Mark Frutiger «info» writes:

It's in the books, the first Final Glide competition at Quest is over, (almost). Eleven pilots flew twenty one one on one match races over two days. Scoring and rules for the comp were simple, two tugs towed two gilders to the same altitude and position upwind of the first turnpoint and released them at same time. The first glider to complete the course with at least 300' of altitude received the win, time did not matter. 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd for each pool was determined by the number of match wins. The top two from each pool advanced to the single elimination "Best of Show" round.

High winds on Saturday kept us from getting the final flight for Best of Show and 3^rd place in the kingposted pool done before dark, so we'll fly those at another time.

The course consisted of a downwind run to a turnpoint, then a push to another turnpoint 4 km northwest of Quest which was used as the handicapping tool. The higher performance the glider, the smaller the diameter around this turnpoint. The finish was a 400 meter cylinder around Quest with a 300' hard deck for safety. Completing the course below 300' counted as a loss.

There were some great match ups and close racing. The closest race was between John Hope and Eric Meibos. They crossed the finish within seconds of each other but John was just below the 300' minimum, so Eric got the win.

Just for fun and to see how well tandem gliders really fly, Dean Funk flew a Northwing tandem with a different passenger each round. He scored three wins in four attempts, with his only loss coming in a round where both gliders failed to make the course. We'll handicap the tandem and single surface gliders less in the next event.

The Litesport 4 piloted by Stephan Mentler was very impressive on glide and he racked up 5 wins in 5 rounds. He'll fly against Dean on the tandem for top honors. With the current handicapping, Stephan will have to fly very fast to make up the extra distance.

The final results were;

Kingposted (single surface and Sport 2's)

1^st Tony " Super" Mercado, Falcon 170

2^nd Dean Funk, Northwing T2 tandem

Open (High performance kingposted and topless)

1^st Stephan Mentler, Litesport 4

2^nd John Hope, U2 145

3^rd TBD Joe Schmucker or Kim Braswell or Cliff Rice

Best of Show

TBD Stephan Mentler or Dean Funk

3^rd Jonny Thompson, Litesport 4

I think there was enough fun had by all to make this a regular event. We'll schedule another one for some time in the spring.

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