NOVEMBER CLUB CONTEST
REPORT
Well it is November 5, 2006 in Michigan so the weather must be horrible ------ NOT!!
Yesterday we flew in cold, heavy overcast but today was kind of nice. Sun out all day and moderate winds (probably 10-15 at times).
The turn out was good and we even had a great surprise, Jeff Mrlik showed up at the field and talked about the old days when he was a kid and cleaned everyone’s clock. I think the last time I saw Jeff he was in the 12 to 15 year old range. It was good talking about the “old timers” and their airplanes. Really hope to see Jeff take up the sport once again.
As we gathered around for the pilots meeting; in homage to the god’s of soaring and those that think they are tuned into these god’s, I called an add-em-up of two hours with five flights and no flight over 30 minutes. After the laughter calmed down I got serious and called a 6-8-10-12 in any order with no precision on time so the guy’s could time their selves. You just had to go over the target time but land within a minute or so after the target. Landings were 100-point max.
It was a great day with temps in the high 40’s to low 50’s and less than 10 mph winds most of the day. Thermals were scattered and light except for round three, which was serious up most of the round, so almost everyone max’ed. (Kept the guy’s that were grousing about the 12 minutes quiet.)
There was no time of the day that lift was not present but it was elusive and the bands of sink were sometimes very large so it was not always possible to range out of them easily. Of course today was good for fast clean airplanes so you could fly light to take advantage of the light lift areas but still get far enough out to find green air.
Back to round three- Corven had his AVA so far up that he lost it in the haze and it took the effort of several people to find it again. By the time everything got under control the plane had blown down wind a bunch, but with the effort of Hutch and Mike Wade they got it back to the field in one piece. Close one.
I was in the same air and high also (not near as high as Dave) and know you could not take your eyes off the plane for a second as it would blend in with the haze and be gone. Challenging flying, but fun nonetheless.
The wind from the south was a problem at our field as you had to land coming in over the north tree line where the rotors were very nasty. A couple of guy’s got into the trees and several others came close. Landing was difficult if you did not come in high and kind of fast killing speed with flaps at the last 10 seconds before touchdown.
Dick Stratton’s new scratch built Edge is very nice looking and flies very well. He did have a little problem on one of the landings but it will be repaired easily and ready for battles quickly.
Eight flew and as many were there to watch and help. It was a nice day and I hope we get a bunch more before the real winter hits.
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Club Contest Results |
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November |
2006 |
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Round |
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4 |
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No |
Last Name |
First Name |
Total |
Percent of Total |
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1 |
Iafret |
Jack |
2046 |
100.00 |
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2 |
Nilsen |
Greg |
1834 |
89.64 |
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3 |
Corven |
Dave |
1659 |
81.09 |
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4 |
Wade |
Mike |
1471 |
71.90 |
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5 |
Kozak |
Dennis |
1264 |
61.78 |
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6 |
Rogus |
Ken |
1117 |
54.59 |
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7 |
Hutch |
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973 |
47.56 |
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8 |
Stratton |
Dick |
0 |
0.00 |