Published October 10, 2021
By Dan G, MVSA Webmaster
Early sun gave way to medium winds and decent lift for October’s Thermal Duration contest held yesterday in O’Fallon, MO.
Left with 2 hi-starts and one landing tape – a miscommunication lead to the CD and club President looking for a plan B. The winch and landing tape arrived just in time. Light morning mist gave way to brief sun followed by overcast and light winds – a far cry from the predicted 10-15 mph winds predicted.
The contest was an eventful one. Two fliers moved up in their class ranking for the season and one new flyer gets a personal best time.
Unlimited
The race for 2021 Unlimited title just got interesting. Bob G. dethrones Wayne W. by 2 points. Wayne has dominated the class with a win at every contest he flew in since June. As the contest began Dan G. won round 1 with a 6 minute 58 second flight and 79 landing. Rich R. brings it home in round 2 with 8 minutes 44 seconds and a 41 landing. In round 3 Wayne turns in a 10-minute flight and 64 landing for 92.7% perfect over Bob G’s 7:03 and 0 landing. The tables are turned in round 4 as Bob G. brings in a 97.4% perfect flight of 10 minutes and 92 landing over Wayne’s 6:27 and 84 landing.
The story is in the total flight times and landing scores. Bob G. flew for 29:01 and 280 landings over Wayne W.’s 27:00 and 313 landings. This lead to a 83 point raw score difference, 46.98 point normative difference and 2 points on the year total – a near tie going into November.
“Wow!” Wayne responds on the MVSA Google Group. “Take a look at the Unlimited standings! Talk about tight tight tight!”
Rich R. brings home 3rd with 24 minutes of flying time and 132 landings. – Bill R. is on the score sheet for the first time in any class in any contest! He finished DFL with one off field landing in round 4.
RES
(Rudder Elevator, Spoiler)
The simple explanation of RES competition yesterday is “Wayne dominated RES”. By dominate, he flew for 36 minutes 9 seconds out of 40 possible minutes. The time beat the next flyer by 11 minutes and change. He brought in 2 10-minute flights, a 9:46 and a 6:18 for his first 1st place win in class for 2021 in and only his 2nd RES contest for the year.
Competition for 2nd place came down between Bob G. who is currently the class leader for the year and John H. who flies in his 3rd RES competition for the year. Bob G. brings home 6:17 in round 1 over John H’s 4:09. Bob G. flies for 10 min and lands a 97 in round 2. John H. takes over in round 3 with 8:21 / 80 as Bob G. flies a 2:49 / 97. Bob G. flies a 4:44 in round 4 and John brings 2nd place home with a full minute longer – 5 minutes 44 seconds. The raw score difference – a mere 9 points and 3.79 normative. – The story comes down to flight time vs landing time. John won the day in total time by 40 seconds and Bob G. won landings by 42 points.
Contest newbie Bill R. flies a personal best of 9 minutes 28 seconds in round 3, good for the second-best flight time of the round and 3rd best round score that round despite a zero landing score. The single flight overcome his off-field landing in round 2 edging him over Bill O and within 19 points of 4th place.
“That is how tight it is! After 7 contests this has been the most competitive year I can remember.” – Wayne W.
ALES
Wayne dominates ALES – winning 3 of the 4 rounds. He scores perfect in 2 rounds and one 25-point landing in round 2. Total flight time 34 minutes 44 seconds. Larry A. brings home 2nd place with a total flight time of 29 minutes 28 seconds. He looks like Mr. Consistent in the air with flights times all in the 6–8-minute range.
Round 2 – Bill O vs Larry A. – Bill O and Larry A fought it out for 2nd place. The battle was won in round 3. Bill O. edges out Larry A. by 13 seconds but scores 25 landing points leaving the door open. Larry A. scores landing perfect with 50 but it was not enough. Bill edges out Larry in the round percentage 100 pct to 98.74.
Larry A. is already looking ahead to next season.
“Wayne better watch his six o’clock next year as I will have a Volo ready to dethrone him,” Larry A. wrote. Wayne responds, “Larry, I love it. Bring it on man!” – 2M – Bill O continues his rampage winning 2M for the second time in a row beating out the G. boys by 5 minutes of total flight time each and landing him in 2nd place in class for the season.
Bob G. wins round 1 with 5 minutes 43 seconds and a 95 landing. Dan G and Bill O both flew 6-minute flights in round 2 but Dan won the round with an 82 pt landing. Bill O wins round 3 with 5 minutes 8 seconds and no landing leaving Bob G (3:18 / 78) and Dan G (1:55 / 54) in the dust. Dan G pulls out a round win in round 4 with 4 minutes 22 seconds and a landing of 87 but not enough. During round 3 Bob G flew a 3:18 and Dan G flew a 1:55, a difference of nearly 2 and 3 minutes under Bill O in a 6-minute task. Bill O flew for 19 minutes 47 seconds to Dan G’s 14:39 and Bob G’s 14:17. – Bill’s performance puts him one stellar dream of a November contest out of the class title.
“I don’t know if there is enough time for me to take 1st in 2M … even if I could!” Bill wrote in the Google Group.
We’ll leave this up to the math wizes to discuss.
For the season: A November surprise?
Bob G continues his dominance in the MVSA overall scores with 24,473 over Wayne W’s 19,493. Bob G. enters into ALES this year holding 2nd place to Wayne by a little over 200 points to Wayne’s near perfect score. Bob G. Dominates 2M, RES and now UNL dethroning Wayne in UNL for the 1st time in the class this season. Bob G has his 2M and Wayne W has his Hand Launch scores.
“It will not be a good idea to skip the Nov contest,” Wayne wrote in the Google Group. “2.14pt is all that separates 1st from 2nd, and 5.07pts separates 3rd from 4th. And if the top two were to decide to not show, 3rd and 4th could become 1st and 2nd. That is how tight it is! After 7 contests this has been the most competitive year I can remember.”
The race for season title seems to be over while the competition for UNL could not be closer between these two. They will no doubt settle this at the November contest.
Noticeably absent was Robert S., his spirit and voice from the sidelines cheering on performances. It also leaves the fight for 3rd place in UNL to a “fly off” next month as he and Dave Q. are now in a 4 pt battle for 3rd place.
“I’m looking forward to the slugfest Robert and I will have to determine who takes 3rd in Unlimited during the contest in November,” Dave Q. wrote. “We are only 5 points apart for the year end. This will be the most exciting thing to watch next month! Teacher vs. student.”
“We missed the commentary from Robert S.” wrote Bill O.
Dan G. seems to be the little engine that could with 3rd place overall for the season – 2,000 or so points behind Wayne’s 2nd place and 4,000 and change over Bill O in 4th place. He has won RES twice (2nd place – season), 2M once (3rd for the season) and 5th place season total for UNL. He flew HL last month and came in 5th out of 6.
(Contest Results and Year to date Standings can be found at our “Contests” page.)