Grass Mountain F3F - April 6, 2008

April 6th, 2008

All right!!! What a great day it turned out to be. Yes 14 pilots showed up to race and it appears all had a great time.

The weather did not start out very good, Bill and I got there at 9:30am or so and started setting up and others followed in around 10:00 at first the wind was light and coming from just about every direction and shifted about every 10 seconds. Then about 11:00 it started blowing a little harder all though it went from west to south to east and back again every couple of minutes. Most were wondering if we were going to fly at all. At about 11:30 Warren shows up, he was the last to come up the hill and pronounced on his arrival that he brought the wind, (he also brought the fastest times). Bill had gone out to test the wind at that same time and found it suitable. By 12:00 we were organized and ready to start racing. The zero round got everybody warmed up and we were on with the race. The thermal lottery seem to not be as bad the first 4 rounds, well I guess if you got air as I did you at least felt that way. ;-) after round 4 the wind kind of backed off and the thermal lottery became everyones desire to win. It was a tough lottery as the day grew to a close and I think everyone experienced at least one round. I was blessed with 4 rounds of no air. There were a few though that seemed to have the magic almost all day. Warren Dave, Bill and Joel seemed have pretty consistent times. Warren did very well, even though he grumbled a little at first over what he perceived as slow times while everyone else groaned at the fact that he was kicking butt. It appears that he is the winner.

I’m not sure what the fall out is as I have not loaded the times in the spread sheet yet. I will take care of that now and post the results as soon as it is completed. There was no major casualties today, I only remember two issues, Jim W. strip a servo gear, and I popped loose a flap servo. Mine was easy to fix, Jim’s unfortunately could not continue.

Everyone appeared to have had a good time as I left, so that is the real success of an event. See you all at the VRQ.

Bob M.

Well here is how it all worked out. Congrats to Warren D. for 1st. Dave B. for 2nd and Kyle for 3rd.

WOW, way to go Dave. I will get you next time. LOL Great flying Dave.

Position Pilots Name Model Total Score Normalized Score
1 Warren D. 6800.97 1000.00
2 Dave B. 6617.64 973.04
3 Kyle P. 6525.80 959.53
4 Bill D 6356.32 934.61
5 Rey H. 6253.47 919.49
6 Tim N. 6251.43 919.19
7 Klyer P. 6194.50 910.82
8 Alan L. 6110.98 898.54
9 Joel C. 6063.62 891.58
10 Bob M 6019.40 885.07
11 Fred S. 5940.24 873.44
12 Woody R. 5880.90 864.71
13 Warren P. 5050.74 742.64
14 Jim W. 2934.95 431.54

Torrey Pines 2 Day - CalCup #2 - March 29/30

March 31st, 2008

Well fellow race fans,
I am happy to report another great race at Torrey is in the books. We had 29 racers come out and test their skills amongst the best in the US. Paul Naton traveled the furthest from Pennsylvania, With Ron Vann and Tim Bigley coming in from the San Francisco bay area, as well as Joel Cagnon from Santa Barbara. We were joined by a few new F3F pilots Joe Rodrigues of TD fame, TPG president Parvis Kamiab, TPG raffle coordinator Alan ‘Moose’ Butler, local Mark Canfield, and perhaps Robert Lopez (not positive it was his first time). We held our Pilots meeting in the glider port’s office at 9:00 am on Saturday, and got round zero underway around 11:00 am. Conditions were consistently building, and by round 1 our last pilot in the roster Tom Copp of F3X.com fame threw down a blistering 40.80 second run. Time would later prove that to be the fast time of the contest. For a 29 pilot event, things were moving very quickly, finishing each round in less than an hour. We finished things up around 5:00pm, finishing 6 rounds (0-5). Saturday evening brought some light showers and clearing winds for Sunday. Flyable at sunrise, we had great air for our 10:15 am start. We finished our last round around 3:45 pm and gathered for awards presentation. We all knew who were going to stand at the podium. Tim Bigley was the consistent competitor, flying smoothly all weekend. Making no mistakes was good enough to earn him a 3rd place podium spot. Tom Copp seemed to have things all wrapped up after the absolute clinic he put on Saturday, but Kyle was coming on strong on Sunday. It was anyone’s guess. Kyle ended up sneaking away with the victory, by a mere .041% Great job Tom and Kyle. I learned allot from your guy’s performance.

So here are the scores,
1 P Kyle 9573.53
2 Copp 9569.65
3 Bigley 9424.06
4 Smith 9339.89
5 Cone 9291.80
6 L G 9114.21
7 Field 9089.37
8 Klein 8940.82
9 Paulson,Kyler 8887.21
10 Reel 8813.98
11 Vann 8756.63
12 Neja 8719.93
13 DelHagen 8624.05
14 Meitzer 8515.08
15 Monte 8458.07
16 Rackliffe 8430.82
17 B Bob 8414.10
18 Bates 8329.00
19 Harju 8216.11
20 Liberatore 8203.70
21 Jolly 8088.02
22 Seaman 7892.82
23 Cagnon 7823.61
24 Rodriguez 7718.65
25 C M 7344.03
26 B A 5468.89
27 N P 4185.53
28 Lopez 3817.36
29 Kamiab 2276.59

I am currently writing an article for RCSD, please send me your photos for addition to the article.


David Klein

WhitePoint - CalCup Race #1 - March 16, 2008

March 17th, 2008

Hey F3Fer’s

WoW! I used a GPS to get to White Point but I am not so sure that was really White Point. What a handful, up to 31 MPH, crossed and bumpy. Either you were dog slow, sometimes both directions or you were so fast, don’t blink as you now too long.

Congrats to go fast Kyle, Chris “Target” Behm and again Tim Bigley. Tim has come down twice this year and put the hurt on us SoCal pilots.

Full spreadsheet up soon.

Dan
aka Looking forward to Torrey.

1 K Paulson 6975.18
2 Target 6741.33
3 T Bigley 6616.30
4 T Copp 6554.97
5 W Day 6412.15
6 T Neja 6305.60
7 D Reel 6170.81
8 T Cone 6129.14
9 Woody R. 6106.82
10 R Harju 6086.90
11 K Paulson 6055.41
12 B DelHagen 6019.12
13 D Bates 5911.28
14 R Meistner 5847.64
15 Aaron 5702.64
16 J W. 5423.36
17 J Cagnon 5256.31
18 D Field 3509.54
19 Thomas 3346.43
20 Brandon 1785.89

Jan 19–Parker–F3F Race Report

January 21st, 2008

SCSR: We held the inaugural event of 2008 at Parker, where the wind always shows up for us in January. Wind speed in the 30’s means flight times in the 30’s, and we all began with sub-40 runs as typical. As we figured, the wind strength tapered gradually towards the end of the day and times crept up into the mid-40’s.
Ten hardy souls turned out, dressed warmly and ready for action. We completed 15 runs plus a zero, so with two throw-outs the final results were as follows:

Position Pilots Name Total Score Normalized Score
1 Dan 12581.47 1000.00
2 Kyle 12561.49 998.41
3 Tim 12067.92 959.18
4 Warren 11813.96 938.99
5 Bill 11624.74 923.95
6 Target 11463.71 911.15
7 Kyler 11264.30 895.30
8 joel 11018.31 875.75
9 Bob M 4968.86 394.93
10 Brandon 3282.24 260.87

The normalized scores are the numbers used later on to compute year-end positions.

We awarded the 3 medals for the top fliers of 2007—Dan Field, third, Warren Day, second, and Kyle Paulson as the repeat trophy winner

Thanks to the fliers , who all pitched in with the equipment and the pole duty. We will return to Parker for an F3F on Nov 8, and on Feb 23 for the first 60 in. MoM event of the new season. The next scheduled F3F will be on Feb 16 at Fermin, with Chris Target Behm as the CD. See you there.

Bill DelHagen

SCSR End of Year F3F Wrap-up

December 31st, 2007

Racers: It is the last day of 2007 and so it is time to reveal the results of this year’s F3F program. But first, a few relevant facts:

  • 15 events were run and scored, though the final standings will reflect each pilot’s best 10 (or fewer)results;
  • 43 different pilots ran in our events and scored points this year;
  • The 9 top finishers had flown enough to have 1 or more throwouts to get to the 10 that counted;
  • Kyle Paulson won 8 of the 15 events ( Chris Behm and Bill DelHagen each won 2, Warren Day, Dan Field, and Tom Copp each won 1);
  • We all owe Dan Field a big AttaBoy for again performing the unrecognized task of tabulating the results and totaling the scores for the whole year–Yeah Dan;

So, without further ado, the results for 2007:

Pilot YTD W/ Toss
1 Kyle Paulson 9977.77
2 Warren Day 9685.10
3 Dan Field 9545.22
4 Bill DelHagen 9422.26
5 Chris Behm/Target 9376.74
6 Rey Harju 9243.68
7 Dave Bates 9180.24
8 Kyler Paulson 8698.38
9 Robert Mietzner 8668.16
10 Alan Liberatore 7784.90
11 Brandon Monte 7218.75
12 Tom Copp 6731.02
13 Woody Rackliffe 5017.96
14 Mike Sheridan 4617.09
15 Tim Neja 4170.32
16 Gary Legerton 2836.51
17 Adrian 2800.23
18 Peter Schiess 2609.01
19 Bob Breaux 2606.54
20 Joel Cagnon, 60″ 2560.85
21 Fred Seaman 2491.20
22 Don Thuren 2466.68
23 Tim Bigley 2410.87
24 David Klien 1753.91
25 Jim Weinberg 1455.11
26 Tom Rambo 1110.57
27 Darrell Zaballos 963.37
28 Doug Reel 959.61
29 Tim Cone 958.19
30 Michael Smith 933.30
31 Nick Strong 917.99
32 Steve Conden 892.94
33 Ron Vann 890.62
34 Joe Zwart 889.32
35 Jay Whitley 850.82
36 Nathan Woods 844.36
37 Mike Kauffman 834.74
38 Adam Smith 785.80
39 Beat Steffen 785.00
40 Marlan Muir 687.96
41 Josh 687.04
42 Mike Cook 666.11
43 Steven 428.09

Congratulations to Kyle for again setting the pace throughout the year, and to Warren and Dan for making him work for it.
Have a Happy New Year, and we will be kicking off 2008 with an F3F race at Parker Mountain on Jan 19, yours truly, CD.

Bill DelHagen
delhagen13@hotmail.com

Whitepoint F3F - 9/22/07

September 23rd, 2007

WOW! What a great day.
15 pilots raced today with only one damaged plane.
We waited on the wind to change from south to west and got started around 12:30, we did a zero round and got in 2 & 1/2 rounds before the wind switched back to the south!!!!!

After 45 minutes it came back on course. The course was as usual difficult and challenging. I believe we got in 8 round and a zero round before we went to Warren’s for the BIGGEST dam burrito I have ever seen, about 4 feet
long!!

We all had a great day with the following points.

1. Target taking top spot with 5778.53 points.
2. Kyle second with 5758.54 points.
3. Woody 3rd with 5639.57 points.
4. Rey 4th with 5636.48.
5. Dan with 5545.10.
6. Tom with 5505.03.
7. Warren with 5436.86.
8. Brandon with 5265.43.
9. Alan with 5258.90.
10.Bill D. with 5257.11.
11.Dave B. with 5243.42.
12.Fred S. with 4910.67.
13.Kyler with 4897.42.
14.Bob M. with 4859.25.
15.Adrian with 4766.70.

A big hand goes to Target for a well deserved win and another to Warren for the fun evening with dinner and awards.
Thanks guy’s for a great of flying and camaraderie.

Woody

Grass Mtn Man-on-Man, Sept 16, 2007

September 23rd, 2007

Damn Good Day of racing at Grass Mtn. Again, if you didn’t show up you missed a fine opportunity to race heavy and fast all day. We didn’t get a real wind reading, seat of the pants was mid 20’s and approaching 30 at times. I was a bit timid adding ballast as I was expecting to get caught in a lull, never happened.

From the internet (after the event):
Wind Speed 13 mph from SSW 23 at 13:59
Wind Gust 21 mph 38 at 14:59
Current Highs during the comp. hours

News flash, Dan Field beats World Champ Thomas Pills! To bad the Return debut to Unlimited MOM had Thomas out before it even started with a cracked fuse landing after a practice round.

Congrats to Warren Day for flying well all day to take home the Glory. Wily MoM veteran Ray “Blind Man” Kuntz taking second and Rey Harju in 3rd spot.

Let’s have a moment of silence in honor of my Acacia II sporting a new Tom Copp design Special 1″ Big Ass Ballast Tube, all that is left is two unharmed tips and maybe the battery. Big Ass Tube along with her 9 Slugs were never seen again even after a lengthly search by a qualified rescue team. 50 or so ounces exploding in about 160 MPH head on with out the aide of Air Bags, could be any where. Damn she was going fine today, first time ever for me feeling competitive in big air. She will be missed.

I hope John Buxton’s model will fly again. I think she was not doing too bad other than the nose was gone. Sorry John had a rude awakening to MoM racing as it was his first event. I hope he comes back again as he was getting the hang of it.

That’s a wrap for 2007 SCSR Unlimited MOM events. I will try to get out the Season Standings soon and you will now have to wait until next Spring to give it a go, IT being as Wily Bill says, “about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on”. I now have months to prepare a model or two, lets see how that goes.

Thanks for coming out guys, it was a great comp.

Regards
Dan Field

1. Warren Day 13
2. Ray Kuntz 15
3. Rey Harju 16
4. Dan Field 20
5. Bill DelHagen 21
6. John Buxton 24
7. Dave Bates 30 Dave was out rather early as well.
8. Thomas Pills DNS

Grass Mountain 2 Day Unlimited MoM Race

August 20th, 2007

Report from Day 2 - Dan Field

WOW!! For those who missed it, well you really missed it. For those who took the Blood Oath and then didn’t show up, we took a Slope Poll and decided your new name begins with P and ends with y’s. You will carry this name until you show up next year. :-)

Grass Mtn 2 Day 2007 is in the record books and quite the success with excellent conditions both days. I think we forgot to time the Heats but I did a couple of the slower rounds in so so air, about 2 mins flat. The Good Air of which there was an abundance of was much faster than that. There were many excellent Heats on both days with close racing and by Matrix Chance of selection ( with a bit of help by the CD) there was a Pseudo Fly Off in Round 13 though one was not needed between 3 of the top 4 place pilots. It was spectacular with excellent Air for the entire heat and the meat of the Thermal hitting the course in the later laps, only wish I had this one on video. Huge Specked out Climb out and eight laps of very fast and tight racing with all three right there at the end. It had Tom Copp going wire to wire and Paulson with a huge pop on base A/lap 7 to over take Klein on lap 8. Nice racing guys.

Below is the final results. There was no need of a Fly Off in the top 4. There were some ties in the lower rungs to which our Tie Breaking formulas have now been applied, so this with be a bit different than the Slope Side finishing order. Due to time as the Raffle and awards ceremony were underway it really didn’t matter at the time but important to all to get it right.

Many many thanks to all those who helped make this a successful event including Mother Nature. Special thanks to Bill Delhagen ( aka Mr MoM ) who in the declining attendance of SoCal Unlimited MOM monthlies never gave up and fought to keep Unlimited Slope Racing alive in the face of the SoCal Calendar Selection Committee who agreed to give this 2 day’er a chance. There is a reason for the DelHagen Cup of which Tom Copp now has his name engraved twice. I fully expect Grass Mtn 2 Day for 2008 will be even bigger, if you miss it, shame on you and or, your loss. I bet Warren Day can’t wait for next year for a chance to get his name on the Cup twice as well.

Vendors, what can we say, Many Many THANKS. I am sure all the Workers are very grateful for many fine donations. I bet next year there will be a waiting list of Workers so sign up early.

Regards
Dan Field

SoCal Slope Racers
Grass Mountain Slope Race 2007

1 Tom Copp
2 Kyle Paulson
3 Bill DelHagen
4 David Klein
5 Don Thuren
6 T.Knuttiua
7 Warren Day
8 Ray Kuntz
9 Kurt McCrum
10 Rey Harju
11 Marty Hill
12 Dave Bates
13 Alan Liberatore
14 W. Highfield
15 Mike Sheridan
16 T. Kowalke
17 Ron Mendel
18 Joel Cagon
19 Dan Field

Grass Mountain 2-Day Unlimited Slope Race Re-Cap

August 20th, 2007

Final Recap - Bill DelHagen, CD

Thanks to all 19 fliers who came out to contest MoM bragging rights in SoCal, and to the 7 volunteers who ran the lights to near-perfection, with nary a break in the action. We had fliers from Texas, Utah, Idaho, Sacramento, San Diego, and the usual suspects from L.A. We flew 14 rounds of 7 flights, or almost 100 heat races to determine final placement. Thanks to all the contestants for sportsmanship and cooperation that kept the event moving quickly.

The scores and standings just published are being refined a bit, as the computer did not correctly account for Round 14 scores(it gave everyone a 5). First 4 places and last 4 places are unchanged, but there is a little reshuffling in the middle. Where raw scores are tied, we look to greater number of firsts, and then to who beat whom, to set final placement. Dan Field will have the corrected results shortly.

Final order is: Copp, Paulson, DelHagen, Klein, Thuren, Knuttiua, Day, Kuntz, McCrum, Harju, Hill, Bates, Liberatore, Highfield, Sheridan, Kowalke, Mendel, Cagnon, and Field.

The Kowalke Award for the most spectacular and artistic act of plane destruction went to Ron Mendel, of Salt Lake City, who flew straight into the bushes just short of the far turn, on the last round, when he had 3rd place in the race solidly locked up already. Against a strong field of finalists, Ron won for the sheer unnecessariness of his effort. I hope that there is enough epoxy, Bondo, Coke can aluminum or duct tape in the Award to make the plane flyable again.

Warren Day gave a Viking Funeral to his beloved clapped-out Sting(last year’s winner) on the last round when, after 7 or 8 seconds of vertical dive, the plane went into a spectacular tuck and smote the lower slopes of Grass Mountain so hard and so far away that recovery seemed beyond reason.

Racing was excellent this year with some very closely decided finishes, some in the last quarter lap. Tom Copp won 12 of his 14 races, and Kyle Paulson won 10 of his 14, and they set the target for the rest of the field, but no one could catch them. Congratulations to them.

Close racing sometimes raises adrenalin beyond safe limits and there were 4 cases of mid-flight contact, but just as many planes were damaged without any outside assistance. Se la vie.

This year we were blessed with a rich package of donated goodies which went to the course workers (including 5 planes!), and we really appreciate the generosity. Go buy something from the sponsors list posted below:

Putting on this event took a lot of help from many folks: Rey Harju for the hats and free beer, Mike Sheridan for a P.A. system, Warren Day for the trophies and goodies, Dan Field for matrix and scoring support, and Dave Klein for worker water and ice.

Next year’s race will be on August 16-17, 2008 so mark your calendars, put the dates in your Palm Pilot, and come on out.

Bill DelHagen, CD

Thanks to our sponsors!
Here is a list of the VENDORS that GAVE the raffle prizes generously for this years event:
If you are buying any of the items that they sell, please make every attempt to support them (they are, after all, supporting us!) by making a purchase.

Grass Mountain 2 Day Unlimited MoM Race

August 20th, 2007

Report from Day 1 - Dan Field

Well, day one of the Grass Mtn is in the books and it was quite the day. Big Air with at times Huge climb outs. Eight Rounds of glorious racing. Some of the Heat were just spectacular, Close and Fast, no really Fast and Close. Quite a bit of Carnage Today. Yours Truely was out for the day in the First Heat of the day and Turn Two, oh well. DO NOT work until 2:30 AM and Maiden a Loaded UP Racer is by racing.

One Mid Air early, light tapper but both planes were damaged but fixable. Two Majors with I think 3 planes down, 4 th will need some work. I think any other damage was Landing, for some reason today Grass was just tough all day with most not being able to slow down.

Sorry we left the computer at Grass but from memory it is. The DelHagen Cup is still up for grabs. Hoping for 6 rounds and done by 3ish PM for awards and Raffle Drawing. The Raffle this year is spectacular, Many Many thanks to all the Sponsors. Full List of items and Sponsors is on
RCGroups.

Tom Copp 10
David Klein 11
Bill DelHagen 12?
Kyle Paulson 12
Rey Harju and Kowalke are up there as well.

There will be a reflight first thing in the AM due to protest on a Turn Light error. Kyle Paulson has an opportunity to get back in a tie with Tom Copp, but he will have to get past FAST Rey Harju first.

Lot’s of pics and a bit of video to come but that will have to wait.

regards
Dan Field