I put the Pike S together first, this would be my second time really flying this plane and I ended up having to change alot of things the night before. The first round was a fun one I found lift then it left and I was scrapping and I hit a little bump and it turned into a max flight with landing points. Unlimited was a different story this contest I was just trying to get in some trim time on the plane, last round was interesting I got a good launch started and I went to zoom and I thought in my head "oooooooh to much." and I was right the line wrapped around the wing and the plane started to come down mean while me and Steve were yelling "Don't reel in! Don't reel in!" landed the plane without a scratch I was surprised. We relaunched that round and I ended up getting a 10:08 and a 79 landing. The lift was weird to me just seemed to be one bubble to be able to get into and that was it, but on a great note the winch held up and there were no line breaks. Great job Harold for getting first place in RES, and Chris in unlimited.

Just wanted to say great job today guys can't wait till June, two weekends in a row!

PS I will be out at the field tomorrow, weather permitting, around 10:00 - 10:30am I will have a winch but bring a battery if you have one.

Later

Brendan

Mark Miller: today was one of those weird days. I woke up and like Tony, thought there would be no way we would be having a contest today. We got the "Let's Fly" from Jeff and rushed to pack the last few things and make sandwiches. As i was driving to the field I just felt out of sorts. Not a physical ailment but things were just not clicking right. Then as I was turning onto 79 I realized that I forgot the stabs to my Evolution. I did have my backup Pike but I had not flown it since last year and never really did get it flying as I would have liked.

3 big zeros in RES for off field landings the farthest in a drainage culvert on the Busch property. It is in water and could not get to it until the water drains more. oh well. I got 4 good years out of that Soprano. I have another squirreled away unbuilt but I think it is time to move on to a new design. My Ukranian guy seems to have stopped replying to my email which is normal from time to time. The supply of Ava's is non existant at Kennedy so who knows what the future holds for the hybrid built up planes.

Unlimited was not much better for me but it was still good to be out at the field.

There was a fellow who stopped by to watch us fly named Rod Smith. Interesting story. He is from Idaho and is traveling around the country with his Italian Greyhound visiting model aircraft venues. He was just in Arizona but is heading east to get out of the desert heat. Muncie is his next stop and will stay for the NATS stuff.

Thanks for the great day guys.

Mark Miller

Jeff McKee demonstrates a perfectly executed landing approach with his Graphite 2.

May 31, 2008

Brendan Miller hops over his Soprano RES after it hit the landing tape and kept on going. Brendan buried his flight group on this round which helped him win third in RES.

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