F3J in the Rockies was a huge success.
It offered every competitor on the field a few days of Colorado
style flying....even on the practice day where most competitors
opted to not really practice...it was just a bit too unstable of
conditions (on Thursday we had a rare, very destructive tornado
that touched down only 30 miles north of where we were flying,
making national news to give you an idea). We pretty much had a
little of everything to fly in over the grueling 2 days of competition.
We had wind, no wind, light lift, strong lift, into the wind launches,
down wind launches, crosswind launches with sometimes a mixed bag
of the above from one flight group to the next. When Daryl Perkins
became victorious as winner of the event, it was because he
"adjusted" to the conditions better then everyone else
on the field! (This shouldn't come as a surprise...4 X World Champion
and all). The whole competition came down to the final flight group
in the last of 4 fly-off flights of 15 minutes (no throw-outs here).
The fly-off group of 7 consisted of former World Champions
(Perkins and Miller), existing World Champion (Remington) current
USA F3J team members (Clerx and Burnoski) and up and coming national
competitors Lewan and Bothel .....and now here is the amazing part....no
one in that final group got their time of 15 minutes! As a matter
of fact, the group was won with an 8 minute 44 second flight..with
many of the US best landing out and forced to relight (self included....ouch)! This
was following 3 fly-off flights where, although challenging, almost
all seven contenders got 14min 50 something for the previous 3 fly-off
flights!
Yes, F3J in the Rockies always proves challenging and exciting,
and this year was no exception.
F3J in the Rockies is the brainchild of National Altitude record
holder, Mark Howard. It was only fitting (yet surprising as it is
Memorial day weekend) that he stepped up to CD the affair when our
hard working organizer and USA F3J team manager, Jim Monaco, had
to bow out of the CD duties due to a family emergency literally
less then a week before the start. Mark stepped right up and with
the assistance of Steve Sunken-field coordinator, Tony Ohare-score
keeper, Hal and Sue Remington-Logistics and Food, and John Lovins-field
help, pulled off a controversy-free, no re-flight, flawless event!
The F3J in the Rockies is the only "Full F3J rules"
competition in the USA (outside of the Nationals which is only every
other year) that occurs every year. It is held in Denver, Colorado
and hosted by the Rocky Mountain Soaring Association. It began
life as F3B in the Rockies but due to the popularity and need for
competitive F3J events, has established itself as the "must
attend" event for World Teams as well as F3J team participants.
To encourage participation, we allow competitors to fly
off F3J legal hand tow equipment (150 meters) with towmen, F3B legal
winches (illegal batteries ok) with approx 145 meters to turnaround
and monofilament, or dacron club winches with real balls set to
150 meters. All the launching appeared to give no category
any real advantage. Approximately 60% of the competitors hand towed
and the rest a mixed bag of F3B legal winches. It worked so well
this year that next year we will do the same: bring your tow
team, bring your F3B winch, or fly off one of our club winches.
Sorry to digress, but a worthwhile note.... Back to the competition.
In attendance piloting was the full USA Senior team (Perkins,
Clerx , Burnoski, Remington), 2 of the 3 juniors of USA team (Beardsley
and Walter),US Junior team manager, Mike Lee, Larry Jolly
(former multiple USA team member), and Skip Miller (former multiple
USA team member).
The full Canadian F3J team, 3 local RMSA F3J teams, and
a team from New Mexico were also competing. A very strong field
to say the least.
10 rounds were flown with one throw-out. Perkins, Miller,
and Clerx were the only competitors to fly all 10 rounds without
the need of throw-out. All other competitors had to use a throw-out
to gain final position to reach the fly offs. Jeffery Walters,
USA junior pilot, made the fly-offs in the 7th position but opted
out due to not risking a model as the conditions for the fly-offs
where gaining "nasty" and "risky" indicators.
This opened up the final fly off position to local "hot thumb"
and my team mate, Bob Lewan, to fill out the fly-off field.
After the dust had settled (literally) the results and models
where as follows:
1. PERKINS- SUPRA
2. MILLER- PERFECT
3. REMINGTON- ESPADA RL
4. LEWAN- ESPADA RL
5. CLERX - ASPIRE
6. BOTHEL- ONYX-JW?
7. BURNOSKI - SUPRA, PERFECT
Complete blow by blow results can be seen on the Rocky Mountain
Soaring Association web site www.rmsadenver.com and
look for F3J in the Rockies button.
On behalf of the RMSA, we welcome you all next year......Skip
Miller
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