Race to the finish!

Post from Sabitchen: For those of you who did not hear how the competition ended here it is, and it was pretty exiting! Denny Mallett & I led most of the comp. On our final trip to Big T it was a low trip. I left Lances at about 3550 first & Denny left 100ft lower & later than me. I arrived to Big T first followed by Denny, I stopped in a weak one at Middle T & Denny kept on going into no mans land way in front of BIG T. Later he told me that he didnt even think that he would sink out & then said (I dont sink out!). But unfortunatly he did as I watched him get lower & lower, then disappear, then I noticed 2 gliders that sunk out from the first run to Big T, I was thinking (son of a !@$%*&%), but slowly got back up from the weak one at Middle T.

I got to Big T & climbed to about 3,700 at this piont I saw a flex wing at Little T low & very slowly get up the lift that was getting weaker. I went towards Little T to go home & got down to 3,400 I figured the glider that was low was still here from the first run so I stayed to get a little higher to go the final turn point at East Trash. Up to this point I had only had to stop in about 7 thermals & was going full blast the whole way but it was getting late & the man at the thermal valve was shutting it of for the day.

Then I noticed that the guy that was at Big T was getting up & came towards me, it was the Rob Beerges, he flew over head by 150ft going home, at that point I realized that this might be his second run to Big T, so I left Little T at 3,400 we arrive East Lances at the same time 200ft below the top seeing Lances at a whole different perspective, we are both right up against the hill Rob is in a Atos & mountain sandwich barelly squeeking by the knob at West Lances the looking down & thinking Hungary Joes property is huge from this altitude, this is where I pull on the speed to pass Rob, he then gets behind me & tries to pass me on the left but does not.

I tag East trash & win the day. Good job Rob that finish was awesome!

Here's some audio from the salvagable audio we recorded when the "JAMMING" wasn't going on too much.

Open Class

I've posted this graphic so you can see just how close Rob Burgis came to winning the day on a flexie vs. Sebastian on his ATOS. Although the quality isn't the best comapred to watching it in 3D you get the idea with this graphic (works best using Internet Explorer). If you click on the graphic itself you will pull up an animation of Rob and Sebastian's flights and can watch them battle it out in the end. The "not set" is Rob's instrument not set up for his name. Color represents height.

Spot Landing Winners

1st Kraig Coomber (3 ft)
2nd Phill Bloom (4 ft)
3rd (tie) Danny Black (25 ft)
Jim DeLear (25 ft.)

Golden Dart Joey Fresquez for a whistling pass straight down the middle
of the LZ with ground loop into the spot

Final Results Open, Sport, and Floater Class

I say that Rob Burgis did an outstanding job being only 1 minute behind Sebastian on his ridged wing making up 30 seconds in the end. Look at the difference in the start times. It seems to be where Rob was all day (1 minute behind). He was actually catching up.














Sport Class points were devalued because most of the field completed less than half of the task (so validity was low). Still good job by Ken Andrews for hanging tough.

The Floater Class doesn't get scored with RACE. The pilot with the most turnpoints in the least amount of time usually wins. In our Floater Task this year we only had two entries, Rey Gonzalez & Bob Wyler (Surfer Bob). Both got the towers turnpoint and Kagel (of course). Rey landed before Surfer Bob so he takes the class. Nice job on both contestants.

Radio woes during the comp

How about that radio static today. It really made for a miserable recording. I was streaming the radio audio during the tasks but got mainly static. I am still working the file to edit out the best parts but there's not too much good stuff as a result of the "JAMMING" someone was doing. Better luck next time.

Burbank Fire and TFR (problems?)

Smokey Morning

2 Days out and the weather looks great!

More Dahlsten Cup Preparations

Late into the night preparations are still being accomplished to make this a enjoyable day for all the competitors and free flyers alike. I finished the RACE configuration for the 3 classes last night and should be ready for pilot check in on Saturday morning.

Pilot check in will likely involve scribbling down some pilot and glider information at the check-in table and downloading of the waypoints into the GPS that the pilot checks in with. Check-in will take about 3 minutes maximum.

Recordings during the Dahlsten Cup

As an added bonus, I plan to record the radio transmissions of the "Open" or Comp Class during the heat of the battle. I hope I can get everything going while trying to have a good time.

I made some recordings on Sunday (the 25th) to test the quality. It's pretty good but I deleted a bunch of the good stuff when I was setting everything up. You can hear Andy (boy your radio is sounding good) and Phill as they fly together towards Big T (I think). Anyway take a listen here for the sounds of things to come.