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Gude Drive Field, October 2nd. Twenty-one people came to fly in CASA's second annual haunch contest. The temperature had dipped into the upper forties overnight. As I arrived at the field a little after eight AM the grass was covered with sneaker soaking dew. To my surprise folks started arriving even as I was unpacking, man these people want to fly! Some folks donned snow boots, obviously the veteran flyers. Hey, I did bring a spare pair of socks. Bill Grenoble and Denny Maze made it down from Carlisle PA for their second CASA HL contest. A good showing from Bass and CASA rounded out the participants. The contest began with perfect weather. Light southerly winds along with the small slope along the south edge of the field combined to break of some good thermal lift. Thermals would break of at the edge and drift across the flying area. It has been my experience at Gude that with light south winds the lift for HL is great and it was. But all good things must come to an end and they did. As the day progressed winds started to pick up and after the fourth round it was getting very hard to make it back to the field if you were lucky, or skilled to hook a thermal. |
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| CASA HL 99 winner and CASA - BAR/CCS - BASS triad winner Russel Bennet Launching his Monarch. |
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| Flying and CDing didn't leave me with a whole lot of time to observe what was going on but a couple of items come to mind. Considering we had a drought all year it was strange to hear that early in the contest Luke Waters landed in a puddle of water. Water got into his logic and shorted out his receiver taking him out of the competition. His arm was then recruited by Chris Bovias to form Team Bovias. As the wind picked up I watched many times Russel Bennet, Phil Barnes, Al DeRenzis and Team Bovias working the down wind thermals pushing these little plane to the limits and then crawling them back up to the safety of the field boundaries. | |
| The flight line was dominated by Logics and Monarchs. |
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| There was a lot of good flying especially early on and those that were consistent and could handle their planes in windy conditions did well. Russel Bennet took first place flying a Monarch. Al DeRenzis also flying a monarch came in second. Phil Barnes took third place and Chris Bovias came in fourth. Both were flying Logic's. In Sportsman a surprised Bert Magin and his recently completed chrysalis took first place. Donald Ressler came in second. Bill Haymaker took third and John Leigh came in forth. Russel Bennet was also given an award for being the CASS BASS BAR/CSS Hand Launch Triad overall winner. | |
| Hey wait this isn't a HL! Well actually in what seems is a tradition for the contest around here, during the Lunch break E-zagis take to the field. This plane is Steve Paseirbs new RAZOR all EPP, Small ,fast and very maneuverable. |
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| At the end of the contest several raffles took place. Given away at the pilots Raffle was 2 red herrings, small slope flying wings donated by Thermal Grommit works. A fifty-dollar gift Certificate generously donated by FMA. A Speed 400-sailplane kit donated by Roy at Suzie Goose Hobbies. And last but not least five gift certificates from JT Models. JT models is run by Jim Prouty a former CASA member who recently moved to Florida. Cold weather visitors to Jefferson would have likely seen some of his quality Radio Gloves in use. An indispensable piece of clothing on those cold days at Jefferson. Tickets were five dollars for the last raffle, a Logic Hand Launch glider Donated by Phil Barnes. Regis White who came just to watch us throw our arms out won the Logic. | |
| While radio problems took Luke Waters out of the contest he tried to sneak his new molded Emerald in but we wouldn't go for it. Al DeRenzis explains how it's done. |
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| In the end the Zagis came out, the sun set and fun was had by all. Next year we are planning for a two-day ESL sanctioned contest. Maybe even a little Hand Launch Golf. Thanks to Skip for bringing his laptop, Ted Lindstat for blowing his horn and to all the others who helped. Also thanks to John Appling and the rest of the BASS crew for helping with the scoring. | |