Got Lift? - 2004
July 3, 2004
It was a dark and stormy night…
Well, almost… it was an overcast and drizzling morning that had the poly/RES pilots wondering if there should even be an event. After an hour of weather watching and waiting, a patch of light gray was spotted among the darker gray skies, signaling the start of the Seattle Area Soaring Society’s Got Lift? Poly/RES Contest.
All of the slogging through the wet grass was a minor inconvenience as the first of five rounds of thermal duration and precision landings started up - - even wet soaring is better than no soaring. Although three to five minute flight times were common in the pre-lunch flight rounds, there was some light lift to be found.
Adam Weston and his Two by Six, “Latte”, managed to find 7 minutes, 38 seconds of lift in the first round which earned him the responsibility to be the first pilot to launch in the second round. Derek Houseworth with his trustworthy Bird of Time managed an almost perfect second round flight of 9 minutes, 54 seconds with a 98 landing score.
Thanks to the Variland scoring process, there was almost no pressure on the pilots to fly a specific duration or be overly concerned about a precision landing. Jon Malmberg’s second round flight, for instance, was a modest 2 minutes, 27 seconds. But, his “WHOOPPEE!!!” was heard field-wide when he made a 96 landing; giving him the scoring edge over some of his competitors in the 100” or less class.
Jim Laurel earned the squeaker award by coaxing his Bird of Time back to the landing zone from a hundred miles down wind, never more than ten feet above ground level. Dave Brambaugh was holding his own with the club trainer until an unfortunate hard landing forced him out of the competition before the start of the fourth round. And as it was returning from an excellent nine minute-plus flight, Loren Steel’s Mirage was savagely attacked by a tree lurking in the blackberry thicket. Fortunately most of the damage was to Loren’s emotions and the Mirage will fly again.
Pete “The Field Marshal” Hinze, for the gazzillionth time, was present to anchor the event and kick butts as needed. Thank you Pete for being there and to Dave for your extra effort in keeping things working.
More than one pilot had positive comments about the Variland scoring process. “It was almost a fun fly with competition scoring.” Thank you to Derek Houseworth for converting Variland to an Excel file and compiling the scores. Use of the Variland process is almost a sure thing in some future SASS competitions.
Got Lift? t-shirts were awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners as well as The Field Marshal. A few Got Lift? shirts are available for sale and more can be printed if requested (contact Loren Steel).
The results of the July 3, 2004 Got Lift? poly/RES contest are: