Here are the photos from Day 1 of the 2020 NATS Unlimited Competition

Rain delay is still better a day at work....

Thanks for posting Jason.

4 rounds completed. Lunch break. Should be starting back up soon.

Here are the photos from the Unlimited Day 2 Competition. The weather was much better than day 1 and we managed to get in 6 more rounds before calling it a day. Fun stuff!

Jason, looks like you been flying too much F3K and didn't do enough landing practice.

Jason. Thank you for the Unlimited pics and congratulations on the F3K win!

Thanks! Yeah I never practice landings. I had fun in unlimited, but not sure what I really think about a format where it really comes down to how close you can land to a pin.

Yea, with a modern sailplane it's just not all that difficult to make your times so the landings end up being the determining factor. Here locally we recently had what we called the " Thermal Deathmatch ". It was a bracketed man on mam contest. The format was two guys launch together, last Man down wins and advances with a max flight time of 20 minutes. If both make 20 minutes the same two fly again. If they both make 20 minutes again, it's decided by spot landing. At the end of the day ( 10 hrs on the field ) I had 4 - 20 minute flights and 6 - 15 plus minute flights. Took home 2nd place and was wiped out for a couple days.

Originally Posted by Tom Gressman

Jason. Thank you for the Unlimited pics...

Yes, "unlimited" in more ways than one.

Although I've been in a few "landing" contests where everyone makes their time and it comes down to the tape, Louis Glaab was the only pilot to make his time in all 7 rounds this year (and not land out). He also had an average landing score of over 90 points, so he definitely earned the win. The conditions were challenging with lots of people getting buried as well as quite a few people landing out after going downwind too far. Good times!