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Updated 07/11/04 |
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F3F 2004 - White Point 07-10-04 Results |
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Wow! Another amazing day at WhitePoint is in the books, with gorgeous weather, good pilot turn out, and good lift. The plan for the day was to start around noon, fly to 6pm, and get 10 rounds in. Well, we started around 1pm, flew to 6:15pm, and flew 10 full rounds, one at a time (no doubled runs like in the past). This was done to decrease the flying intervals, and help make the scoring more accurate in comparison to other times flown that round. This plan worked out well, and clearly accomplished the stated goals. However, with twice as many landings, and with a number of people unfamiliar with the mental landing pattern at Whitepoint, there was a great deal more carnage than past events. Notably, there were ZERO front side incidents, but possibly as many as 6 or 7 planes suffered some degree of damage, including Warren's Blade XL that decided to go swimming... A lot of interesting things that occurred today. Getting there was exciting all in itself. As I crested the last hill on Gaffee near the park at Point Fermin, I was greeted by the flag mast vibrating madly in a strong NW wind, PERFECT for WhitePoint. Driving close, excitement building as I watched the palm trees blowing around in the steady wind. Then, as I get to WhitePoint, I could see strong wind streaks and whitecaps on the water, and then a large sailboat race commenced with spinnakers out hull up on plane, swiftly cruising past the point. This was the strongest wind I've experienced at Whitepoint, and I was loving it. Notable highlights today: Tom Copp got the new WhitePoint slope record, with a blistering 45.55, and a Sierra Pale Ale from yours truly as promised. Tom flew great all day long, with a series of sub-50 second runs, winning 6 out of 10 rounds, and actually having to throw out a 47! Kyle Paulson flew incredibly steady today, with a string of six 52's. Now that's consistent! It was great to see some former regulars rejoin the fun, notably Alan Libertore and Richard Chambers, the teen Alex Neighbor and newcomer Marc Silverman. Now back to Warren. The Concrete Man was on a smooth typical landing approach, when his plane suddenly popped up, turned west, and headed out to sea, where it proved itself capable of floating long enough for him to swim out and retrieve it, marking the first successful water retrieval at WP (sorry Dan, we still grieve for the Icon too). By the time Warren got back to the staging area, his slot was called, and he borrowed my 60" MiniBlade with what could conservatively be called "acrobatic" throws setup on it, and cranked out a run only a second or two off all his previous runs. That was pretty impressive, flying a new plane, new tranny with a very hot setup, and getting right back into the hunt. He would have faired better in the standings if he hadn't had to leave before the end of the comp, but overall he showed marked improvement over prior events. Bill DelHagen was amazingly lucky today. Not so much in his flying, he just couldn't seem to get his planes tuned to speed mode today. However, he did ably demonstrate the resilience of the Wizard by bouncing it off the back fence, not once, but twice, with zero damage! This is a fully loaded standard glass moldie (with +30 oz of lead?), and it simply bounced of the chain link fence undamaged. We should all be so lucky. Another highlight was watching young Alex Neighbor maiden his new Blade 2M to F3F and to Ballast. His F3F skills increased significantly throughout the day, and his landings were an example to us all. We also appreciated having Sue there, getting involved and having fun with us. We need more of this sort of thing. Some lowlights today, include Mike's breaking a tail on landing early in the comp. Mike is the perennial favorite here, and I wanted to see him rip up the slope today too, but alas, it was not to be. Other sadness including watching Alan consistently land a little differently from the rest of us, with tragic results. New comer Marc Silverman had fun learning exactly how little control surface movement you really need in this game, and was doing fairly well until the fence reached out and Stung him on landing. Personally I experimented with a ballasted Tragi 702 today. Nimble plane, great behavior in the air, but just couldn't get enough top end out of it. Resorted to the trusty old Pike WR and quickly got my Whitepoint personal best of 49.10. Now I'm really looking forward to getting my Trinity off the bench and into the top 3 :-) As it was, I was feeling pretty groovy with the Pike, until brain fade or something came in and I cut Base A three times in a row, on the last three rounds. I would love to see what my score had been without those cuts. I'm gunning for you Tom, so watch out! As the CD, besides good wind (thank you God), having great volunteers really makes the day go well, and EVERYONE did a fantastic job today running the beepers. I am very grateful at how readily and quickly everyone responded to take their turn. Even some of the people who were no longer in the race due to attrition. Notably, Mike Sheridan who stayed all day, ran beepers, ran the timer, and helped tear down and pack out the gear. This does not go unappreciated. THANKS.
Today was a lot of fun, and it was great seeing more new faces. Next F3F is at Mammoth Mountain! See you there, the high altitude air.
Regards,
============================================ Overall Totals
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