Hi All,

The Mississippi Valley Soaring Association (St. Louis) will be holding a 2-day hand launch contest on May 30-31, 2009.

This will be a single contest held over two days and the format will be seeded man-on-man. Tasks and rules will comply with established F3K rules.

More information about the contest can be obtained here.

Hope to see you all there!

Chris
www.mvsaclub.com

I am sure this is gonna be a good one Chris. You guys have a great field to fly from and plenty of club members to keep things running smooth. I like the seeded man on man format too, no freebies.

Bruce Davidson

Bump!

Originally Posted by got2soar

I like the seeded man on man format too, no freebies.

Hi Bruce,

Yes, the seeded MOM format should be a nice twist. We run our monthly club contests in this seeded format (top guys battle it out every round, and all pilots fly against like-talent for the duration of the contest - no fly-off rounds.) It will be interesting to see how things work out with a larger contestant pool, I think it would be difficult to accomplish a seeded flight order at the major national events like Polecat, Nats and Poway, but at least for this inaugural contest, if our participant level is manageable, should come together fine and will be a nice change from the more standard matrix method.

We'll be observing the F3K drop rounds, but because we run seeded, brings up the question of when the drop rounds are added into the equation. For our club contests, we usually just toss out the drops at the end when calculating the final score, but they would make a difference in how the groups are seeded once the minimum number (five rounds) have been exceeded. If we can figure out scoring / seeding to take into account drops starting at round six, then it will reduce the chances of someone sandbagging and starting out with one low score just to get a lower group to beat up on for several rounds. If we seed the sixth round with the drop already in effect, that person would immediately get bumped to the top group.

The other thing we have tried in club contests is seeding a round based on the scores of just the prior round, instead of the cumulative score. For smaller contests, like 6-8 pilots in our club contests, it has meant a lot of cycling through the different groups and usually everyone flies against everyone else at least once.

Anyway, I know it's a busy time for you Bruce, sure hope you can make it!

Regards,
Chris

I'm sure there's a lot of guys out there still planning out their year of contests. It looks like a pretty busy year for hand launch which is fantastic!

For those of you who have made it out to St. Louis for our annual Gateway Open TD contest you know how blessed we are with a fantastic field to play on. There are a few photos on our HL contest homepage with a lot of mud due to last year's flooding, but the fields are going to be in fantastic shape this year!

Mike

I'm a little slow but am finally catching up. Found this thread after a note from Chris that got me looking for it.

This looks to be a great event - hopefully the start of a tradition in the area. MVSA is THE most active group of pilots in the region when it comes to hand launch. I've had the privilege of flying with them a few times last year and getting my butt kicked every time - including the time we went snorkeling in the pond with Brian's Blaster.

AND, it's a great warm-up for Polecat which is two weeks later. Now if Bruce gets another 2-day going in his area, this just might turn into a great season of contest flying in the middle of the country!

The seeded MOM format used by MVSA makes every round a fly-off. It's really surprising how rapidly the standings get scrambled using this method. For most of us bottom feeders, it gives a surprisingly good chance of moving up in the standings throughout the contest. One bad round early on doesn't have to ruin your weekend! Coupling this format with F3k events makes a very nice package for the weekend.

MVSA has enough club experience with both F3K and seeded MOM to make this happen smoothly. And they've got the most competitive pilots in the region. Looking forward to the weekend. Not looking forward to the long drive of shame on the way home but what the heck.....

Now if Chris will just stay away form that dang 'Poker' task.......

- Dave R

Originally Posted by okiesoar

. Now if Bruce gets another 2-day going in his area, this just might turn into a great season of contest flying in the middle of the country!

There is at least one:

http://louisvillesoaring.org/thebruce

I heard some rumor about Dayton doing a 2 day also, but that could just be a rumor.

Ryan

Hi okiesoar,

Thanks for your comments! I know we're trying something a little different than what some of the larger contests do, but I think we can make it work. We had our first club contest of 2009, and any talent gap has closed considerably. These young guys can outlaunch me now, it's not fair! And yet, a senior citizen walked away with the top prize. You can read more about it in our contest report here.

Looking forward to seeing you in a couple months! Come on over for a warm-up event in the meantime, next club HL contest is April 18.

Chris

For us traveling types, any suggestions on places to stay not too far from the field? Last couple of visits it was a chain of some sort not too far to the west of O'Fallon just north of the interstate. Closest thing I could find. Convenient but not particularly memorable and also not close to chow or other refreshments. I'll find something but any local suggestions would be welcome.

Brian has sorted me out on the Palm timers. I've now got a Palm V and a III. The III has the advantage of using alkalines. The V is more compact and faster but the LiPo doesn't quite last a day. And (naturally) each uses a different cable. But they both talk to each other AND they both gag on the poker round. Nothing else causes a Palm to retch this bad. PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE keep poker off the task list. My Palms are getting sweaty just thinking about it!

- Dave R

Some hotel options near the MVSA club field, listed from closest (3.5 miles) to furthest (5 miles.) The Mid-Rivers Mall is one highway exit east of Hwy 79 (where the club field is) and it is a typical shopping mall with a food court inside and lots of restaurants surrounding the mall lot. Restaurants include Taco Bell, Macaroni Grill, Pizza Hut, Red Robin, Olive Garden, Joe's Crab Shack.

Ramada Inn - St. Peters
Hwy 79 at I-70
130 Salt Lick Rd.
St. Peters, MO 63376
636-397-7101

Comfort Inn - O'Fallon
100 Comfort Inn Court
O'Fallon, MO 63366
636-696-8000

Drury Inn - St. Peters
80 Mid Rivers Mall
St. Peters, MO 63376
636-397-9700

Super 8 - O'Fallon
987 W. Terra Lane
O'Fallon, MO 63366
636-272-7272

Anyone that is within several hours of St. Louis should definitely think about attending this contest. The field is great and MVSA runs very smooth contests. I bet you would have a blast.

Weekend 2 day contests are not really an option for me so I'll very likely have to pass on this contest. But, MVSA also has a 2 day string launch contest June 26-27 and a hand launch contest the Friday before. So for folks that the May DLG contest does not work for another great suggestion is June 26! I have that day already taken off work.

Ryan

Hmmm.... My wife and kids will be at their in-laws over in Eastern PA that weekend. Sounds like a possible trip.

Ryan, the Dayton contest may be a rumor still, but I have already been asked for the timing CDs and scoring software so I think it's going to be more than a rumor. Let's hope anyhow.

Tom Siler
Columbus, OH

Chris,

Thanks for the update on the O'Fallon area. Here's a little summary that I hope may be useful to the many others planning on coming to the DLG event at the MVSA field. This is from Google Earth and covers O'Fallon and the flying field (top-center of the picture). A couple of comments on the respective areas:

Super 8, Ramada, Motel 6 - all about ~ $60 - I've stayed at the Super 8 a couple of times. Get there via the north access road from O'Fallon. It's OK. Seemed to be reasonably clean, not too noisy. All three of these seem to be older places with mixed reviews. Sounds like the Ramada and Motel 6 are comparable to the Super 8 which is fine for crashing after a full day at the field but none of them are 'destination' places.

Drury Inn and Holiday Inn - about $85+ - a bit more upscale and both got pretty decent reviews.

Comfort Inn - about $75 - haven't stayed at this one but several others around the country seem to be good value. Breakfast bars at the ones in Eloy, AZ and in Gallup, NM were well above average for most national chains.

So - Super 8 is probably closest but nothing is nearby for eats. Comfort Inn may be a good value based on experience with others around the country.

That's the best I've got. Probably gonna try a room at the Comfort Inn but there aren't many left for that weekend.

Meanwhile - you say there are some discus guys from Chicago? Who, what where? Been all over and haven't run across any yet at a major 2-day. That would be neat to see some folks from a new area (for me). Bring 'em on. I'm happy to be trounced by anyone!

Hopefully will have a new plane by then - gotta have something to try and scare Chris if only for a round or two.

Old guys rule!

- Dave R

Dave makes an important point here. Old guys do rule.

Originally Posted by okiesoar

Meanwhile - you say there are some discus guys from Chicago? Who, what where? Been all over and haven't run across any yet at a major 2-day. That would be neat to see some folks from a new area (for me). Bring 'em on. I'm happy to be trounced by anyone!

I don't know who Chris has been talking to but Steve Meyer is from the Chicago area and he has been posting some here in RC Groups. His handle here is SOAR-Steve (SOAR is the Chicago club's name). I have flown hand launch with Steve in the past but not recently. But then I have not flown any hand launch contests recently, so that makes plenty of sense!

Originally Posted by tom43004

Ryan, the Dayton contest may be a rumor still, but I have already been asked for the timing CDs and scoring software so I think it's going to be more than a rumor. Let's hope anyhow.

Definitely what needs to happen here is we need to keep talking about it on the internet then. Perhaps that will help push it from rumor status to reality status.