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Updated 01/25/04 |
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MoM 2004 - Beacon Ridge 01/25/04 Results |
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Our first time at a new slope discovered by Mike Sheridan. It faces East and would work from ENE to ESE. Started out OK at NE but after round 3 it went full North and planes descended from launch faster than in dead air. Still, a site where you drive on paved roads to within 100 yards of the site, park right behind the pilots' box and have lots of 3 ft. tall soft stuff to land on. This is definitely the site of choice for Santa Ana conditions. Lots of room for F3F course, and enough for Unlimited MoM with some reconfiguration. Specifically, we need to park and fly from the South end next time, so we are not baffled by flying into a steeply rising hill just beyond the turn flag. The results heavily reflect the effects of bad luck on the scores. Flying 3-up, a DNF is 4 and a DNS is 5. With that in mind, here are the standings: Unlimited Class: So ,that was it for the
first MoM of 2004. Thanks to all who pitched in, and especially to the 3
first time fliers who came out to enjoy the best rush in sailplane flying. --------------------------------------------------- More color commentary
from Dan Field regarding 1/25/04 race: Hi Slope Racers Just thought I would drop a note while waiting for the results of yesterdays MOM. First thanks to Bill DelHagen for stepping up and running the comp. Showed up with only 15 minutes until race time,,, half way up the last dirt road ( barely a road ),, all the other trucks were coming down. We turned around and waited at the bottom to see what was up. Basically a NE wind, wrong side of Whitaker to work. Mike Sheridan came up with a NE hill during one of his camping trips on the other side of the 5 also at Templin Hwy. about 3 to 4 miles back in off Templin. Drive right up to a nice slope with decent landing, that is when we get the landing figured out enough to miss some pole markers, nice tall forgiving brush or heavy grass. Way better than Parker and Vincent. At first it was just about full ballast with big smiles on the faces of some. Not me, I don’t do Unlimited with my Primary F3F Pike, or do I. After our pilots meeting with lots of info by Bill, we got in 3-1/2 rounds of Unlimited only with the wind going left and too far North. Round four was called, three of us threw off, good flag blowing wind in our faces but all three dropped into the brush. Brush looked like 5 or 6 ft high,,, more like 12 when you get down there. So, we didn’t learn from the first time, so we threw off again, back to the bushes, racing was called for the day. Ray Kuntz broke a wing in the middle on a hot landing. Rey confirmed what a tough little plane the Prodji is,, big cloud of dust and a load thud. Someone yelled out “ if that plane isn’t in pieces, I will have to get me one”,,,, it flew its next round. A couple of the poles were hit on landing, so we all had a few new dings or so, but pretty nice racing for the most part. Most believe “Beacon Ridge” will be awesome in a NE Santa Ana. Regards,
Dan Field |