ALES No 1. – Barr Street – Jan 14th 2012

ALES No 1. Shootout at the Barr St Corral.
Rick gathered a small group of ALES enthusiasts together for the first of our 5 event series on Saturday. The event was held at the Barr St location which is becoming a most excellent venue for RC soaring in Oviedo when the traditional club field at the Seminole State College is not available.
Seven pilots were present for the contest and Rick kept it a real low key fun event with two flight groups to make timing easier. Limiters were set at 150M all day with a 5 minute max set. Rick flying a Radian was at a real disadvantage though when he discovered his limiter was limited indeed. In fact 100M was all it could do for him and this made his flights rather challenging. It was great to meet a new comer in Kirby Jones and he was a very enthusiastic pilot and put in some great scores for someone doing this the first time. Temps were in the low 60’s but with the sun only partly obscured there was lift available in every round though models that could range further had a distinct advantage over the Radians.
One round in particular saw nobody max their flights but other than this one sink cycle it was a very nice soaring day.
The wind direction was perfect for electric sailplane with landing approaches across the open paddock toward the parking lot.
Conley Whiddon continues to impress with soaring skills and the ability to manage the energy of his sailplane. He flew beautiful veneer wing Art Hobby machine to 2nd place with 6557 points. Don Grisham peddled his Radian with a lot of skill and cunning too to see himself in 3rd with 5492. I had the big bird out there (SuperAva) and she made the most of the conditions with a 1st place on 7000 points.
It was a lot of fun with just enough wind to mix it up and make each of us work hard for the air. Looking forward to the next one in the series.

Gordon Buckland – 7000
Conley Whiddon – 6557
Don Grisham – 5492
Rick Eckel – 4877
Kirby Jones – 4520
Lewis Gray – 4109
Tom Galloway – 3933

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