TMSS
September Contest (well actually in October)
Josh Glaab (secretary)
It has been a very active summer for
team-Glaab soaring and was a bit of a blur from our TMSS/ESL contest in May and today. In between, were
the US Nationals, US F3J Team Selections, and CASA and LISF ESL contests. Sorry to have been away much of the
summer, but there are only 24 hrs/day, 7 days/week, and 365 days/year. Now that the away contests are concluded,
it is time to get back to TMSS club events.
Today we flew the September TMSS club contest, although the date was October 3rd.
Several previous attempts either met with the county fair, weather issues, or just not enough flyers to make it work.
Today, however, we were treated to a completely deserted Heritage Park, spectacular Indian Summer weather, and just
enough flyers to make it happen!
John Moody dropped off the winch in the morning and Bill Mims was there to help setup. John needed
to go home to attend to various tasks and help his wife who is recovering from knee surgery and could not fly but he did drive
all the way back to pick up the winch at the end of the day (how about that for some great help!). Around
10:30am we showed up (me, Luke and Josh Jr.). A quick call to Lenny (encouraging him to show-up) provided
critical mass for our first club contest since June. Lenny arrived at noon and we were off and running!
As mentioned above,
the weather was spectacular! Light winds around 5 to 10 from the W-N-W worked reasonably well for our field.
Bill was flying his home-made Supra-like aircraft. Lenny was flying one his Supras.
Josh Jr and I were sharing a WACO Magic (that’s right a Magic) and Luke was driving his trusty Charmelion (AKA
Sovereign). Luke did let me borrow his aircraft for a flight. The Magic that we were
flying is a 9% V-Tail Magic that I first flew around 1996 or 1997. I flew the Magic for a few years and
then sold it to my sister Anna in 2000. Anna never flew it, but my brother in-law Ed meticulously stored
it. This year, when we were looking for upgraded aircraft for Josh Jr, and already pressing Trish’s
old WACO Merlin back into service, Anna gave us the Magic in July. It was in beautiful condition and only
needed a new battery pack and some tweaks here and there and it was ready to go.
I assumed the task of CD today and called
for 4-10 minute flights in any order ;-). In addition, there was a 100-pt FAI tape with 5-pts/meter increments.
Since there were so few of us and we were getting a late start, I called for simple duration (ie the time stops in
the air) allowing all with a countdown timer to time for themselves.
Luke Glaab won 2-M Sportsflyer by putting up one 2-minute and 4-second
flight. No one else entered 2-M Sportsflyer. Luke was a little nervous flying in our
small-ish field with the big trees around, but he did do well. Luke has made a lot of progress this season
having cut the buddy-box chord after our May contest.
Josh Glaab Sr. won 2-M Expert with one 10-minute flight with a 100-pt landing flying Luke’s
Charmelion. Again, no one else flew in 2-M Expert today.
In Unlimited Sportsflyer, Josh Jr was flying against Bill Mims.
Both pilots put up some great flights and Bill won with a score of 2278 to Josh Jr’s 1746. Bill
was able to max 3 of the 4 10s and get half of the 4th. Bill also had some landing points in
all of his landings. Josh Jr got 2 of the 10s but had short flights on the other 2. He
did get an 85 in his first landing and made a lot of progress today flying the Magic and will provide some good competition
in Sportsflyer class for the rest of the year!
Lenny was able to get 3 out of the 4 10s in expert class, but only got about ½ of the 4th.
Lenny had 2 95-pt landings and a 90 to go along with that. I was embarrassingly perfect today (4
10s with 4 100-pt landings). Sorry about that. I don’t know what came over me ;-).
Regarding field setup, we should consider
only using about 220 paces of winch line and move as far upwind as possible. We should set the turn-around
way-up near the large tree along the entrance road. Today, we placed the winch near the access road, which
provided what looked like 300 paces of winch line, but we had to hike quite a way to get to the landing circle and that made
things a little tight on landings.
Unlimited Expert
Raw Norm
1) Josh Glaab 2800
100
2)
Lenny Strickland
2427 86.7
Unlimited Sportsflyer
Raw Norm
1) Bill Mims
2278 100
2) Josh Glaab Jr. 1746
76.6
2-M Expert
Raw Norm
1) Josh Glaab 700
100
2-M Sportsflyer
Raw Norm
1) Luke Glaab 124
100
