Hello All, August 11th and 12th the Seattle Area Soaring Society hosted the 1st Annal Pacific NW HLG Regional, and what a GREAT WEEKEND!!! The weather was superb (light breeze, high 70's, lots of thermals) the competition was fierce, and the contest ran smoothly, and contestants were treated to T-shirts, lunch, and door prizes included in the price of admission. Special thanks goes to our sponsor, Thermal-Gromit Works(www.tgworks.com), for supplying the contest website, T-shirts, and door prizes (a Goblin kit, tail booms, pushrods, batteries, and servos), and Multiplex for supplying servos (www.multiplexrc.com). Thanks also go to SASS for allowing us to shut down the field for the contest, and the use of the club tent etc. Thanks also go to Boeing Employee Model Rocket Club for use of their public address system. Now, here's a brief synopsis of what happened at the field. Folks started showing up from out of town Thursday night, to take a couple of extra days to see some of the sites of Seattle (keep in mind for next year, Seattle is a top tourist attraction and rental cars and hotel rooms are in short supply). Friday was spent at the field getting things set up with more contestants arriving and some last minute trim flights. The field was in great shape, very nicely mowed, in fact several contestants spent the weekend with bare feet! Saturday broke with a thin cloud cover that quickly burned off, the early morning thermals big enough to take your light trim toss up to speck height! Registration was opened, and with some casualness typical of Seattlites, the contest was on its way by 10am. The rounds were sorted by each contestant's running total scores, so the best pilots always flew against the best and each round was like being in the fly-offs. There were no throw out rounds so the competition was tough every single round. Wing launching has virtually eradicated javelin launching in Seattle, Only one competitor utilized a javelin plane, and only for about half the rounds. What was neat was the discus launch has brought young and old, athletic and not so athletic onto a level playing field as far as launch height. It has also made much more of the airspace around the field accessible, bringing a lot more terrain into play, giving pilots a good challenge to make their times for each task. Saturday's competition was started with the flight groups being announced. Early on, the top competitors started sifting to the top. Six rounds were flown Saturday with a brief lunch break with Quizno's subs and chips. Jim Pearson, Adam Weston, Breck Baldwin, Tim Johnson, and Dick Barker were all close at the end of the day. After the competition Saturday, the contestants were invited to a relaxing dinner at the nearby Red Hook Brewery's Pub. Contestants' significant others were invited, and many an HLG tale was shared over a few mugs of beverage. Sunday morning, we were back at it, with another great lunch and a very tight margin between the top competitors within 100 points. Four more regular rounds were flown and the top eight competitors moved on to a person-on-person fly-off. Phil Pearson and his Encore managed to move up from 6th to be in the running at the beginning of the fly-offs. The three rounds were a close battle between Jim and Adam for 1st place and Dick, Mark Bryan, Tim Johnson and Phil Pearson for 3rd. Jonathan Bryan and Breck Baldwin were also in the fly-offs. Breck was struggling with off-field landings and Jonathan was able to pass him in the finals for 7th place. Dick made a hard push in the finals winning the first two rounds but faltered in the third ending up in 6th. Mark Bryan faltered a little and ended up in 5, and Tim Johnson fought hard to gain 4th place. Phil finished in 3rd, Adam in 2nd and Jim Pearson was the winner, all flying Encores, so the top three finishers were flying those slick Kevlar ships. Thanks again to all those who contributed to the event. Thanks also to all the out of town folks who came to Seattle to compete. I think everyone had a blast at this premier HLG event. For all of you who fly HLG's keep a space open in your calendar for next year's Pacific NW HLG Regional, we hope it will become one of the top events on the HLG circuit. Thermals, RED -- Adam Weston HLG Contest Director Seattle Area Soaring Society RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
