Wayne W.
Hi fliers,
It was an absolutely incredible day today for our September HL contest. We had six fliers out to test their metal, Paul L, Rich S, Joe P, John H, myself, and our newest member Warren Allred, who drove up from Springfield, MO to show us how it’s done. I arrived about 9am to find Joe already there and waiting. Warren pulled in shortly thereafter followed by John. Rich S and Paul L pulled in right at 10am. (better late than not at all.
I brought out my Flitz3 and a new/old Blaster 3.5 to try out (which went home with Warren for a mate in his club.) Joe had his NRJ, and John brought out his new electric Saber (which I built for him last month.) Warren was packing red heat, i.e. the Red Blaster3.5 that Ben Samuels ferried back from Dallas for us. (I picked those models up last month to seed them into the club to increase our HL population. Warren bought one and his mate Robert bought the other. Warren just joined the club today. I expect him to bring his friend along too!) Rich and Paul were packing Falcon2s.
I put my planes together and then went over and put some flights on John’s Saber to get it trimmed out. Very nice f5k model btw. His only problem today was a prop with no brake set. Hard to fly with a windmill on your nose. This will be a very sweet bird once its ironed out.
All the time we were getting ready the air was almost dead calm. Wouldn’t you know it, just as soon as it was time to fly the breeze came up. And that would be par for the course for the rest of the day. The silver lining was that every time the wind picked up, it did so because a thermal was passing through. A lot of folks would go upwind and hope they met the next bubble coming through. The brave hearts (or the foolish) turned and burned and headed downwind for the one that just passed through.
I went downwind probably 50% of the time and hooked up about 75% of those flights. The sink that followed the big air though knocked a lot of us down short of the field. Everyone had at least one land out, some more than one, except for Joe that is. He was the only one who never strayed out of the box.
It really was a fight today, a fight for second place that is. Paul came out charging in round one and never relinquished the lead all day. He was a beast! Warren and I went back and forth for best loser position, with me finally tying that one up. Rich and Joe battled for fourth, but the real winner of the day was John. He came out with a shiny new bird, flew it well, and took it home in one piece. I think he had more fun than any of the rest of us!
The air was great. Everyone found big air at least once. Many more than once. Ballast went in. Ballast came out. Many skied out to the limits of visibility. All of us came back to the field in one piece, (at least most of the way, sometimes.)
Here is the way that it all sorted out in the end:
