[LASS Soaring] LASS Mid-Am RES Results, briefly

[Ben Wilson]

Windy and HOT today in Louisville.  Felt more like Texas than 
Bluegrass.  No spec-outs today!  Just try to capitalize on the fast 
moving lift, and oh yeah, don't go behind the trees.  Only 10 guys this 
Friday morning, but they were ready to go.  Two winches with retrievals 
- open winches all day.  CD Ed Wilson had us jumping through some hoops 
with some "old school" tasks - duration, precision duration and then the 
"triathlon" event.  A lot of a head-scratching was seen (I was one of 
'em!) regarding the specifics of these tasks, but here's the deal in brief:

Duration - normal thermal duration with a landing
Precision - normal thermal duration, but with a bonus of up to 100 
points for landing within the last thirty seconds of the task time, and 
a landing
"Triathlon" - both Duration and Precision, but with the Precision bonus 
being available at every even minute (2,4,6,8,10).  So then, a guy who 
lands at 2 minutes (120 seconds) on the nose would get 120 points + 100 
point bonus, which would be better than the guy who landed at 3 minutes 
(180 points vs 220 points).  Interesting stuff, that....

Well, I was going along just fine in the first two rounds (10-minute 
duration and precision), with Tony Estep sticking pretty close, but then 
I just couldn't make it back over the trees that had sustained me for 
the previous two rounds (despite Ken Marks' excellent and enthusiastic 
timing), and I stuck my NATS-Wood-Winning Polecat EZ Bubble Dancer in 
the Nature Preserve.  That plane has seen a lot of action, from nose-in 
crashes to being stuck in a tree at LAST year's Mid-Am to having it's 
rudder blown off at the NATS this year and I thought for sure this time 
was it!  I wandered around in the woods awhile until Ken Marks came to 
rescue me again and he made a beeline through the backyards of some 
really nice homes to find it.  I was out in the street of the 
neighborhood looking for a Bentley with a smashed windshield or a 
gardener knocked unconscious... but then I saw Ken hotfooting it down 
someone's driveway, plane in hand - and only one hand!  It was still in 
one piece, ready to fly.  Amazing. 

That round and the next two were all 10-minute triathlon, and almost no 
one got into the bonuses - no one wanted the ignomy of a 2-minute 
flight!  The winds had kicked up to about 15 MPH and the last task was 
decided to be a 5-minute precision.  I hit 5:00 on the dot and had a 
landing to claw my way back up...

Top Four (scores to come)

1st - Tony Estep (composite Bubble Dancer)
2nd - Nelson Itterly
3rd - Ben Wilson (EZ Bubble Dancer)
4th - AJ Bhattacharyya (Scooter 3M)

There was a little carnage today, with Hank Gullet's Danny losing a 
rudder (but making it safely back to the ground) and Tony Utley having a 
center-panel failure on a nearly-brand-new AVA.  A closer look revealed 
the top spar cap popped loose - possibly due to the wrapping thread 
being sliced by the un-rounded sparcaps.  Drela mentions "aggressively" 
rounding those caps to keep a stress riser from forming right there.  
Never seen an AVA do that before!  Taco'd the wings.   It is repairable, 
though...

Weather is looking much cooler next two days, with high 80s both days 
and a slight chance of rain on Saturday afternoon.  Hope to see you there! 

Ben Wilson
Louisville Area Soaring Society
http://www.louisvillesoaring.org