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| F5J 2004 Electric Soaring World Challenge Over! Broadband Version - More Photos After three days of often windy weather, courageous flying and skilled performances, the 2004 F5J ESWC successfully completed. Paul Siegel once again has demonstrated his mastery of F5J, winning both 7 cell and Unlimited events. However, no round was a freebie, and many pilots were within striking distance of the top three positions in each event. Buzz Averill and Bruce Twining were close in 7 cell, and Bruce also came close in Unlimited, leading before the last round. On Sunday Lenny Keer surpassed first day leaders Fred McClung and Dennis Renner to win Speed 400. WeatherUsually October is kind to us here in Northern New Mexico, with light winds and lift ranging from light to huge. This time the weather challenged everyone, from Friday's practice day through end of competition Sunday. The forecast called for wind all weekend. CD Phil Gilbert said he had placed an order for no wind on Saturday, and at first Mother Nature honored the request, but with a sense of humor. The early morning fog was so thick some couldn't find the field. So Phil put another order in to get rid of the fog. Back came the wind. On Sunday at about 6:30 a.m., wind came through again and munched a couple canopies. Few thought we were going to have a second day of flying. But in a couple hours, a beautiful calming came over the area, and the pilots voted to fly. The calm lasted through two complete rounds of "big air," making the event especially exciting for everyone. PeopleU.S. pilots travelled from as far away as New York to enjoy the excitement of electric motor launch soaring and competition. David Hobby, World Champion F3J pilot from Australia joined us and proved a formidable builder and competitor. Many pilots at the ESWC are veterans, as were all the winners. Many returning pilots demonstrated improved skills since last year. Barry Kennedy of Kennedy Composites came just to watch. His presence and extra parts saved the competition for a couple pilots whose AVAs sustained damage (from close encounters with the ground) during launch and landing. EquipmentThe competitors brought a variety of sailplanes and motors. Winning pilots flew built-up, molded and bagged wing designs. The most common designs flown were the e-AVA from Kennedy Composites and the WindDancer from PoleCat Aero. Other commercial offerings included the Graphite, High Aspect E, Silent Dream, and Sky Sergio. Builder/flyers had good success, including David Hobby, Steve Suntken, and Lenny Keer. Speed 400 defending champ Suntken brought his "Fart Catcher," but had a little bad luck with his gear box. Lenny Keer's Speed 400 plane is a Mirage hand launch conversion--it demonstrated awesome launch heights. David Hobby's 7-cell design was impressive. It's a 2.1 meter built-up, very lightweight with an old Kontronic motor and 5.x:1 gearbox. He says this design is optimized for the slightly different approach to launch times used in Europe and Australia: You choose how long your motor run goes, and that time is subtracted from your score. F3J fans — sound familiar? So that's where he got his practice for the F3J World Championships--flying electric! This plane was extremely fast and absolutely vertical going to altitude. Almost all of the Unlimited planes lived up to their reputation, "skying out" in just 20 seconds courtesy of big geared brushless motors, big props, and 10-16 cell battery packs. The Contest-Day 1Everyone enjoys the huge open areas and big grass circles at Gardner Sod Farms. After being prepped by the weather service for wind, we were surprised Saturday morning by the quiet, dense fog. It happens once in a while in the big Estancia Valley. This stuff is thick, but it always burns off in time to fly. So instead of an 8:30 am start, the first flight group launched about 10:30 am. The predicted winds of 15-20 mph arrived by the third round, and most pilots continued to compete despite the wind. Ten-minute task windows including motor runs were the order of the day. Each second added one point to your score. Flight groups competed man-on-man with scores normalized to 1000 points. Landing targets were large circles with three concentric targets, and the potential landing points modest. Landing in the outer ring gained 5 points, middle ring 10 points, and center circle 15 points. Going over 10 minutes zeroed your landing points and subtracted 2 points per second over the window. Each event had its own director. The CD set himself in the middle of the pits, and radios made for easy communication to the flight line. Safety is a big concern for all of us. With that in mind the contest director set the launch spots/landing tapes on a diagonal to the side of the pits. A 100' area in front of the cars plus the parking area was designated a no-fly area at any altitude, and enforced with immediate warnings to the pilot. Landing approaches overflying any part of the the pits would cost the pilot his landing points.
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Results The Contest-Day 2No fog on Sunday. But we were all pleasantly surprised when the area, overcast with wild-looking clouds and buffeted by wind gusts to 30 mph in the early morning, gently calmed down and let us have two very beautiful rounds of flying. Each event class continued with the top 12 pilots flying in a single flight group. Task windows increased to 15 minutes. If you could get high enough on launch, large areas of lift made it easier to sustain. On the other hand, large sink areas were also ready to surprise the unwary pilot and drop his plane back to earth. No one in Speed 400 could last the full 15 minutes. Many in Unlimited class also fell out short on time. On the other hand, almost every 7 cell pilot flew the 15 minutes.
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Results The scores from Saturday were combined with Sunday for the final tabulation. We flew 6 rounds total, with one throw-out on Saturday. Final Scores The winning pilots:
Contest KudosWell deserved thanks to the folks supporting and running this year's contest. To Kurt Mandel of Niagara Frontier Models for providing not one but two poly Sky Sergios for the raffle. To Phil Gilbert, our CD, for running the contest with a perfect balance of discipline, flexibility, and humor. To the event directors Richard Shagam, Mike Carris, and Bruce Twining for running the flight groups. To Aradhana Singh Khalsa for performing both registration and scoring. To Dennis Renner for his excellent scoring spreadsheets. To Deanna and Buzz Averill for handling the event graphics, shirts, banquet, and keeping an eye on everything. To Kevin Berger for supplying the complementary water and sodas. To all the club members and family members for timing, and for the variety of other unsung activities in support of the ESWC. And finally to all the participants, whose competitive spirit, sportsmanship, and great attitude make this an event worth having. Let's all invite our best friends and toughest competitors to next year's contest and make it even better! |
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