December 11, 2011 Thermal Duration Contest ~ CD Mike Smith
We had 20
eager, paid entries at the last TPG TD contest of the year
yesterday.
The weather forcasts were calling for dense fog in front of
an oncoming storm set to hit us on Monday, so I was pleased
to see that the "fog" was really only haze with some low
clouds. The day was flyable from the start. We had a few
guys drive south from far away places like Orange County to
join us. Notable regular Tom Watson was there, along with
another increasingly familiar participant Robert Covazos.
Tuan Le was there too, and along with the regular regulars
like Keith, Cliff, Peter, John, Dave, Tom, Dan, Erik, Terry,
Steve, Garth, Scott, Mario, Mark, Patrick (yep, Patrick
Dionisio) fun was had by most everyone as far as I could
tell ;-)
I called the task times based on what I thought would be
most challenging to everyone. The one catch was that the
Masters had to fly that task time as announced, but the
Experts would fly one minute less. The tasks I ended up
calling were 6, 8, 8, and a 10. Conditions were really
interesting for the early 6 minute flight. Launches and
landings were downwind (or at least they were for everyone
who paid attention during the pilots meeting) and the lift
was really only discernable in the form of "well, it looks
like I am coming down really really slowly". A couple of the
first pilots to fly, expertly used the easterly facing slope
to sustain their flight to the target time.
The day opened up lift wise after that, and the longer, 8
minute task times seemed easy for most. The last few flyers
shooting for their 10 minute flight found that the holes
(areas of sink) had grown quite a bit, and our front runner
for the day found only 2:50 worth of flight time for his
last flight. Eye opening for sure.
As suspected, a fun time was had by all, and I am really
looking forward to 2012. Thanks all for a wonderful TPG
contest season. We have some of the nations (I'll say
it..."worlds") best pilots amongst us here, and coming out
to rub shoulders with these guys, and test you skills
against them is some of the best fun that can be had.
Happy Holidays everyone.
Mike Smith
September 11 2011 TD contest
Ten pilots gathered at the Poway field for
this month's club contest.
As Visalia is fast approaching, we moved the contest
location to allow pilots to hone their air-searching skills,
since Poway is much less restrictive than Encinitas. Yours
truly was CD again. We flew four rounds...5, 8, 10 and 10
minutes with standard tape landings, though landing points
were halved, with 950 flight points and 50 landing points
possible each round. No winch retrievers were used.
Two-time F3J world champion David Hobby flew with us as
well.
The contest began just after 09:00 with clear skies and
typical Poway conditions, with good to great lift...but
where there is lift, there is sink, and sometimes plenty of
it. We finished around noon with David Hobby earning first
place overall, just barely ahead of Ben Clerx. Tom Watson
was third. Scores should be up on the TPG web site very
soon.
See you guys at Visalia.
Tom
August 14 2011 TD contest Encinitas
An even dozen of TPG's best met at the
Encinitas field today for this month's club contest. Yours
truly stepped in as CD for Steve Condon, who had a schedule
conflict. We flew four rounds...5, 7, 8 and 10 minutes with
standard tape landings. No winch retrievers were used and
the only equipment malfunction noted was a brake adjustment
on one winch.
The contest began at 09:15 under a breaking overcast and
calm, slightly downwind conditions with mild temperatures.
As the morning progressed, the clouds dissipated and breeze
picked up and turned, for the most part, to an up/crosswind
direction, remaining so for the duration (pun
intended) of the contest. The air was very cyclic as usual
with some tricky thermals moving along the ridge to the
south...the very tight "fly" zone makes for some interesting
tactics at times.
We finished up around noon with Mario Scolari emerging as
the winner, Watson in a close second and Jolly in third.
Scores should be up on the TPG web site very soon.
See you all at the September contest.
Tom Watson
Torrey Pines Gulls August contest results
Aug 8 2010
TPG hosted the August club contest at our Encinitas Flight
Center on Sunday August 8. 15 pilots registered to fly the
event, 8 in Master and 7 in Expert. There were no novice
pilots. Early fog was forecasted to hamper the start of 9am
but the start was not delayed. Flying conditions were
excellent with four rounds of 6 min, 8 min and 10 minute
thermal duration performed. The landing was on a 25’ tape
worth 50 points. The duration part was worth 950 points with
a perfect score of 1000 per round. Complete scores are
published on the web site. Mike Smith took first place in
Master class with a score of 3972. Larry Jolly took second
with 3967 and Tom Kiesling took third with 3901.
Dan Fitzgerald took first in Expert with 3948, Peter Leduc
was second with 3170 and Mark Kargul was third with 3025.
Our winches and retriever systems work well with little
attention required. Scoring was performed by Cliff Hunter
and club members handled winch and retriever duties.
Thank you to all TPG members who assisted with the success
of this contest.
Keith Finkenbiner- Contest Director
On Sunday June 13, twelve brave souls
showed up to fly the first contest I have CD'd in several
years. The tasks were three rounds, 10 minutes each, flown
man-on-man with four pilots per heat, and standard tape
landings. The air was typically cyclic, with large areas of
sink seemingly all concentrated south of the field (where we
are forced to go because of the no-fly zone). We had just a
few equipment malfunctions, which usually allowed us to get
all four pilots launched in each heat within a one-minute
window. This was sometimes all it took to make the
difference between getting out and pounding. The air handed
out several cans of whoop-ass, resulting in a 1,600 point
spread from front to back of the master class alone.
There were several landings out of scoring bounds, resulting
in the unfortunate zero scores, but all in all the contest
format was well received. Everybody pitched in and we were
finished with awards handed out by 1PM or so. Scores should
be up on the web site soon.
Personally, I believe that MoM is an excellent format and
hope to see more of it at our club in the future. On a
related note, there is an "experimental" SC2 MoM event
Saturday July 24. Please come out and fly if you
can...here's a link to the entry form:
The TPG HLG contest series is about participation. This
month rocked. Two of the
most dedicated had other commitments this month including
winning the Blue Skies event.
However, the attendance was still 11 pilots. That's great
for July. Apparently, a
lot of guys couldn't get enough at the IHLGF. Participants
included at one DLG newcomer
who had a great time. For the new pilot, these contests are
about fun and trying the
challenging tasks. There were also some some experienced TD
guys who are crossing over
to DLG just now. Rumor has it that more even TD guys will
soon be making the switch.
Look for some winches on the used equipment market, soon.
Even though we've tried all of the F3K tasks before, this
was our first contest with
nothing but F3K. We flew 5 of the tasks: task B last flight,
task C next to last
and last flight, task E all up last down, task H the
familiar ladder starting at 30,
and task I poker. We took our time and went over each task
before flying. Everyone
did a great job flying the new rules. Nobody was penalized
for missing the landing window.
Some of the tasks gave a lot of us fits. Quite a few of us
bid too high in poker. I would
have done a lot better if I had bid 75 seconds five times.
Some didn't make that mistake.
Flying all up last down as a regular contest task was just
strange to me. We had some
very large and very strong cycles as evident by some
surprising raw scores, especially
in the ladder task.
Afterwards, most of the pilots gathered for lunch. It was a
great time. Hope to see
everyone there next month.
Next month, Sean Porter, will be the guest CD. In September,
Mike Seid will be the
guest CD, and in October, it'll be Brad Willoughby. Thanks,
guys, for helping out.
Look for the upcoming contest announcements.
TPG HLG
12MAY2007 Report
========================
There was a huge turnout this month with everyone trying to
get warmed up for the main event next month. Of the 18
registered pilots 15 flew. Three had bugaboos, radios not
completely programmed, or else just came down to support
their factory team. Of special note, Cliff, the TPG club
president, competed and had a great time.
Sorry for the late posting of the results for those reading
on the internet. For those who were there, I had to take
some time out to contemplate being a good neighbor.
It was great having seven or eight pilots flying each heat.
The five rounds also made for a long contest. Conditions
were moderately windy for Poway at least half of the
contest, but not as bad as it often is in June. It was
enough to tell a lot of us that we need to get more practice
in during the next few weeks. It also served to spread out
the scores much more than last month's crazy photo finish.
Thanks again to all the locals and out of town guys who came
out to make the regular HLG contest such a fun event. Hope
to see everyone at the IHLGF next month. TPG club members
should note that the IHLGF counts as the June event for the
year end HLG awards. After the big event in June, the
monthly HLG contest series continues in July. Some of the
contests will be F3K events and some will be who knows what.
Look for future announcements.
--Drew
April 21, 2007 TPG HLG Contest Report
=====================================
The weather looked good for the contest. About 1/2 inch of
rain ensured softer
ground than usual and the soaring forecast the morning of
the contest called
for a soaring index of 538 feet per minute with a very low
trigger temperature
of 47F. Winds weren't forecast to start blowing too hard
until after 2 pm.
The air was active and the competition was fierce as shown
in the final score
sheet. The top half of the pilots finished within a few
points of each other!
An experimental round was held after the contest. This
month, it was a practice
session for the Launch Altitude Challenge to be held Friday,
June 1 before the
IHLGF. 6 pilots entered a total of 9 different planes.
Maximum launches ranged
from 122 to 166 feet above ground level. Very interesting to
this observer was
how consistent the launches were. If a pilot's body
mechanics were consistent,
his launches came out very close. Even the least consistent
series of launches
produced a spread of no more than 15 feet or so. These guys
are good. It does
go to show how important the body mechanics are. There
wasn't a lot of data,
but the Vandals may have had a slight edge. Ballast appeared
to help, too.
Thanks to everyone who came out and participated. See you
next month!
