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Report by Tracy Brown.

Dave and I arrived at the VAM site at 9am well in advance of the pilot’s meeting at 9:30. The first thing I noticed was that the site had a permanent steel open sided structure built on a concrete pad with brand new picnic tables. Excellent, Dave and I didn’t have to unpack the portable shade tent and chairs we had brought with us. The field was quite large and was set up as a power field. The north, west, and south ends of the field were lined by trees. Sloping the tree-line could be an option if all else failed.

The wind was generally out of the south-southwest for most of the day and was very light for most of the day. Thermals were abundant, but I still had trouble catching any of them for most of the day. I’m pretty sure that the reason I placed as well as I did was not my flying ability as much as it was the height of my launches. Rob Scidmore went from 2nd last at the Madison contest to a first place finish with a perfect score. Rob had modified his Logic DLG by replacing his javelin-style tail group with some DLG-style tail feathers and was launching it within 20 feet of my plane, a marked improvement over his launches at the Madison contest. Every time I looked up at his plane, it was higher than mine! He very much deserved his first place finish.

Dave Kraemer had an excellent run also. I was very impressed with the height of his launches as well.

One thing became very apparent to me by the end of the day: I desperately needed to re-trim my planes. I spent most of the Monday after the contest (Labor Day) re-trimming both of my ships. I think I’m much better able to get into and stay within lift now. We’ll see if I’m right at the next contest.

Top Three:

1. Rob Scidmore - Madison (Perfect Score!)
2. Tracy Brown - West Allis
3. Scott Zastoupil - Waupaca

A trio of hand launch pilots from Milwaukee went to the 1.5 m Summer Fling near Madison, Wisconsin Sunday July 15, 2007

Hosted by the MARCS club the 2007 1.5 m HAND LAUNCH CONTEST was held at Paul’s Turf and Tree Nursery near Marshall, WI.

Tracy Brown and Greg Smith, founding members of MSG, as well as slope convert Michael Davidson made the hour and a half drive to the contest site where they were greeted with nearly perfect weather, a beautiful contest field and 8 other competitors for a total of 11 pilots.

The contest was flown man-on-man by rounds and usually involved activity by all competitors during each round as those not flying were timing for the pilots. We flew 6 rounds with some interesting tasks.

At the end of the day Tracy, with 5 x 1000 point rounds, took top honors with Ben Yahr 2nd and Steve Meyer from Racine, WI taking 3rd.

A few on-lookers came to watch which is interesting considering the out in the boonies nature of the field.

I look forward to it next year.

Complete results (Perfect score 6000):

1    Tracy Brown        5640
2    Ben Yahr        4947
3    Steve Meyer        4902
4    Chris Shubak    4858
5    Scott Zastoupil    4831
6    Greg Smith        4816
7    Steve Yahr        4584
8    David Suttie        3815
9    Brian Andreas    3657
10    Rob Scidmore    3353
11    Michael Davidson    1166

Info below from Al at the MARCS club.

The 2007 1.5 m HAND LAUNCH CONTEST will be held at Paul’s Turf and Tree Nursery near Marshall (same place as usual). This relatively low key event provides a hands on competition for these little gliders. Newcomers to this aspect of flying are encouraged to participate in this fun event. You can gain a lot of flight experience with the typical hand launch tasks and contest format. The contest is flown man-on-man by rounds, and typically involves activity by all competitors during each round. We encourage on-lookers to come watch and even get involved as timers. (more…)