+1 Ali’s weather statememt. I’ll add that once it got to 1pm and later, a prevalent wind would develop that would make the thermal hunting more challenging.
Props (literally and figurativley) to Tim and Chris! They ran a great event worthy of much more pilot support. The pilots I flew with were a terrific bunch with lots of friendly trash talk. I will be back.

Ed

Cloudsniffer...”Something happen to air around round 7?”

Yes. And I was one of several victims. Learning experience for sure.

Ed

Round 7 was not a lot of fun for many of us. But even in the rest of the rounds it was not like there were many "gimmee" flights. It took some doing to get your time. There were some amazing low saves as well. Air was generally light, but workable, if you had a good pair of thumbs on the sticks (which on at least 1 round I clearly did not!!).

Originally Posted by tim_j58

Congrats to all the Flyoff pilots. Excellent flying all weekend.
1st - Ali Khani
2nd - Darwin Barrie
3rd - John Armstrong
4th - Chris Bajorek
5th - Brad Juntunen
6th - Randy West


Tim

Well done guys!! Oh, and Chris, watch your 6, I plan to do some practicing before the next one!!

These images were taken during a fly-off round. Sorry that I can't remember which one with certainty but I think Round 2.

1- Chris Bajorek- Looking white with fear.

2- Darwin Barrie (Team Futaba) looking not so fearful and his timer Justin Rizor chuckling over how easy a 15 minute task must be to fly.

3- Brad Juntenen reflecting on how it sucks to have not found the elusive lift.

4- John Armstrong appearing relaxed and in control with his timer Tim Johnson.

5- Ali Khani telling me he was totally stressed out at the moment I shot this despite only 2 minutes remaining and an easy 80 meters of altitude. I didn't buy it.

Ed

Originally Posted by Silent-AV8R

...Oh, and Chris, watch your 6, I plan to do some practicing before the next one!!

Hey Bill, it was great fun to fly and time with you, and to fly against you too . You and I had our own flyoff in round 12, eh? Classic F5J. If you can make it come fly in Dec in AZ, I hope to be there!

Lol, Ed! I'm always stressed out in fly offs! Great pics!

Hey Tim, Any chance you could post a list of the top 10-15 low launch heights that made it to like 9:50+?

Ed

What the best dressed sailplanes were wearing at Visalia Oh, just noticed some of them backwards..........

Originally Posted by Robert Burson

What the best dressed sailplanes were wearing at Visalia Oh, just noticed some of them backwards..........

Funny, in this pic Brad's Maxa has wing covers but no tail covers. He must just use tail covers for flight.

Originally Posted by ak79

Funny, in this pic Brad's Maxa has wing covers but no tail covers. He must just use tail covers for flight.

The most unique flight I have ever witnessed.

Originally Posted by ak79

Funny, in this pic Brad's Maxa has wing covers but no tail covers. He must just use tail covers for flight.

Cold man, very cold

Oh snap!, Ali.

Back home and back to work. I'm bored and had an extra cup of coffee, so here goes. Had a great time in Visalia for this event. What an outstanding job Tim and Chris did putting this on. Things ran extremely smooth. We only had two "stoppages in play," that weren't planned. One was a group that just launched and someone wasn't quite ready so Tim called'm down and a relaunch performed. Maybe 3 minute delay there. The second was about 5 minutes to move the timing clock that became washed out as the sun got to the mid day position. Other than those two things, the clock didn't stop except for a quick lunch break. 8 rounds on Saturday and we were done before 4. Sunday was smooth and we were done by 1:30 waiting for Tim to confirm the scores.

The conditions were probably the best I've seen in many years I've been flying at this field. Some rounds the thermals were light and many got bit taking too low of launch. And sometimes you just had to work light lift to stay alive. Finally, there was some incredible lift conditions. I only had one flight that I needed a "save," and it was probably the lowest I've ever had. Other than that, most of the flights were "gimmes."

For me personally, I had a plan and stuck with it and was fortunate to land in 2nd place. My landings were solid in the prelims. In the Finals, I got a 30 and 35 landing that cost me the contest losing by only 19 points. The 30 was just me and the 35 I pushed the clock and had to put it down to keep from being late and hoped for "the slide." And, of course, this was the only time of the weekend the plane DIDN'T slide even a little. This is not to take away from the great flying of John and Ali in the flyoffs. They stuck the landings with all 50's.

I was flying my new Explorer F5J X3 4.0. I'm using a Neu 1102, YGE ESC, Futaba 18SZ, Futaba 3776 servos on Ailerons, rudder and elevator and Futaba 3270's on Flaps All servos are operated with SBUS. The receiver is a Futaba 6303. Power batteries were a combination of Tattu 850's and Dinogy 850's. Radio battery is a TP 910mah, 7.4 volt Lipo utilizing a Zepsus regulated switch. AUW is 49.11 ounces. It flies fantastic. I'm still learning it with only about 40 flights. Over 20 of those are contest flights!!! It handles moderate winds without ballast and will scoot when necessary with minimum loss.

One of the reasons I love model aviation is the people. This group was no exception. Everybody helps whoever needs some help. The competition is tough and the win could have gone to virtually anyone there. Ali was masterful in his flying all weekend. He pulled off one of the most amazing saves in the fly offs that got him the win along with consistent landings. John Armstrong is one of the toughest out there. He uncharacteristically launched a little higher in the fly offs but did very well with all 50 landings. I squeaked by him with lower launches. I usually don't go too low but had 3 solid air reads before launch and hooked up each time. Brad Juntunen, Randy West and Chris Bajorek all did well but all fell out in one of the rounds. It was tough if you weren't in the right place. I also met and spent some time taking to Jerry Mollner (Airman74 on groups).

The airframes. Lots of Ultimas!!! In the finals, Ali was flying a Pike Perfection, John Armstrong an Ultima, Brad Juntunen a Maxa, Randy West an Optimus (not the super light version), Chris Bajorek was flying an Explorer but not a newer version and I had my new X3 F5J 4.0 Explorer.

There were 2 Explorer 3.8's, a Pulsar and a couple of other mixed in. The biggest number was definitely the Ultima. I didn't get a super accurate count of the radios but I know there were 3 Futaba 18SZ's, 2 or 3 JR's, a couple of Taranis, a couple of Jeti's, a couple of Graupners and one Spektrum. I didn't see or hear of any radio problems.

Thanks again CVRC, Tim Johnson and Chris B for the hard work. Now lets get others involved in this incredibly fun aspect of our great soaring hobby!!

Darwin N. Barrie
Chandler, AZ
Team Futaba

49.11 ounces - OH the HORROR