by Jim Bonnardel

Hello everyone!

Well we have a fantastic Electroglide this month, Mother Nature gave us some fantastic thermals in our middle rounds. Contrary to typical “May Grey” weather we had clear skies shortly after our first launch. There weren’t any large wingspan birds showing us the thermals, but I can tell you I caught a boomer that gave me full duration on time during round 3. During my first round, the antenna on my TX was not tight, and as I reached 399 feet up, the signal dropped. After I screwed my antenna back in (I have no clue how it got nearly fully removed) the motor came back on, so I simply landed with a Zero-Zero for the after-cutoff motor run. We had a new competitor Matt, and he did very well for his first outing with a Radian.

Jim Shelton’s usual competition plane was out of commission, so he sported his Omega with a video camera hoping to get some neat footage of us searching for lift. I’ll post info if he uploads a video. Jim S did post a neat photo of a launch, you can see all the shadows of the planes heading up, a really neat perspective.

The general atmosphere at the Electroglide is truly something to be proud of gents, this is a competitive event, where all the competitors hope for the best for all. There are no ‘win win win’ attitudes or guys who want only to be the best, but more of a group of pilots all trying to best themselves and win the hunt for the thermal. You can hear it in the reactions when pilots start landing. Pilots are cheering for each other, congratulating each other on good flights and landings all day long. Its like we are all working the skies as a team, with individual scores. That really makes me proud to participate in Electroglide. We had a couple of pilots who tied for score, that that is pretty rare. Vince & Fred both had 140 pts exactly.

I had a 100% return on score sheets this time, GOOD JOB FELLAS!

Onto the scores:

Radian Class was as usual, the most active.

1st Place Bob Stinson 232 pts

2nd Place Matt Cage 156 pts (First time E-Glider)

3rd Place Norm Arndt 141 pts

In open Class, it was only myself and Bob Anson. As mentioned, Jim Shelton opted to be cameraman instead of competitor, thanks Jim!

1st Place Jim Bonnardel 176 pts

2nd place Bob Anson 73 pts

No pilots this month in Easy Star class.