Gateway Open Unlimited

Gordy Stahl: Eat your hearts out all who didn't make it!

The field was a bit icky when we arrived but it firmed up quickly...the lift/sink was boomer all day, pretty consistently, so you'd better have made the right decision...almost NO wind all day....just thermal action.

6 rounds of 10, Steve Meyer and Chris kept things moving with a little help from winch master Johnny B.

It was Chicago Karl all day with the rest of us chasing his landings. But he took a 4 minute bath in like the 45th round and no one gave up anything to let him back in the group.

Round 5 and 6 was between Ben Roberto flying the Supra and me flying my Sharon. I held about a 30 point lead into the last round...so it was either do or die. I smegged an 85 landing for no good reason and he pegged a 97....but it wasn't enough.

No bridesmaid today! Anyone need another LSF5 win? :-)

This was one of the best days of RC Soaring contesting I've had in a bit!

Hope you can make it out tomorrow.

Gordy

Mark Miller: I just got done unloading the batteries and putting them on charge for the morning. Took a shower and am doing a bit of wash. Gordy hit it about right. It was a great dat and a great contest. Well worth the effort we as a club have put forth. Very little if any equipment problems. Things ran smoothly and Rich put forth a great box lunch for everyone. I had more than one person come up to me and thank me and MVSA for putting on a well run show. One kind soul even said it was one of the best run Man on Man club contests he has been to and he has been to his share. Special thanks to Bob Keeler for doing a yeoman's job shagging chutes most of the day in very uncomfortable conditions.

I'm not going to recap everything that happened, but a few highlights. Brendan had a unfortunate mid air with Robert's Graphite. It popped out Brendan's tip panel with no damage to any other part of the plane. His pike went into a great flat spin and landed fairly unscathed. The tip was brought back my Robert as it was imbedded into his center panel. I think both planes are repairable.

I flew my Soprano the first two rounds and did well in the first and sucked the second. I broke out the Evolution and sucked it badly the third round and progressively did better as the day went on. Last two rounds were carbon copies with big lift and nice altitude. Last round for to a bit over 1200 feet. 4 seconds short with an 88 landing.

I'm tired and going to bed. Here is the logs from todays flights.

Glauco Lago: Very well done, 28 pilots and 6 rounds, wow, congratulations to all. As information, this was the best attended OVSS club contest of the year, none of the other clubs did it so congratulations again.

Chris has been excused since it was really tight at the top and when was the last time Karl finished a contest in 7th.

Sorry to hear about the mid air, hope both can be fixed.

Have another good day and good luck.

Glauco

Jeff McKee: It was a great weekend. Chris Lee did an excellent job in coordinating the whole weekend. Thanks Chris for stepping up on such short notice. Chris had some tough calls on Sunday as CD and I think he did great. I would say Mark M was the hardest working guy on the field this weekend. With help from Brendan they did a superb job with the equipment. There were very few equipment issues and none to my knowledge could have been foreseen. The wind picked up a bit today from yesterday and with the soft ground the turnarounds were popping out. I didn’t even realize it but learned later Brendan made a trip to the store today to get some of those dog spikes to hold down the turnarounds after the first couple rounds that worked out great once used. Brian had another load of equipment in his van including the generator that worked perfectly. Art, Ken and Chris also brought out

additional equipment. Bob Keeler did an excellent job running the turnaround station and shagging shoots the entire weekend. I think we are going to give Bob a tent and cooler next year out at the turnarounds. Rich Rennecamp did registration on Saturday, ran lunch both days and shagged shoots. He also supplied us with water and drinks that were a huge hit on Saturday during the still hot air. I enjoyed the lunch menu both days and only heard compliments. Mike Johnson helped out both days during set up and shagging shoots. Ed Rau ran the scoring on Saturday flawlessly. Ryan Woebkenberg and Father (I’m so sorry Ryan I didn’t catch your Dad’s name) ran the scoring on Sunday. Ryan kept us moving fast with the limited time on Sunday. Nelson came out both days to help. I wish he would have flown. On Sunday he surprised us all

but I’m not going to tell why. Jim Crook came out both days when able to help time and shag shoots. Paul Luebke came out Sunday to help and to fly. Gene Lindsay helped on Sunday. Mark Nankivil made it back from Florida on Sunday to take some pictures which I’m looking forward to seeing. No doubt I missed somebody so please chime in.

At this time there haven’t been any results posted on Sunday but I’ll give you a clue to the top MVSA member on Sunday, his initials are R. Samuels in 2nd place. YES!!!! WAY to GO!!

It was a great weekend of flying.

Jeff

Brendan Miller: It was a great weekend even though I was out on the first day. Everyone did their part to keep it running smoothly, Chris did a great job CDing the contest, all the people that shagged the chutes especially Bob, who sat out in the hot sun all day getting the chutes.

The biggest thing I noticed was how much more competitive glider flying really is, I know how competitive we get at out monthly contests but to me it was on a whole new level. I also saw how serious some people take the sport but still have a good time with it. Even though I didn't fly much this weekend I now want to fly more and get better at flying and learning more. Also people are really helpful, when the midair happened Gordy said he had joiners, and maybe even and extra tip lying around, and Brian with his Pike wing sitting at home ( I will email you about the wing Brian) and also teaching you about how to read air, heck Gordy even let me fly his High End which was nice.

I would like to say congratulations to Robert, Jeff, and Chris for bring home GO wood to MVSA, you guys flew great.

again Robert sorry about the midair.

Brendan

Ryan Woebkenberg: I'd like to second or third, or whatever it is by now the sentiments that you all work great as a team. The winches were great, I know that lots of effort went into that. And Chris is not only a great pilot, but now runs a tight ship of a contest.

My dad (Dave) and I had a great time today. Sorry all you in interweb land that could not attend that I did not do more contest results updates during the day. I really had good intentions to do that.

Funny that I came out of this contest with very similar feelings as Brendan. Well, except that I was lucky and did not have any plane damange, but the whole bit about working harder to try to learn more.

I'm going to start a rcgroups thread to let the rest of the internet know how great of a contest MVSA puts on. I'll probably start it Monday sometime. Feel free to jump in.

I'll let Chris have the honers of announcing the results. I'll say this though, from everything I read on this list over the past few months and seeing him fly again today for like the the 5th or so time over the years, when he is on, Robert is aces at this thing we call soaring.

Ryan

Mike Johnson: I'm exhausted and sunburned - just some of the reminders of a great weekend. Not all of my reminders I brought home are great ones however. Long story short, I blew up my Aspire while testing the winch Saturday morning. I had been pretty rough with it last contest and was way too confident of its strength on the winch Saturday morning. I may have had a little extra lead in my feet due to the excitement of the coming weekend as well. I knew very well I was going to lose that plane someday on launch, just didn't have the morning of the first day of the GO in mind. Oh well. More motivation to get my other planes in the shop finished up. I'd like to thank Ken and Mark who kindly found and returned the last pieces of ribs and monokote I was looking for. Somehow I missed them on my walk out to pull my fuse out of the ground.

On a happier note I maidened a Lightspeed Friday during handlaunch I acquired from Chris. An incredible plane in every way, especially when moving up from my 13+ oz sidewinder. I got a respectable 7th out of 12. I still need a lot of practice with my poker skills!

See you all at the field,

Mike

Robert Samuels: Hi Flyers: There were some

real heroes at the GO this weekend. The guys who made it possible. Chris was everywhere.... doing everything. His excitement and energy and smile rubbed off on everyone. Mark M. and Brendan and Brian brought, set up, maintained, etc. the enormous amount of equipment required. Because of them it worked very, very well. Despite the fact that the ground was as soft as butter they somehow kept the turnarounds in the ground, the winches winching, the electricity flowing and the lines pulling. Rich ran, fetched, fed and watered everyone with a wonderful smile on his face. And he cleaned up too!!!! Our wonderful Bob Keeler shagged for two straight days and did it cheerfully. Bob did this job out in the sun and at the turnarounds...... for two days. Ed and Ryan did the scoring so flawlessly it seemed like it was easy.

And what would we have done without the work of "Mr. PortaPotty", Jeff McKee. I shudder to think of what would have happened had he not done his job so well.

Let's not forget ...... mmmmm.... what's his name? Oh, yes. Glauco who abandoned us at the last minute but had it all organized so that everything fell into place ..... despite his flying off to Rio.

These guys, and a bunch of others who I didn't mention, simply got the job done..... and we all had fun because of it.

Thanks guys,

El Roberto

Mark Miller: This was one of the most enjoyable weekends I have had since my last NATS. It was hard work getting things ready but well worth it. I would say that from the feedback I have gotten from our out of town friends that we are putting on one of the top OVSS contests of the year. We have the man power willing to do

whatever needs to be done for others to enjoy their weekend. Lunch was a great touch and I think the box lunch was certainly the way to go. Thanks Rich. Ed did a stellar job with scoring yesterday.

On the equipment side just a recap. We had two, count em two, line breaks all weekend. The second was on the last launch of the day by Karl Miller who flew it out to get his time.We had 3 of the ground based turn arounds pull out today but that was quickly solved when Brendan showed up with the 4 dog run spikes from a trip to Lowes. We will have them on hand as standard equipment whenever we use a ground based turn around. The top ring on one chute pulled out. I bought 6 new chutes from Johnny Berlin and equipped all our winches with them. The usable ones we still have can be backups. and I think there is one of the new ones for future use. His chutes are primo. The rebuilt motor I got did not work to expectations but with loaners from Ken, Brian and Jim Brandon we had 7 solid winches. Even my dinky looking one ran well and pulled with the best of them. The best $500 I ever spent. One brake malfunction on Ken's winch but it took only minutes to fix it. For some reason the two old NATS winches we have just are not working up to par. I am going to figure something out with them so we have all 5 of the club winches working.

Thanks to everyone who helped schlep all the equipment around and help take care of things with me. It seemed to take just minutes to get the van packed. And also thanks to everyone I have not mentioned individually for your help. moving to St. Louis is one of the best things to happen to me. It allowed me to be a part of this fine group.

I think it would be a great gesture for maybe the President to send an email to Ryan, Steve Meyers, Johnny Berlin and Jim Brandon. With the help of these non members our contest ran like clockwork. It did not go unnoticed.

On a flying note, after my bad first round I did reasonably the rest of the day moving up from the last group to the third flight group. I ended up 15th which for me is wonderful. I got landing points every flight this weekend which is unlike me.

Cheers,

Mark Miller

Marc Gellart: Well guys, you survived and it made you stronger, what a good weekend you had! I am envious that you all had way too much fun (especially Robert), but I will admit that I was glad to get a nice long weekend at home, I got alot done both to the house and on models (got holes filled in the yard and mowed and then worked on my Extra 300 (flew it four times over the weekend) and got the sailplanes programmed in my new 12X). I so underwhelm Chris with excitement at being home and working on projects and spending time with the animals and Jo Ellen.

After reading and talking to a few folks that attended, you all did great. First is Chris, it was a lot to ask from a guy that really is still a bit green around the gills, but Chris handled things great and he still showed up Sunday for more, a real test. I talked to Ron Mong on Sunday PM late and he said we had fed him to the wolves and he still had his limbs attached, kudos from Ron. Chris learned a lot I think about the dynamics, both mechanically and

personally, that faces a contest director. As I have been all along with MVSA, more guys need to get their CD license, got the hint?

Second, Mark and Brendon, equipment is always an issue and the only way MOM works is it all runs every time. You did yeoman's work, just as Glauco has for MVSA in keeping things going all year long. I will not remember all the names, but scoring, food, retrieval, all took folks and you guys got it all done in spades, kudos to you and those who helped from out of town!

Guys, again attaboys!

Marc

Paul Luebke: I only made it out Sunday, did not fly so well, but had a great time. Except for my holding up a flight group, the whole day was fast paced and flowed pretty efficiently. I found out immediately after timing in a round that I was in the next group and realized that I still had my fuse in my car charging. After first running to the car for my fuse and then again for my canopy I launched to start the group. I'm sure it seemed like forever to those waiting but nobody griped at all! Not that I heard anyway. It was great to see the club pull together to get things done and it was SUPER to see our own guys do so well among a higher level of competition. Congratulations and thanks to all!

August 24, 2008

photos courtesy of Mark Nankivil and Ben Wilson

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