Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2004 00:05:36 -0400
From: "Phil Barnes"
To: "RCSE posting"
Subject: IHLGF2004 The Contest


The Torrey Pines Gulls club has done it again! The International Hand Launch
Glider Festival has to be one of the best run contests in the country. This
event is the highlight of my contest season and I always marvel at how well
run it is. Every detail of organization is attended to and the contestants
always know what to expect and what the rules are.

One of the big attractions of this contest is that "good" weather conditions
for a high level hand launch contest are almost guaranteed. This does not
mean that it is always calm with tons of easy lift everywhere. There are
times of "stupid lift" as Joe Wurts calls it, but there are also times with
strong wind and elusive thermals. What I've never seen in my four contests
at Poway are times of unflyable rain or strong winds with no lift. So what
you can count on at Poway is a variety of conditions which may lead to easy
maxes or may be quite challenging and require great skill and an aggressive
flying style to get your times. The contest organizers take advantage of the
well known weather patterns and schedule tasks accordingly.

The typical morning calm winds/big lift weather is used in a couple of
different ways; It is expected that most experienced pilots will make their
times in such conditions so there is no sense scheduling tasks that will
only cause the inexperienced pilots to get buried early and do nothing to
separate the experienced pilots. So "total time" and "fast turnaround time"
tasks are scheduled. These are tasks that can be achieved with relatively
short flights so that there will not be a big spread in scores from highest
to lowest and so nobody gets buried unless they make silly mistakes. On the
other hand, the experienced pilots can still compete for the 1,000 point
score by going for the fast turnaround (the time between the catch and the
next throw).

After lunch when the wind starts blowing, the tasks change to longer flight
times where the emphasis is on working thermals which are now fast moving
and possibly elusive. Less emphasis is placed on fast turnaround times,
which is good since a fast catch and throw by the wingtip is a rather
difficult, randomly successful event in turbulent, windy conditions.

This year's event saw the usual calm winds with plenty of lift in the
morning. Lunch was served after two rounds and the wind began to blow as we
ate. On Saturday, it became quite breezy and the lift was rather fickle
after lunch for a couple rounds. There was strong lift to be found but there
was also plenty of sink and the lift was hard to track, often requiring the
pilot to require his thermal or find a new one to make his time or to get
back on field. The winds slacked off just a bit for the final two rounds on
Saturday and I would say that conditions changed from difficult to merely
challenging. On Sunday, the wind came up with a vengeance during lunch and
so rounds 9 and 10 (the final two regular rounds) were very challenging
indeed. The thermals were once again fickle in that they would
move/dissipate in sometimes unpredictable ways and quick, decisive action
was frequently required to find new lift. I came to call the conditions for
rounds 9 and 10 "wicked" and found myself telling people that "if you
weren't flying on the edge of disaster, then you were doing something
wrong". That is just a way of saying that you had to fly aggressively and
take chances to make your times. It seemed to me that the conditions for the
three flyoff rounds were still challenging but not quite as wicked as rounds
9 and 10. Of course, impressions like these are heavily influenced by how
well you do in those conditions.

Phil

------------------------------



Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2004 00:05:36 -0400
From: "Phil Barnes"
To: "RCSE posting"
Subject: IHLGF My Flying


The score sheet will show that I started the contest with seven straight
1000 point rounds. You would never have guessed that those were my scores if
someone had first described some of my flying to you before you saw the
scores. The theme of this contest for me was "how many mistakes can I make
and still not have to pay a price for it"?

The first round was a "total time" task, meaning that all time with the
model in the air counted. Only time spent with the model on the ground or in
hand was not counted. There was a penalty of ten seconds for each throw
beyond four throws but the only way to lose a lot of points was to land off
field or break a plane and lose time switching to a backup. There was no
wind and lift everywhere so it should be pretty easy to fly the entire ten
minute window with the four "free" throws (a three minute max meant that you
needed at least three throws). The 1000 point score would be awarded to
whoever minimized his "turnaround" time (the time spent catching and then
throwing the model again) and avoided silly mistakes. I began the task by
flying poorly, reading air poorly and struggling to get close to the three
minute max, all this while watching other planes sky out around me on the
many thermals. The next mistake occurred during the second "turnaround". In
my haste to catch the plane by the wingtip peg and make a quick re-launch, I
only got one finger on the throwing peg, although I did get a really good
strong launch from that one finger. The result was a loud cracking noise as
I released the model which was the result of breaking the throwing peg loose
from the wing tip. My luck held out as I was able to fly a third three
minute flight from that launch and only needed a minute or so from my last
throw to finish the round. The low "baby" launch that I was able to achieve
with the broken throwing peg would have made a longer flight very difficult.
Had I broken the peg on the first turnaround I would have had serious
trouble finishing the task with only four throws and likely would have lost
quite a few points in the round by switching to a backup plane or taking
extra throws. As it turned out I got 595 seconds of flying time in the 600
minute window and won the round. This pattern of "mistakes without cost"
would continue all day Saturday and into the beginning of Sunday.



Round four task was to fly three three minute flights (three best flights
counted with a 3 minute max) in a ten minute window. I elected to launch at
the start of the window as I thought I had a pretty good read on some air.
Things started out well as I began circling in lift and others joined either
by making the same read or observing other planes in the good air. However,
round four took place after lunch during the "breezy, elusive lift" times. I
made the mistake of flying carelessly and allowing myself to fall out
of/lose contact with my elusive thermal. I frantically attempted to readjust
my flight path to find the thermal again while the other planes happily
thermalled away. Worse still, I managed to hit the famous Poway power line
which caused my plane to fall down to an altitude too low to even get back
on field. I picked up the model about ten feet out of bounds just as the
round timing CD said "eight minutes" (time left in the round). I looked up,
saw a Photon circling in lift just overhead and thought to myself "No
problem, I can still get two threes and a two" which is just what I did and
that was enough to win the round.

In fact, I only flew one "clean" round on Saturday. Round five called for a
four minute, a three minute, and a two minute flight in a ten minute window.
I finished them in that order and had most of a minute to spare. That was
the only round where I walked off the field knowing I had the thousand point
score. Every other time I was at least apprehensive and sometimes surprised
to see the score when it was posted after the round.

Bruce Davidson was kind enough to break my string of 1000's by beating me in
both the eighth and ninth rounds. I remember starting out the ninth round ni
cely (three 3's in a ten minute window) by launching into a nice strong
thermal just off to the side of the field. I happily skied out in that
thermal while watching a gaggle of planes working/struggling in some weak
lift as they drifted far off field. I came down to launch height after two
minutes to map some air for my next throw and launched into the same lift
which had by then drifted just a little farther down range. Another easy max
and I again mapped the air (or so I thought) for the final throw. Boy was I
surprised to find nothing but sink where I thought there would be lift. I
landed off field, as I picked up the model, I heard the timing CD say "two
minutes" and thought to myself "two threes and a two won this task for me
last time". I only got about a minute and a half though and Bruce edged me
out.

I flew poorly in the tenth round, making some flights but missing others by
just getting out of sinc with the lift and/or flying poorly. So that became
my drop round and I went into the flyoff rounds with my seven 1000's and my
two "Bruce" rounds of 959 and 982.

Phil

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2004 00:05:36 -0400
From: "Phil Barnes"
To: "RCSE posting"
Subject: IHLGF2004 The Flyoff Rounds


After six rounds of flying on Saturday and four on Sunday, the top ten
pilots carried their best nine scores into a three round flyoff. Bruce
Davidson had pulled into the lead by then but I think everyone knew that the
scores were close enough that anyone of the ten could win. I was fully
expecting Joe Wurts to pull out another win.

Round eleven called for five two minute flights with a twenty second penalty
for each extra throw. I began struggling with a flight of about 1 1/2
minutes followed by three two minute maxes and then another 1 1/2 minute
flight. That gave me 931 points for the  round which was fourth best. Joe
Wurts won the round followed by Mike Smith(990),and Tom Kiesling(952). This
left Joe in first place after round eleven.

Round twelve called for three three minute flights with 30 second penalties
for extra throws. With an extra minute in the ten minute round window, most
pilots elected not to throw at the opening horn. Paul Anderson was first to
break the stalemate. He launched and began a downwind run. As no lift was
apparent, the rest of us just watched and some began urging Paul to continue
his search farther downwind. At about the time Paul reached the limit of his
downwind range and began turning for home, Tom Kiesling got some inspiration
and launched. 



He immediately began circling and this was enough for me to
decide to pull the trigger. I happen to know that Tom doesn't launch high
enough to bluff and reads air too well to mistakenly circle in sink. The air
was soon full of about ten airplanes circling in lift. I'm not sure what
happened to Paul but based on the scores (Paul got a 990) he must have
either gotten back upwind into Tom's thermal, found his own or just re-
launched early enough not to be hurt by the first flight. I was fourth in
the round again with two three minute flights and a shorter flight for a 900
point round. Bruce Davidson took the 1000, followed by Paul's 990 and Art
Markiewicz's 972. Joe Wurts had some trouble and dropped out of first place
with a  771 point round.



Round thirteen, the final round, called for a four minute flight, a three
minute flight, a two minute flight and a one minute flight, in any order but
with only four throws allowed. As the timing CD counted down to the start of
the round, I was watching a thermal streamer mounted on top of a mobile home
as well as the streamer on my transmitter antenna. They were pointing in
different directions, indicating a thermal directly on the field. I began
edging my way towards that part of the field and noticed Joe Wurts doing the
same thing. I told my timer there was a thermal directly over Joe's head and
launched at the horn. I guess this was a pretty easy read as most others
launched as well and soon the air was filled with circling models. The
thermal was nice to me for about a minute but after almost two minutes I was
low and struggling so I asked my timer (Russ Bennett) for a two minute count
and set up for a re-launch. It looked like most of the other planes were
still happily thermalling away and I had just fallen out of the bottom of
the thermal so I was fairly confident that I could launch again into the
meat of the thermal and do a longer flight. I launched, cruised the short
distance to where the thermal was/should have been, saw no indication of
lift and a sparse population of models by then. I made the quick decision to
continue straight downwind towards a cluster of circling models. I found
some spotty lift and began working it. It was not the stuff that could be
called "happy air" but was rather more like "survival" air. I was constantly
readjusting my thermal turns trying to find the "sweet spot" and drifting
ever further down wind as I did so. The other planes in the area were doing
the same thing. There was not one big definite thermal that drew everyone in
but just an area of small, broken, elusive, constantly shifting thermals. My
goal (no surprise here) was to gain enough altitude for an easy ride home.
That never happened so I finally reached a point where I had to ask Russ to
help find a route home. He pointed out that some other planes were
indicating good air on the left side of the field so I pointed the plane for
that area and headed upwind. About half way back I got some indication of
lift, probably a wing being lifted, made a couple turns to check out the air
and then centered up in a very nice, strong thermal. I quickly gained enough
altitude to cruise quickly back to the field and came down again to launch
altitude to scout air for the next throw. There appeared to be a general,
wide area of lift just downwind of the field boundary so I happily finished
my four minute flight and launched again for an easy three minute flight.
That left only a sub one minute flight to finish the round and the contest.
Joe Wurts won this round. I was second with two seconds less time (590s to
Joe's 592s) for a score of 997. Paul Anderson (993), Mark Drela (992) and
Art Markiewicz (985) also made all of their times.



At this point, we all just waited for the awards to be announced. I was
quite certain that Joe had won. I made a point of checking with him after
the first and third flyoff rounds to see how he had done. I never asked
about round twelve and had no idea that he had dropped some points there.
The places were called off beginning with tenth and moving up to first. The
first bit of excitement came when sixth place was called out and Tom
Kiesling's name had not yet been called. I was very excited to realize that
Tom had made the top five. The huge surprise for me came when they called
out Joe Wurts for third place. This, of course, had extraordinary
consequences and I immediately began thinking who besides me was left. I
soon realized that Paul Anderson (the guy who beat me out of third place by
one point last year) was "the other guy". I had no clue at that point where
Paul was in the standings before the flyoff rounds or how he had done in the
flyoff rounds. So I just waited until second place was called out. The high
fives and hand shakes began as soon as they said "our own west coast
pilot......." A great moment made even sweeter by the total suspense and
surprise.

Phil




Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 22:52:57 -0400
From: "Phil Barnes"
To: "SALglider posting" "RCSE posting"
Subject: IHLGF2004 people and planes


The models flown at this year's International Hand Launch Glider Festival
looked very much like the models flown last year. There has not been much
new development.

My models this year were essentially the same as last year. The wing was an
XP3 (yeah, Denny, I know. I'm supposed to call them XP4 wings now) core with
just a slightly different layup and some other modifications. I use 1.0 oz
Kevlar instead of 1.7 oz. This saves a little weight which I put into
stiffening the flaperons. I use Foamular 600 (higher density) foam aft of
the hinge line. I use precured bias carbon (the expensive lightweight
carbon) semi chord doublers on the flaperons and I install carbon torque
tubes in the flaperon leading edges. Aerodynamically, the wing is just a
stock XP4 wing. All the flaperon stiffening stuff I do is probably overkill
even for me. My wing weighs the same as a stock XP4 wing, about 4.4oz
(125g). The fuselage is the same Logic carbon and kevlar fuselage that I've
used for many years with an Allegro tail boom. The tails are the usual DLG
configuration with HT12 airfoils and a layup just like on the Supergee plan.
All up weight is about 10.5 oz (300g).



Paul Anderson may be the next guy to win this contest. At least he is just
as likely to do so as anybody else you can think of. He was one flight away
from winning it this year. last year he was the only pilot in the flyoffs to
get all his times in all three rounds which propelled him to a third place
finish last year. You have to see his demonstration flights during lunch
breaks and before/after the contest to understand just how good his stick
skills are. He was doing some 3D flying with a foam electric model that just
defied belief. Paul's hand launch models this year looked like they might be
Raptors. They were fiberglass over blue foam wings.



Joe Wurts is still king of hand launch in my opinion. He's been beaten two
years in a row by interlopers from the East now, but that's a long way from
erasing or overshadowing his eight wins. Joe still reads and flies air
better than just about anybody, certainly better than me. I think there are
some people around now who are close enough to him that he needs to fly real
well without mistakes or he leaves the door open for someone else, having a
good day, to walk through. I suspect that Joe will have his game face on
next year and will be especially tough to beat. Joe, of course flies
Encores.



Bruce Davidson flew very well this year. He was actually in first place
going into the flyoffs. If not for some difficulties in the first flyoff
round, Bruce could have won the whole thing. Maybe it was those two nice new
XP4s that Bruce was flying. Bruce also had a Photon as a backup model.



Speaking of Photons, Those are some pretty impressive looking models. The
craftsmanship is amazing. They may give up something on launch and/or
penetration (at least I read that somewhere) but they certainly would be a
good choice if you wanted to fly a poly model. I do know that they were good
lift markers at this contest. They also have very strong wing leading edges,
by the way. I mid-aired one of them on Friday with my number three model.
Not a scratch on the Photon but my wing needed actual shop repairs to be
flyable again.



Tom Kiesling has been steadily improving over the last three years. He has
always been an excellent flier and air reader. He has been world class in
those areas for a long time. His launch has kept him back in the past. At
this point his best launches are high enough to be respectable. He still has
moments of "low launch-itis" but he is getting more consistent and those
moments are becoming more rare. When you combine Tom's air reading and
thermal flying skills with even just a respectable launch, you get a strong
contender. Tom has been my timer for the past two or three years. He has
taught me a lot already about air reading, he's been trying to teach me
about proper rudder usage in thermal turns and lately, how to keep my
thermal turns smooth by not "porpoising" the model with excess elevator
inputs. He also tries mightily to keep me from doing silly, brain dead
things like flying into power lines and forgetting the task while I fly. Tom
flies models very similar to mine. Modified XP4 wings just like mine on a
Logic fuse with tails that Tom bagged himself. In fact I copied my tails
from Tom's plane. Tom actually was the first person that I know of to fly
the new Drela DLG airfoils. I bagged a set of wings for him early on and
sent him a Logic fuselage. Tom built his own tails. I developed The XP3 wing
from that first wing that I sent to Tom. When I built my first Drela foiled
DLG model I just copied Tom's tails and have been flying that design ever
since.



Art Markiewicz is a fun guy to have at a contest. He has a great sense of
humor and keeps people smiling all day. He is also a great flier and scratch
builder. He flies very distinct looking models with anhedral stabilizers and
a fuselage with a drooped nose. I think these features are more style than
substance but you always know when you are looking at Art's model. Art is
one of those world class thermal fliers that you fear being in the same
flight group with.

Mike Smith was flying XP4s.



Mark Drela was flying his Supergees, of course.



Gordon Jennings flew Encores.



I don't actually know what Jim Pearson was flying but you might expect him
to fly Encores.

That finishes out the top ten pilots and their machines but I will not stop
there. There is a sort of friendly rivalry that has developed between the
East and the West coast pilots. So I must point out the performance of the
rest of our East coast crew.

The East coast (we count Bruce Davidson as East coast) put four pilots in
the top ten this year but we also had two "bubble boys" in 11th and 12th
place.

Oleg finished in 11th place but you should not think that he is a
"has-been". Oleg will be back next year. He had some bad luck this year on
Sunday. On Saturday he was only about four points off perfect with a drop.
We think he suffered from distractions this year because he was traveling
with his family. He is a lock for a high finish next year. Oleg, of course,
flies Taboos

Don Vetter finished 12th. He is also a good candidate for a top ten finish
next year. This year's conditions did not favor Don's flying style. I keep
trying to get Don to fly more aggressively, his natural style is to be more
cautious. This year's conditions required some very aggressive flying at
times. I think Don will continue to improve and be even more of a threat
next year. Don flies fully scratch built models with Supergee airfoils on
his own Logic style fuselages.



Russ Bennett is one of our top East coast pilots. He finished in 19th place.
Russ was the best in our area in the old javelin launch days. He has only
flown DLG for a year or two and is still getting up to speed with that. This
was his first IHLGF. It takes some time to get used to Poway conditions and
to get over being overwhelmed or "psyched out" by the big contest. Russ will
do better next year just because it will be his second year. He will
probably also continue to improve with DLG in general. He has not yet
learned to use his full potential and to use the full performance envelope
that DLG launches give him. Russ has always been one of my favorite timers
for hand launch and he did a great job timing for me in the flyoff rounds
this year. Russ flew an XP4 and a Taboo I think.



Jan Kansky is a club mate of Mark Drela up in Boston. I know he is a good
thermal duration pilot having flown with him on the ESL circuit. I've never
seen him fly DLG before but I hope he sticks with it and returns to Poway
next year. Jan flew XP4s to a 25th place finish.

The invasion from the east will continue next year and I think will only
grow stronger. You west coast guys should think about recruiting. I have
heard stirrings that maybe Daryl Perkins is thinking about DLG. You guys
could use him.

The International Hand Launch Glider Festival is not all about flying. It is
also a good place to meet people that you usually only get to talk to on the
net. I've had great fun talking about scratch building with Encore builder
Phil Pearson for instance. Aradhana Singh Kalsa was there with his family.
He had some of the best looking, most authentic Supergees I've ever seen. He
is new to DLG flying but is a great craftsman.



The IHLGF is an event that draws the best hand launch people (and scratch
builders) from a very wide area and is something well worth the trip for
anyone with those interests.

Phil