2012 DARTS 1-Day HLG Contest

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2012 DARTS 1-Day Hand Launch Glider Contest

Sunday May 13, 2012

Twin Towers Area Park, Fairborn, Ohio

Sponsored by the DARTS (Dayton ARea Thermal Soarers)

Who: Any AMA member, spectators welcome
What: 1-Day Hand Launch Glider Contest - F3K tasks
When: Sunday May 13, 2012
Pilot's meeting at 9:00 AM
First round starts at ? AM (sometime after the pilots meeting)
Where: Club Field, Twin Towers Area Park, Fairborn, OH
Type: Hand Launch Glider Contest
Event details: F3K tasks will be flown
Entry Fee: $10
Awards: Plaques through 4th place
Contest Director: Bob Massmann

pictured above are the 2012 DARTS 1-Day Hand Launch Glider pilots, left to right are :
Albert Salas, Barney Bauer, Gavin Trussell, Rick Waitulionis, Jerry Shape, Joe Mekina, Bruce Davidson and Chip Willis

We had 8 diehard contestants and completed 7 rounds . It was a bit iffy at the start of the contest with light rain. We had one our two delays during the contest but finished up about 3:00 PM. I believe all had a good time. I am very thankful to Bruce Davidson who brought the task announcement system and Joe Mekina for the score cards.

Bob Massmann CD

The weather forecast was such that we were right on the some rain that was forecast to be primarily to our south and east. Once again mother nature cooperated with us as many of us drove through light drizzle only to arrive at the DARTS field with no rain and overcast skies. By the time we got started the drizzles stated again, but they were in fact very light and we just kept flying.

The contest was run out of the pavilion with the wind coming directly from the east. It was steady in both direction and speed. This meant that the entire treeline to the west was going to be one of the good places fly. In the early rounds, pilots either sought out this treeline or the larger one directly to the north of the field. By the end of the day, most pilots were flying only the treeline to the west. This meant al long walk from the pavilion, but as Jerry Shape said to me, we all need the exercise.

As Bob mentioned, there were a couple of periods where the drizzle got a bit more intense and he called for several delays, none lasting more than about 15 minutes or so. As we finished up around 3 PM, the skies actually brightened up a bit and many people chose to fun fly while Bob finished up the results

The final results showed Gavin in first followed by Joe, Bruce and Rick

My perception was that all had a good time. There were several rounds where multiple people scored 1000's and even a round where the entire group scored a 1000. As the day shaped up, not only were there several people in the hunt for the overall contest, but also many who were simply having fun trying to do there personal best. Even our newbie Albert who stuck it our flying his Fling in all rounds broke into his personal best flight times when he got the hang of sloping the trees in the last 2 rounds. Gotta give that man credit for his enthusiasm!

My own personal "should of, could of, didn't do it that way" story occurred in round 3. This was the 1, 2, 3 and 4 minute in any order task with a 10 minute window. This was one of the no extra window time tasks which means turn-arounds are important. On one flight I launched with my flaps down, what I did then was land and relaunch, with a flight time of only 19 seconds, I had eaten into the precious window time, What I should have done was made the best out of it and gone for the 1 minute task time. As I proceeded to complete my 4, 3 and 2 minute flights I was left with only 23 sec of window time which I flew and it became my time for the 1 minute task. As it turns out, Bruce Davidson flew in my group that round and his turn-around times were much better than mine, so I would not have been able to win the round anyways. Good flying Bruce! My own person lessons learned were two fold. First and foremost, don't launch with your flaps down! Secondly, in a task such as this, make the best of a bad launch if you still have the 1 minute flight to do

Thanks to Bruce Davidson who brought the sound system.

Thanks to Bob Massmann who in my opinion did an outstanding job of orchestrating the contest as CD

Thanks to all who came and flew!

Joe Mekina

Summary Results::

Dayton ARea Thermal Soarers

Detailed Results from the F3K Score scoring program:

2012-05-13-darts-1-day-hlg-results-final.pdf
2012-05-13-darts-1-day-hlg-round-scores.pdf

Pictures:

Thanks to Chio and Joe for taking the pictures
Clicking on a thumbnail brings up a full-size image (without the caption) suitable for downloading and printing.

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Albert Salas, Barney Bauer, Gavin Trussell, Rick Waitulionis, Jerry Shape, Joe Mekina, Bruce Davidson and Chip Willis

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-001.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2012
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Gavin Trussell and Jerry Shape with there good morning smiles

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-002.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2012
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Bob Massman our CD takes a moment to pose for a picture

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-003.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2012
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Talk about the earth being tilted a bit on it's axis, here is Joe Mekina ready to go surfing in Ohio in May, wind surfing that is!

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-004.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2012
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Barney Bauer with his Polaris

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-005.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2012
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Albert Salas with his Fling HLG. Jerry Shape and his Blaster 2 in the background

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-006.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2012
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Chip Willis flew his vulnerable Topsky

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-007.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2012
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Close-up of Chip's Topsky

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-008.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2013
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Bruce Davidson gets set to assemble a model for the contest. Jerry Shape and Gavin in the background

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-009.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2014
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Rick Waitulionis and Barney Bauer made the trip form Michigan, Good fun guys to fly with

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-010.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2015
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Barney Bauer streaks across the field with Polaris as he gets ready for another test hop

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-011.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2016
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Joe and Bob discussing a scoring issue.

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-012.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2017
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Albert Salas (timing) takes a look at the camera as Rich Waitulionis and Bruce Davidson keep a close eye on their gliders

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-013.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2018
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Quiet Please. Gavin Trussell is flying, no talking!

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-014.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2019
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Barney Bauer and Rick Waitulionis are headed for the far end of the field to surf the treeline for one of the late rounds

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-015.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2020
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Barney Bauer makes it back after another successful flight

event: Darts 1-Day HLG Contest
picture: 2012-05-13-016.jpg
location: Fairborn, OH
date: 05-13-2021
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The RC Groups discussion of this event is HERE

The score cards used the score the event were:
F3K Task A score cards
F3K Task B score cards
F3K Task C score cards
F3K Task D score cards
F3K Task E score cards
F3K Task F score cards
F3K Task G score cards
F3K Task H score cards

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