Introductory notes about the contest can be found here.

Mark Nankivil who shot a number of photos in this Flying Report (thanks Mark!) also shot a few short video clips:

Bruce Davidson Launching video (11.4MB)
Keith Vinyard Launching video (4.7MB)
Chris Lee Launching video (4.1MB)

Chris Lee: The inaugural Gateway 2-Day Hand Launch Contest got under way today (May 30). We had some early showers pass through to keep the temperatures cool and there was a variety of conditions, mostly on the windier side, all day. We got through ten rounds, flying each F3K task at least once. There were 13 competitors broken up into two groups, so if you weren't flying, you were timing. We had enough tasks on the timing sheet to go 18 rounds, and we probably would have made it but for the increasing wind velocity in the mid-afternoon. After a bit of carnage in Round 10, we took a little break to see if conditions would improve. The hour-by-hour forecast indicated the winds would be sustained through the early evening and we eventually called it a day.

Contest continues tomorrow with a totally different forecast, 0% chance of rain, sunny skies and winds no higher than 7mph all day. Looking forward to it!

Bruce Davidson 7608.81

Chris Lee 7285.43

Mark Gauding 6828.56

Tom Scully 6685.96

Mike Johnson 6567.85

Robin Meek 6559.99

Brian Molloy 6431.60

Ben Roberto 6414.44

Glauco Lago 6355.14

Robert Samuels 6315.09

Dave Register 6279.87

Keith Vinyard 6267.84

Wayne Wimbish 5402.96

These scores include two drops.

Bruce Davidson 9096.67

Chris Lee 8741.62

Mark Gauding 7807.51

Tom Scully 7777.23

Mike Johnson 7116.87

Dave Register 7081.72

Keith Vinyard 6875.04

Brian Molloy 7557.77

Robert Samuels 7499.24

Ben Roberto 7385.40

Robin Meek 7202.99

Glauco Lago 7202.55

Wayne Wimbish 6051.38

After the second day of the contest...

Chris Lee: Here are the scores, I'm a little fried so this is it for now, maybe our CD or contest coordinator can chime in with a wrap-up note.

We did 12 more rounds on Sunday for a total of 22 rounds for the contest. Lowest four scores were dropped for each competitor; drops were factored in during the seeding process (after 5, 9, 14, and 19 rounds.) The seeded man-on-man format seemed to be well-received, and it eliminated the need for a fly-off on Sunday, so everyone got to fly more.

The contest was hotly contested throughout (just check out the point spread between 6th and 7th place) and I hope everyone had a good time. Thanks for coming out to make it a success, a good place to start this annual event, let's make next year even better.

Thanks to our CD, Glauco Lago and hand launch contest coordinator, Mike Johnson, for a well-run contest as well as various MVSA members who came out to help throughout the weekend.

Regards,

Chris

Final Standings with standard F3K Drops:

1. Bruce Davidson 17394.96

2. Chris Lee 17109.20

3. Mark Gauding 16033.04

4. Ben Roberto 15502.93

5. Mike Johnson 15367.51

6. Robert Samuels 15174.11

7. Brian Molloy 15173.14

8. Keith Vinyard 15028.16

9. Tom Scully 14812.12

10. Dave Register 14384.56

11. Glauco Lago 14195.89

12. Robin Meek 13139.82

13. 13.Wayne Wimbish 5402.96
    

Normalized to 1000 points, the final standings are:

1. 1.Bruce Davidson 1000.0
   

2. Chris Lee 983.6

3. Mark Gauding 921.7

5. Mike Johnson 883.4

6. Robert Samuels 872.3

7. Brian Molloy 872.2

8. Keith Vinyard 863.9

9. Tom Scully 851.5

10. Dave Register 826.9

11. Glauco Lago 816.1

12. Robin Meek 755.4

13. Wayne Wimbish 310.6

For reference, the accumulated scores without drops:

1. Chris Lee 20140.73

2. Bruce Davidson 19962.13

3. Mark Gauding 17982.38

4. Ben Roberto 17437.31

5. Robert Samuels 17285.60

6. Brian Molloy 17106.81

7. Mike Johnson 16939.29

8. Keith Vinyard 16516.83

9. Tom Scully 16388.30

10. Dave Register 16115.70

11. Glauco Lago 16007.97

12. Robin Meek 14209.71

13. Wayne Wimbish 6051.38

Contest task list:

Glauco Lago: We are still at the field flying now the 146th round.

Bruce is in first with 92,322 points and Chris is close just 4,000 behind.

Sorry, contest is over and you should have been there. We even flew a bit of the big planes afterwards. Too tired to type anymore, will report tomorrow.

By the way Happy Birthday Brendan, hope Daddy gives you a new airplane or maybe a used one with more letters in the name like "L".

Glauco

Mike Johnson: Great job Chris making Bruce work hard for his win.  It was a close one.  Also thank you for helping me out with pretty much everything.  It would not have been as big a success without you.

I think we're all wasted after the 22 rounds of flying so I'll just say great job everyone and a big thanks to Rich who helped with registration on Saturday and everyone else who came to help out and watch.  Mark was snapping photos all day today so I hope those are shared somewhere / somehow.  Chris, Glauco and I didn't get enough flying in this weekend so we stuck around to get some time in on the winch and I finished my LSF 2 tasks (another 15 minute flight and a few more landings).  I got that last flight recorded with Chris's GPS flight logger so I'm looking forward to checking that out.  Now I know he's just doing that to try to get me to buy one!  If the company only knew they had a salesman working commission free...

Mike’s LSF Level 2 15-minute thermal duration flight with his Xplorer.  He capped the flight off with a speed run at 85mph ground speed.  He reached a maximum altitude of 1150 feet.

Glauco Lago: Another Gateway hand launch contest in the books...wait a minute, this was the first one and only 13 people can say "I was there and flew". After 22 rounds we were all exhausted but had a good time, I heard that from all pilots so we succeeded on our task.

We started Saturday with a bit of rain  but used that to our advance to have a pilot's meeting and didn't have to delay the start. Right after we had a bit more rain but wasn't more than 5 minutes and was all the rain we got. The lift was very interesting, really easy to read sometimes and you would see all going up but for the majority there was some work to get your task. The wind picked up quite a bit during the afternoon and we called a break around 3:30 PM to watch the conditions but it didn't get any better. We called the day and agreed the first round on Sunday would be 8:00 AM.

Many thanks first for the 5 out of town guys, Dave Register, Tom Scully, Bruce Davidson, Ben Roberto and Robin Meek, without their commitment to travel we would only have a club contest so they made all the difference and we have to thank them for their support.

Thanks Rich for showing up both days to help with whatever was needed, from registration to snacks to water. Thanks Kathy for the delicious muffins, they were really good. Thanks to Nankivil who helped not only with the timing system but spent almost both days at the field taking pictures. Thanks Brian for the sound system, it worked wonderfully well both days, no problems at all. Thanks Keith for also been an almost out of town and bringing Robert's beloved porta potty on wheels. Thanks Wayne, Mark G and Robert for overall help not only timing others but flying too.

Let's keep spreading the word and going to out of town hand launch contest. Our goal for next year is to double  the contest participation.

Glauco

I did not think I would finish in third place with the way I was flying in the beginning. I had some really good rounds some mediocre rounds and a couple of bad rounds! I also was flying a brand new airplane to boot that did not fly until Friday! Unfortunately or fortunately on the last round and the last launch I did a "Bruce Davidson" and broke my Taboo's rudder in half! I guess I did not realize my own strength!

I have to say this, I am sore! 22 rounds of flying in two days takes a toll on you!

Again I had a great time and hope to do it again next year!

Mark Gauding