2012  DARTS ALES #1    Sunday, May 27, 2012   -   Results

               The winners of 2012 DARTS ALES #1, Don Harris - 3rd, Ed Franz - 1st, and Gavin Trussell - 2nd 

This was the first of 5 DARTS sponsored Altitude Limited Electric Soaring (ALES) contests for 2012
There will be variations of the ALES theme in that one of the contests will be a Radian One Design event, while another will have a altitude limit of 100 meters.  Click HERE for info on the other events

A good turn out was the order of the day with 12 pilots enjoying great flying weather. 7 rounds of flying were completed

Judging from the results, the top places were hard fought.  It appears Ed Franz, after winning his group in round 1, had a short flight in round 2 which dropped him into the first flight group. Only Dan Meyers made the time in Ed's flight group in round 2, burying virtually everyone else in that group.  Way to go Dan!  

But it appears Ed battled back and worked his way up the winners list  prevailing as the winner.  Ed had great landing scores.  Ed nailed 50 point landings on 4 of his 7 flights, with only one 40 point and  two 45 point landings! 

Great flying Ed!  (and landings!)

+++

One of the other pilots, who was timing for Don Harris shared this account of one of Don's flights, paraphrased here:

I just had to share the account of the most impressive flights I have ever seen in my many years of attending sailplane contest and events:  I was timing for Don Harris in an early round when I heard a loud bang during launch.  

The next thing I saw was something that appeared to be the battery hanging out and dangling by the wiring cable.

Needless to say the plane was extremely unstable as the CG was wacko and the swinging of the ejected part to and fro just added to the instability. 

Most of the pilots I know would have gently brought the model in as soon as possible, but not Don!!

The next thing I see is Don heading for the tree line in search of lift...... He then managed to find and work a thermal for several minutes with a badly crippled airplane for a total flight time of nearly 4 minutes, and returned to the field for a safe landing!!!

As the model was close enough to see the structural problem it was obvious that the problem was not an ejected battery as we originally thought but, instead the entire motor assembly with bulkhead was dangling by its three electrical wires.

Great flying Don, and I will forever be impressed by that amazing flight and your competitive spirit and skills!! Just had to share this with those who were not there to witness this amazing flight.

Summary of results: see below for the detailed results

Detailed Results from the WinSoar scoring program:

2012-05-27-darts-ales-contest-1-results-final.pdf
2012-05-27-darts-ales-contest-1-round-scores.pdf

Pictures from the event:

Thanks to Ken Rice for taking the pictures of the winners

If anyone else took any pictures, please send the originals and I work them up for this page: send them to the: Webmaster

Clicking on a thumbnail brings up a full-size image (without the caption) suitable for downloading and printing.

The winners of 2012 DARTS ALES #1, Don Harris - 3rd, Ed Franz - 1st, and Gavin Trussell - 2nd event: 2012 DARTS ALES #1 picture: 2012-05-27-001-cover.jpg location: Fairborn, OH date: 05-13-2022 revise info

The winners of 2012 DARTS ALES #1, Don Harris - 3rd, Ed Franz - 1st, and Gavin Trussell - 2nd (re-work from original) event: 2013 DARTS ALES #1 picture: 2012-05-27-002-cover.jpg location: Fairborn, OH date: 05-13-2023 revise info

The winners of 2012 DARTS ALES #1, Don Harris - 3rd, Ed Franz - 1st, and Gavin Trussell - 2nd (re-work from original, cropped to standard aspect ratio) event: 2014 DARTS ALES #1 picture: 2012-05-27-002.jpg location: Fairborn, OH date: 05-13-2024 revise info

Dave Wrinkle, CD passes out awards to (left to right) Ed Franz, Don Harris, and Bill Hoelcher event: 2015 DARTS ALES #1 picture: 2012-05-27-003.jpg location: Fairborn, OH date: 05-13-2025 revise info