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Handy Links:
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2016 DARTS April Club Contest
Sunday April 24, 2016
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Twin Towers Area Park, Fairborn, Ohio
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Sponsored by the DARTS (Dayton ARea Thermal Soarers)
Who:
Any AMA member, spectators welcome
What:
DARTS April Club Contest
When:
Sunday April 24, 2016
Winch Masters showed at various times, from 8:30 AM till round about 9:26 AM
Pilot's meeting after winches were set up
First round started sometime after 10:00 AM (after all it was the first meet of the year!)
Where:
Club Field, Twin Towers Area Park, Fairborn, OH
Why:
To have fun!
Event Type:
Club Contest, Seeded Man-on-Man Thermal Duration
Entry fee:
none
Contest Director:
Albie Salas
The day dawned with mild temperatures with a brisker than predicted East-South-East wind. Forecasts were for the winds to be South-East swinging around to South West by mid morning. But the winds did not swing around as forecast till well after the noon hour. This made the choice of winch setup difficult, but after some thought, the winches were set up in a South-South-East direction, and this proved to be a good choice for the entire day.
10 contestants showed with their winch launched sailplanes, a great turnout considering some of the regulars were not in attendance. I suppose the great weather had something to do with this good turnout. We flew 6 rounds in 3 flight groups, making for an enjoyable contest.
The sky was totally blue, with no clouds whatsoever contributing to some really tough air seeking conditions. Some of the rounds saw pilots coming down in the 2-3 minute range while another got his time, making for some serious score separations and movement as the rounds progressed.
Contest director Albie Salas called for a rather generous field boundary with all of the area between the walking path and the road in bounds for landing. There were therefore no land-outs..Albie also called for a 12 minute task time on the first round, this helped the eventual winner, Jerry Shape, who made his time, secure and early lead. The remainder of the rounds had a 10 minute task for which Jerry made the task time. nd place finisher Skye Malcolm dropped some time in this first round.and could never make it up point wise even though he made his times in the remaining rounds.
Albie found himself NOT in flight group 1 for much of the contest, at times putting the hurt on his fellow group members, good flying Albie!
Ron's victory flybys when he made time with his Egida when he made time provided a supersonic like sound that was amazing it was hard to believe that there was so much acoustical noise from whatever air flow was doing the trick.
In one afternoon round, Gavin went low over the trees to within maybe 50 feet of the treetops before finding lift and making time, everyone else was down early. Gavin once again proved he has giant balls and was not afraid to put them at risk. Good flying Gavin!
As noted above, there was a lot of movement in the middle of the pack during the course of the contest. Many a good flyer found himself on the ground early when the air wasn't there. Only Jerry had it all figured out and made time on all of his rounds, securing his win.
Gordy suffered a disappointing 4th round flight where he missed the air while another pilot made the time. But Gordy came back strong in the final 2 rounds, even announcing to his final round 6 flight group that he was going to crush them (perhaps with a few more adjectives). True to his word, Gordy got a 9:58 while nailing the landing for 100 points while the others in his flight group did not make time. A great way to end the contest for Gordy!
Always a good thing, I don't believe anyone crashed or suffered any kind of damage. A good day when you don't have to go home and make repairs.
A special thanks to Albie who again performed the Contest Director for the first meet of the year. Also for the Winch Masters who brought with them a means to pull these sailplanes into the air.
Joe M
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Summary Results:
see individual score cards for details
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place |
pilot
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score
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normalized
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score card
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1
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Jerry Shape
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6,502
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1,000
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score card
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2
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Skye Malcolm
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6,105
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939
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score card
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3
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Gavin Trussell
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6,053
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931
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score card
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4
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Mark Groves
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5,390
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829
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score card
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5
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Gordy Stahl
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5,213
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802
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score card
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6
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Ron Mong
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4,491
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691
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score card
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7
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Joe Mekina
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4,393
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677
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score card
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8
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Albie Salas
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3,670
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564
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score card
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9
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Todd Anderson
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2,327
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358
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score card
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10
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John Lueke
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1,890
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291
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score card
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Clicking on a thumbnail brings up a full-size image (without the caption) suitable for downloading and printing.
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(left-right): Gavin (hiding behind the wing), Mark Groves, Albie Salas, Ron Mong, Gordy Stahl, Todd Anderson, Skye Malcolm, Jerry, Joe's Supra on the grass (Joe took the picture)
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Jerry with his winning Aspire
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Skye and Albie with their yellow birds
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Gavin with his tiger strped Pike Perfect
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mark with his 2-meter glider
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Gordy relaxes in his charir between flights
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Ron strikes up a pose
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Ron on the move after a great landing
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Joe with his newly aquired Supra
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Albie with his Flight Group 1 Supra
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Todd with his Organic 2.5
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Jerry returns to the pits
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Jerry puts one on the spot
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Jerry flying while ron is timing and checking out another airplane
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Skye puts his body into one
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Todd measures Mark's landing score
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Ron about to take one up on the winch
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