Capital Area Soaring Association's

Hand Launch Challenge

 

On October 3rd CASA held it's first Hand-Launch Contest

The contest started with eighteen flyers registered. Bill Grenoble, Denny Maze and friends from the Mechanicsburg area of PA came down for their first HL contest. They were all flying scratch built planes called Terminators. They have modified 4083 airfoils bagged by Bill with wood pods and fiberglass booms. They flew well, and are very economical. There are now complete plans on the Internet. The address is, http://www.charlesriverrc.org/articles/construction_terminatorhlg.htm
 
 Luke Waters and Phil Barnes booth flew Logics although a battery failure and subsequent crash took Luke out of a first place setting pace. BASS members Al Derenzis and Russel Bennet flew Monarchs. Chris Bovais was flying a monarch fuse with a Tom Broski psychedelic wing. Chris and Skip Skow were able to participate because the Fayetteville aero tow was postponed. I flew my new Bastard, an Obsession airleron wing, NSP HL fuse, and V Tail from a Chrysalis.
 
Six ten-minute rounds with three-minute maximum flights and unlimited throws were flown. The scoring was calculated man on man. The first rounds provided everyone with good lift and some flyers maxed their times. By the last rounds what little we saw of the sun earlier gave way to a ceiling of gray. Yet there was still the occasional light thermal and if someone caught one everyone would run over, launch, and a gaggle of planes would struggle to ride it up. There were a couple of mid-airs but no serious damage occurred.

 

The results;
Andrew Swan      5847      Monarch D
Phil Barnes          5572      Logic
Russel Bennet      5465      Monarch D
Charles French    5226      Osprey/ Bastard
Rod Armstead     5211      Own Design
Al DeRenzis        5018      Monarch D
Chris Bovais       4958      Monarch D
Luke Waters        4401      Logic
Guy Delort          4280      Quest
Denny Maze        3907      Terminator
John Leigh           3461      Pitch Moth
Skip Skow           3236      BOB
Bill Grenoble      3074      Terminator
Jim Prouty           2821      Own Design
Nate Williams     2614      Terminator
Austin Sourbeer  2559      Terminator
Garry Williams   1893      Terminator
David Wiseman   1289      ZAGI THL

 

At the end of the contest a ZAGI THL donated by the club was raffled away with Luke being the lucky recipient. Jim Prouty from JT products generously donated a cold weather radio glove that was also raffled away. Jim has a line of nice quality Radio Gloves, wing sleeves and other sailplane accessories. Check out his website at; http://members.xoom.com/JTProuty/

 

 

 I want to thank everyone who helped make this contest a success especially Rodney Armstead for doing an excellent job of scoring and advising me on the nuances of CDing. Also thanks to Ted "horn blower" Lindstat for timing the rounds.

For more pictures click here to link back to the CASA Home Page Hand Launch Challenge pictures page.

 

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