July 1999 Contest Results

July 24 brought some of Seattle's best pilots to Sixty-Acres for another installment in SASS's
1999 HLG Contest Season.  The weather was slightly threatening, with the convergence just
north of the field, which may have reduced the number of contestants, since it rained all day
further north (someday everyone will learn, it never rains at the flying field!).  The winds were
up a bit but people were able to fly floaters in some of the rounds.  It seems that light weight/
low drag is the trick, but with the light thermals you'll still need a bit if camber...

Sportsperson class brought a good group of five folks.  A special welcome goes to Chuck Holmes,
a fresh new face who flew quite well with his Flip 5 ARF.  Tim Johnson put in a strong performance
with his scratch built Tahlequah (RCSE 9/98) to take first, and Lauren Anstead took second with
his new Orion.

Expert class also saw some pretty good flying, but due to the lopsided number of contestants, it
was necessary to fly in two flight groups of three.  This meant there was very little opportunity to
let the 'other guy' find lift for you.  That and with the winds out of the south and the soccer field
boarder to the north, one typically had to skip from thermal to thermal to get a long flight in.  The
leader board was a bit difficult to follow, as the top three pilots would fly in one group and then
the other three would fly.  This allowed for two 1000 pt scores each round. Dick Barker, who
eventually won with his Uplink 58 was in the lower flight group for several rounds.  Steve Cameron
took 2nd being beat by only 73 points out of 7000.  And Jim Pearson came out of nowhere having
flown in the 2nd flight group all day, to take third.

Special thanks to our Sponsor: Thermal-Gromit Works (www.tgworks.com) for
donating a Red Herring kit and some carbon pushrods from their soon to be expanding product
line.