We had a pretty windy Electroglide this past Saturday. At the first launch it was blowing from the West at 7 mph, by 11:00, it had increased to 12 mph. There was the typical June gloom overhead but with 15 eager pilots on hand, we started the contest.
First launch had 12 Radians and 3 open class gliders climbing up and it really looked beautiful. Weather conditions dictated wind lift only so the flight times never went much over four minutes. The long flight was earned by Dennis LaBerge, (Radian), at 4:15 minutes. Jim Bonnardel, (open class), was second at 3:15 plus a 20-point landing, Bob Anson, (Radian), was third at 3:13 and a 10-point landing. Scott Vance picked up a 30-point landing. Alex Sutton, Stephen Treger and Jeff Struthers, (all Radians) had 20-point landings. Carl Cox and Bob Anson, (both radians), had 10-point landings.
I think we lost one Radian on that launch due to it looping on its climb out.
Second launch was into the same conditions but it felt like the wind had increased. Dennis had the long flight again at 4:13 minutes. Second longest was Jim at 3:40 plus a 20-point landing and third was Scott at 3:16, also with a 20-point landing. Neil Zhu,(open class),Carl Cox,(Radian),Bob and Jeff all had 20-point landings. Alex Sutton,(Radian), picked up a 10-point landing.
Third launch had Scott with the longest flight at 4:26. Jim was second at 3:50 and Dennis was third at 3:49 and a 20-point landing. Carl picked up a 30-point landing. Neil, Alex and Stephen all picked up 20-point landings and Bob had a 10-point landing.
I lost sight of my Radian on this launch. It was surprisingly an easy thing to do with so many Radians in the sky. The aircraft was recovered but it was damaged beyond repair.
Fourth and final launch was into some even stronger winds, still from the west. Scott had the longest flight of the whole event at 5:21. Bob was second at 4:32 and Jim was third at 4:30. Alex, Dennis, Neil and Carl all had 30-point landings; landing into stiff winds I might add.
Winners for the day:
Radian Class-
Dennis LaBerge 151 total points
Scott Vance 143 points
Carl Cox 138 points
Open Class-
Neil Zhu 146 total points
Jim Bonnardel 132 points
Thanks to all the pilots for coming out on a less than perfect San Diego day. Congrats to those pilots who scored extra landing points. Doing that while flying into this headwind, took skill. Congrats also to Carl Cox for getting one 10-point and two 30-point landings with his brand new Radian.
Thanks to Frank Sutton for the Event Pictures.
See Frank’s Electroglide Video Here.
Next Electroglide will be on July 15th.
See you there,
Jeff Struthers
