Jeff McKee: I just got unpacked and things on charge

for tomorrows GO TD. I had a great time today. Chris did a great job of CDing and Brian’s audio equipment worked great. We really looked like HL pro’s with our equipment and the palms as scoring tools. I think we made a good impression on our out of town DLG friends. I was a little overwhelmed at the condition of the field when I arrived. It looked horrible. During the setup time Chris approached me a few times and asked if I was ok. I think I was just amazed we were going to try and fly. I thought there was know way we could fly but Chris kept a positive attitude and the next thing I knew everybody was putting together planes. As it turned out the field wasn’t all that bad. It was wet and it looked nasty but it was very firm. We flew all the F3K rounds and I think everybody had a great time. I didn’t hear any griping about the field condition. I was talking to Ben Roberto after the contest and he enjoyed himself. I think it was a great success and could be a good launching to an all out MVSA open HL contest in the future. We had 12 pilots and flew 8 rounds. I flew out of my head for the first 4 rounds and then sucked the last 4 rounds to get a 5th. I don’t remember the details on scoring but there were some great HL pilots there today and MVSA made a good showing.

Again great job Chris!

Jeff

Chris Lee: Hi all, don't have enough

time to write up a full report at the moment, but we had an awesome turnout as Jeff mentioned.  It's fantastic having those guys come in from Louisville and Chicago, really changed the face of the contest.  We tried to rotate timers as much as possible and I hope some folks got an opportunity to have some of these top guys time for them. 

We ran one of each F3K task, had to explain poker to some folks.  It seems actually no one else runs poker except us.  Kind of makes us special, still looking forward to a contest with eight rounds of poker that the CD keeps threatening to call.  At some point, Robert has to get "lucky" since the task is all about luck according to him.  ;)

Individual round scores and cumulative scores can be found here (Excel spreadsheet.)

At a glance, I noticed that the drop round played a roll in a couple places today.  Steve Meyer jumped past Mike Johnson and Robin Meek got past Matt Fitzgerald.

It seems Ben Wilson and Bruce Davidson are serious about a two-day HL event next year; Bruce may host one and Ben is hoping to get two days for Nats HL.  The Chicago guys, Robin, Steve and Ben also sound enthusiastic about making Chicago another stop on the "OVSS HL Series."  So, we'll talk further and see if we want to alternate locations or host multiple events in the midwest.

Thanks all for coming out and in particular thanks to Brian for setting up the excellent speaker system, we could hear it clear across the field.

See you all this weekend,

Chris

Robert Samuels: Hi Flyers:  I had a great time today flying with some super HL flyers.  I came in 8th out of 12 (I think).  The MVSA guys did very well and our own Chris Lee took second behind Bruce Davidson.   Having the out of town guys was a real plus.  We did our usual mixing up of timers so I got some good learning experiences.  Bruce Davidson timed me once and he kept telling me that I was flying through lift.  Interesting.   Then I timed for him and he virtually ignored all my advice.  I wonder why?

The air was very, very difficult.  1 1/2 minute flights were great, when you could get them.  And that was all day.  Lots of sink and lots of very small bubbles of lift.   At least they seemed like bubbles.  But I think they were more like rotors.  Fly into one and you would

get a big bump up, circle and get slammed down.  Over and over again.  Keep in mind that this information is coming from a "back marker",  me.    And a guy who, apparently, flies through lift as his main style.   Oh, well.  At this point I usually fall back on my age as an excuse for why I did not do better.  But I'm afraid that this time it was just because I was flying not my best ...... against  some really good flyers.  Both home grown and foreign.

Serveral of the guys recharged their batteries 1/2 way through the contest.  I did not.  When I got home I put the Taboo on a charger.   So what did it take?  72 mah.  For 7 of the 8 rounds in really rowdy air.   I wonder why I have a 450 mah battery in my plane?  I could fly for nearly a week without recharging.

Again I will say that HL is the most fun type of model soaring of all.  And I heard a lot of the other fliers say the same thing today.

See you all tomorrow.

El Roberto

front row: Matt Fitzgerald, Mike Johnson, Chris Lee, Bruce Davidson

back row: Robert Samuels, Mark Miller, Ben Wilson, Brian Molloy, Robin Meek, Steve Meyer, Ben Roberto, Jeff McKee