Friday - July 30, 2004

Nats 2004 - Unlimited class, day 2

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C.D. Dennis Adamisin wanted an early start today, so I set the alarm a half hour earlier and got on my way.  I think we were within 15 minutes of when he wanted to start, that wasn't too bad for such a large group of pilots.  The weather forecast was to have a mostly sunny day, which would cloud up towards the evening as another small front approached.  The wind was to gradually increase during the day as well.

Josh Glaab was tearing it up, he clearly was in the zone and nailing his task times and landings.  Daryl Perkins and Mike Smith were just one little landing bobble away in points, and through about 17th place pilots were maybe one to two mistakes away from the top.  And the weather was not making this a landing contest, in many rounds it was last man down.  There was a pretty consistent long cycle of conditions, from good to bad and back to good again. 

As the day progressed, it clouded over and conditions began to flatten out.  This was that late in the afternoon flying again, where the conditions tend to really soften.  It was time for a "lap around Muncie" as Joe Wurts would call it.  Basically that is flying about as smooth as you can and flying a huge box pattern to the limits of your vision, making just three 90 degree turns and back to land, unless you scored a little lift, wave or buoyant air to loiter upon along the way.  The last two rounds were fairly intense, and the names on the scoreboard were beginning to change positions quite a bit.  In the last round, Josh missed the landing costing him first place. The new National Champion in unlimited class sailplanes for 2004 is Mike Smith flying a Sharon, in second was Daryl Perkins' flying the Sheer Insanity of his design, and in third place was Josh Glaab flying a Tsunami.

Here is a link to the final results:  Final Results

The evening was capped by an enjoyable awards banquet.  There was a great raffle (thanks to everyone that donated) where everybody won something.  The Hi Johnson award which is given to the pilot with the highest combined score in 2m and unlimited class was awarded to Daryl Perkins.  The Dan Pruss team award which is given to the team of three pilots in the same club whose combined ranking in the results of 2m and unlimited class competition are added together, and the team with the lowest score wins.  The SOAR 1 team consisting of Tom Kallevang, Steve Meyer, and I were the first SOAR club team to ever win this award.  The prestigious Le Gray award was presented to Jim Thomas.