By Dan G. – MVSA Webmaster
Fog gave way to a blue-sky day with high fibrous clouds as six flyers entered the launch area for the September Hand Launch contest make-up date. The glory of the day was round 2 with 4 of the 6 flyers scoring above 800.
The 3-minute goal hand launch contest was dominated by Wayne today – winning 4 of the 9 rounds. This opened up a battle for second place between Robert and Dave came down the last round. Dave came down hard cracking a wingtip in round 7 squashing his ability to discus launch.
The moment opened up second place podium potential to Robert. He turned in 951 points for round 9 while Dave came in with 114 – a raw score difference of 738 points. As the results came out later in the day, the normative adjusted score difference was a squeaker of 41 points to take hone second place on the podium. Dave fell to 3rd just 36.96 ahead of Rich S.
“Dave was holding a 100pt lead over Robert going into the 8th round but Dave cracked his launch wingtip on his first flight, and even though he maxed that flight, he was forced to overhand throw his remaining flights or risk breaking the wing,” wrote Wayne on the club’s Google Group. “Robert pounced on the opportunity winning round eight and with a strong showing in round nine finished up with a solid 2nd.”
“There were a couple of mild mid-airs but no damage was ever found. Several found the beans and one even managed to find a tree.” – Wayne
Today’s top 3 is the same as the current class standings for the season. (Year to date contest results)
Rounding out of the board, Rich S. takes home 4th place honors followed by DLG/HL newbie Dan G. for 5th and Kevin C. with his 3rd club hand launch contest of 2021 for 6th place.
Left out of today’s contest was club newbie Bill R. whose glider is on the DL list after an early morning hard landing.
Dan G. made his hand launch debut today managing a 5th place finish over Kevin C. by 297 raw points and a mere 16.01 in the normative final. He flew a well worn hand me down Vibe from John H.. The Vibe was removed from the DL list Friday evening and only ready for flight earlier this morning. Final tuning was completed minutes before competition. after two crashes at Buder a few weeks ago resulted in a re-fracture of an old wound in the boom, a compression front of the wing and a smoked battery.
Learning the new plane a few weeks ago, Dan G. nosed the Vibe in twice – one slowly from altitude and the deal breaker at launch both at Buder. The injuries – re-fracture of a boom break, compression of Kevlar forward of the wing, flaperon damage and a smoked battery. He reached out to Wayne who took the wounded bird on to get another flyer on the field.
“It was great flying in the contest with you guys today,” Dan wrote in the Google Group. “I can see why you guys are drawn to it – the sense of camaraderie, flying together and flying with the elements together. I’m hooked. Special shout out to Wayne – it was his repair shop that made my participation possible. Hats off!”
“The breeze was barely 3 (mph) when we started out but as the lift kept cycling through the gusts increased in intensity,” Wayne wrote. “There seemed to be lift to be found on nearly every flight, but plenty of sink to go around too, and plenty of time for many to sit on the ground and wait for those who caught it to fly out the clock. (3min max.) Lots of land outs too. Everyone had at least one. A couple had four. I often wished that the cones were spread out a little further for six pilots flying at one time. But we all seemed to get along OK.”
After 9 rounds, the turbulents became violent. Contest Director Robert S. put it to a vote. It was unanimous.
“There were a couple of mild mid-airs but no damage was ever found. Several found the beans and one even managed to find a tree.”
Most likely these guys will be out there again – battling it out – cheering on each other’s flight performances next Saturday for October’s Hand Launch contest.