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125 Successful Landings at Parker! (and one not so good one)
Today's F3F race in SoCal was an absolute blast. We had a GREAT
turnout, with 19 pilots ignoring the forecast and coming out to have a
great day with us. Specially glad to see all the new faces, Target,
Harry, Doug, Bob M. and others.
One the way to Vincent, I call to see if anyone's there. I get through
to Doug Cook, and he's telling me it's blowing hard from due East!
Thanks to the miracles of cell phone technology, we got the entire group
turned around and headed to our alternate site, Parker Mountain in
record time. I think everyone was topside and getting ready by 10:30
AM. Awesome.
Check out the photo of Doug Cook and Joe Zepeda feeling the wind when we
got to Parker! Winds started around 25mph and then picked up to a bit
above 30mph and stayed there all day. Tasty air.
We quickly got the course set up, got everyone's frequencies and entry
fee, then had the Pilots Meeting. We decided (okay, "I" decided) to
have a separate Round Zero so that people could get dialed in (the fact
that I had two unflown planes with me that day had nothing to do with
it, honest :-) Dave Bates was first up, and was going REALLY fast,
bending the wings on his Cohen F3F on every turn, until he cut, ouch!
Shortly after that Bill DelHagen got a juicy 37.02, still in Round Zero.
Joe Wurts showed the hesitant where/how to land (Parker is unique), and
then Round 1 began in earnest. We flew double rounds to minimize
landings. At the end of the day, that seemed like a good decision. We
landed 126 times all together, and only had one damaged nose from
landing waaaayyy out behind the next ridge over, and two striped servos
that I'm aware of. All three planes were repaired slopeside and
remained competitive. I am really pleased with the way everyone landed
today. Great job everybody!
But who cares about landing... F3F is about flying! And fly we did. Joe
Wurts SMOKED us all with an early 32.66 in Round 1, and then Rey peeled
off a 37.15 in Round 2. We realized that the potential to shatter some
records was there, so we made a minor adjustment to the course and
triple checked that it was 100m long (it was a tad short to begin with).
This made the bases more interesting, due to the shape of the slope, but
it didn't seem to phase anyone and we continued to get some great runs.
In Round 3, new guy Harry_S pulled off a blistering 41.59 with a feather
light unballasted carbon Banana that he's only flown only a couple of
times. This is when everyone was filling their planes with as much lead
as they could hold, Pretty cool!
Round 3 & 4 started out good, with runs in the low to mid 40¡¦s until
poor Alexi stepped up to fly and the wind suddenly shifted hard to the
north. His promising low 40 turned into a painful 57, followed by a 56.
It was this pair of runs that really killed his final standings, and
clearly shows one of the risks of double round flying. Sorry Alexi!
Right after Alexi and then Joe Wurts, the air remembered that we were
trying to race, and came back in due east and stronger than ever. Which
was when Rey decided to fling out the Arkanj and got some sweet smooth
air and nailing a 38.54 with the wings bending BIG TIME the entire 10
legs of the run. He had some serious energy on that run. Round 5
started strong, with Dave Bates getting a 39, which was his just reward
after flying a really strong round 4 but getting a cut. Round 5 was
nice vindication, and I'm sure it was his highlight of the day. It
didn't last long though, as Joe Wurts shook off that nasty north wind
feeling and turned in a juicy 37.41, easily winning the round.
Then Dan Field quieted the friendly bantering with a perfectly flown
37.65 in Round 6, and there you have it. Six full rounds with some
fantastic racing.
I want to thank everyone for ignoring the forecast and trusting that the
wind would be plentiful and the day enjoyable. The flying is fun, but
the people really make it worthwhile. Also, special thanks to Phat Vu
whose plane turned out to have some pre-existing damage and was unable
to fly. Phat stuck around anyway and helped out greatly on the poles.
Thanks dude!
Cheers!
Nathan Woods
SCSR > CD
Footnote: Dan Field brought back a Team USA flag from the Viking Race,
and planted it in the pilots box. That was a cool thing to see there.
The wind was strong enough to give the flag some weathering and
character (see the photo).
6 Rounds Flown 1 Throw Outs Allowed
Contest Fastest Time: - Round 1 - Joe Wurts - 32.66
Rank Points Pilot Name
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1 4910.28 Joe Wurts
2 4653.91 Rey Harju
3 4644.81 Dan Field
4 4583.83 Bill DelHagen
5 4567.28 Dave Bates
6 4488.88 Kyle Paulson
7 4387.40 Bob Breaux
8 4382.47 Nathan Woods
9 4345.69 Woody Rackliffe
10 4294.08 Warren Day
11 4216.92 Alex Breaux
12 4175.40 Harry_S
13 4150.99 Target
14 4127.61 Joe Zepda
15 4046.81 Alexi Kisselev
16 3732.57 Doug Cook
17 3534.79 Alex Neighbor
18 2973.11 Bob M.
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