This was one of the best contests I have ever participated in. Why? For one, the ESL standings were wide open both in Sportsman and Expert classes. Secondly, the two contest days were as different as you can imagine. Thirdly, the competition was intense, with some of the top pilots in the country setting the standard.
For me, it didn’t start out well at all. Half an hour into the 6 hour trip from home, I realized that I had forgotten to load the ESL scores and scoring software on my laptop There was no choice but to turn around and get it, which put us smack into New York City and surroundings rush hour, once we got going again. I will not share the pain, except to say that we were in the van for 9 ½ hours before arriving in Reading, PA. Dave Walter deserves a lot of credit for not whining about it. Saturday was forecasted to have early rain followed by severe thunderstorms, not good. Arriving at the field it looked like they were going to be right. The sky was leaden and there was a breeze blowing straight down the winch lines. The CD, Tom Kiesling, had overslept and had called ahead with the tasks, before testing how fast you drive on the Pennsylvania Turnpike without getting caught. He had it just in time to complete the first task and immediately fly the second. The first round was 6 minutes, which turned out to be no problem for most pilots in spite of the dead air and downwind launches. The rest of the tasks were 9 minutes, which was much harder. The conditions didn’t change all day, no rain and no thunderstorms, but gray skies and a breeze blowing straight down the winch lines. Landings were 5 foot graduated landing tapes with a 50 point maximum. Because of the wind direction and the winch lines, we had to land up hill and down wind, which made the landings extremely difficult. To make your time you had to look wide and far for the minimal lift conditions. Ability to cruise efficiently, recognize light lift and work it well was rewarded. Any mistake in any of these areas resulted in missing your times by a couple of minutes. I only made my times 4 out of the 8 rounds and decided to work on my launches, which the day was perfect for. I gradually dialed more and more up elevator into my presets and was able to greatly improve my launch height. At the end of the day I was really happy with them. It was interesting to see how many had read my recent article on throwing and were working on their technique. Out of the CRRC team present (Fritz Bien, Jose Bruzual, Jan Kansky, Bruce Schneider, Dave Walter and me), Dave was the first to drop in the standings. His Esprit simply isn’t the ship for these conditions. The rest of us flew Aegeas and Manti and couldn’t blame our planes. Jan Kansky and Jose Bruzual did OK, finishing in 4th and 7th place. The big winner of the day was Josh Glaab, who was the only flyer to make every time and most landings, simply awesome. Rick Brown made second, Phil Barnes 3rd, Jan Kansky 4th and Tom Kiesling 5th. Out of 35 flyers, only 6 got within 90% of Josh’s score. The top Sportsman, Luis Bustamante, flew an awesome day and made 7th overall. Luis and Bruce Schneider were both contenders for Sportsman of the Year, and Bruce would have to win big Sunday to take the prize. 2nd place was Kerry Cochrell, 3rd Gary Atkinson, 4th George Hill and Leszek Zyga in 5th. Our evening meal was at the local steak house, Stoppers, where I had a Holy Cow steak to console myself for ending up in 17th place in Expert and 19th overall. Sunday was forecasted to be sunny with a light breeze out of the NW. It was sunny, but the wind started out of the East, never shifted and just dropped throughout the day, so we had to contend with downwind launches and uphill landings. But the lift was simply awesome. Even the first, 7 minute, round had booming lift,, and 29 out of 36 pilots made their times. The rest of the day we had 10 minute tasks, which almost everybody also made. There were a few down cycles, but most of the time the first pilot to launch, usually Tom Kiesling, would find lift right away, and the rest of the group would simply fly over and join him. This made for a busy day because everybody would be out flying or timing for 10 minutes, and then switch roles, fly for 10 minutes, and then the next round would start. It also resulted in some impressive gaggles of planes, birds, spider webs, and garbage trucks circling in the same lift. We didn’t have any mid-airs as far as I observed, but we had one pilot fly the wrong plane and crash in the woods. Phil Barnes managed to hook the retriever line again, but didn’t break anything this time. Going into the last round on Sunday Phil Barnes held the lead over Tom Kiesling by 4 points! Extremely close. Tom flew early in the final round and registered a perfect flight! 10:00 and 50 point landing. Going into Phil's final flight he knew he had to get a 50 point landing and not be off time by more than three seconds! Talk about pressure. Phil nailed it. When he landed he yelled out "It's in the hole!". The landing was perfect and the time was off by three seconds giving Phil the win for Sunday by 1 point over Tom Kiesling. Sounds like the "wounded dog" is still angry from last weekend. My last round was a lot of fun. I went out and found some lift, but decided it was going to die, and I better come closer home. 5 minutes into the 10 minute round I found myself about 50 feet off the field and managed to hook a small, tight thermal. I was able to stay with it and slowly gain altitude, but it continued to be very tight. With 2 minutes to go I had enough altitude to start relaxing a bit, and I made my time. At the end of the day you had to make all your times and most of your landings to be anywhere near the wood. 28 out of 36 pilots were within 90 percent of the winner. I have never seen anything this close before. One mistake, and you were out. I missed one task by a bit, had a hard time making my landings and was “rewarded” with 14th place in Expert and 19th overall. In Expert, Phil Barnes was 1st, Tom Kiesling took 2nd, Dale Hart 3rd, Jan Kansky 4th and Mike Lachowski 5th. In Sportsman Luis took 1st (6th overall, another awesome performance) and nailed Sportsman of the Year, Kerry Cochrell was 2nd, Bruce Schneider 3rd, John Bitzer 4th and Leszek Zyga 5th. The final ESL End-of-Year standings were for Experts Tom Kiesling in 1st place, Mike Lachowski 2nd, Phil Barnes 3rd, Josh Glaab 4th, Terry Luckenbach 5th, Tony Guide 6th, Dave Walter 7th, John Jenks 8th, Rick Brown 9th and Jerry Zeigenfuse 10th. In Sportsman Luis Bustamante was 1st, Bruce Schneider 2nd, Kerry Cochrell 3rd, Jeff Newcum 4th, George Hill 5th, Leszek Zyga 6th, Gary Atkinson 7th, John Bitzer 8th, Chuck Robinett 9th and Bob Cherry 10th. Luis and Bruce will advance to Expert class next year. Personally, this was not a great year. I only took wood once, a first place, and I ended up in the bottom third of the Experts. I know why – not enough practice, and too many plane changes. I am going to have to spend more time practicing over winter and spring. But I did learn a lot. My launches are much better, and my ability to core small, low thermals has improved a lot. I also believe I know how to improve hang times in low lift. What I really have to work on are landings and flying through sink. Knowing that there’s a lot to be learned after 18 years in the hobby is what makes it challenging, and fun. The trip home was a breeze, to our relief. We only had a momentary delay on the George Washington Bridge, made dinner at the Sierra Grill in Stamford, and made home before 9PM. As always, you can find the complete ESL standings and individual contest placements at ESL’s web site http://flyesl.com . Also, take a peek at the forums. Have a pleasant winter, and see you all next season! Anker RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
