World Soaring Masters
by Gordon Buckland [email protected]
Thermal Duration reached new heights in Muncie
This premier biennial RC thermal soaring event attracted top pilots from around the world to the AMA International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana, September 24–29. Muncie is renowned for trying conditions, with up air that is often difficult to read and sink that can be simply horrendous for pilots of all calibers to negotiate on the way home from a downwind ride. The League of Silent Flight expertly planned and conducted the 2010 World Soaring Masters (WSM), and Tom Kallevang and his band of volunteers ensured that the contest was fair and fun for all.
Eighty-one competitors from across the US, Canada, and Europe gathered on Friday, September 24 for an 8 a.m. pilots’ meeting. They were greeted by a formidable weather cycle that included forecasted winds of 25–30 mph and high temperatures nearing 90°. It was not the most perfect soaring weather the organizers could have hoped for, but Contest Director Mark Nankivil announced that the show would go on in spite of the blustery winds.
That day the contest consisted of 12-minute maxes with an 80-point graduated tape in each of the 12 perfectly laid-out landing zones (LZs). Each flight group was flown random, man-on-man. The total score of flight-time seconds plus landing points was normalized, with the top score of each group recorded as 1,000. Two line breaks were allowed for each pilot for the duration of the preliminary rounds, but no pop-offs—only low launches.
The competition got underway without a hitch. Each brave group of pilots strode out to the flightline, and contestants winched their sailplanes into the unknown under Flightline Director Marc Gellart’s command. Many models sported more ballast than their pilots had ever used. Others flew with no ballast, which led to some interesting scores in Round One; a few experienced pilots posted times of 4, 3, and even 2 minutes in their quest for the 12-minute max. As each group launched during the first round, conditions gradually worsened with some gusts measured at more than 40 mph.
Vladimir Gavrylko (Ukraine) flew his newly-maidened Icon 2 with great skill; afterward he showed off the latest creation from his company, Vladimir Models—a tiny hand-launched glider called the "Elf," with an all-up flying weight of less than 3.5 ounces.
Blayne Chastain set his mark on the contest early with a 10:45 in the last group—the longest flight recorded in Round One. That was an epic achievement because such seasoned contest pilots as Rich Burnoski and Craig Greening barely managed 5 minutes in the same air. Another notable score was Dave Campbell's 9:01, flying an old but tried-and-proven Icon.
On the other end of the scale, Group G saw Pete Goldsmith and his Pike Perfect duke it out with John Luetke flying a High End. In a horrible patch of air, Pete outlasted John with a 3:23 time but couldn't find the landing tape, letting John take the 1,000 points with a 3:11 and 60 landing points.
With squally showers predicted and no relief from the relentless wind, management decided to call the day's flying and save the equipment until Saturday, when much calmer conditions were predicted.
Day Two dawned with a clear sky and a zephyr of a breeze compared to Friday's gale. A buzz of activity on the site heralded what was going to be a very long day of flying.
Marna Jeffery opened the transmitter impound early, and the first group of Round Two launched on time into air that was not yet warmed by the slowly rising sun. At the conclusion of the round there were 18 pilots with 1,000 points (allowing for a drop).
This contest is notoriously tight at the top. With the four-round flyoff format in place, the goal during preliminary rounds was to place in the top 10. The normalized total of the preliminary rounds was carried forward as the first-round score in the flyoffs as well. This meant that the highest-placed pilot in the preliminary rounds could be rewarded with a significant starting score advantage in the flyoffs.
The flightline team hustled to get as many rounds flown as quickly as possible for Round Three. The air was starting to bubble. A high blanket of clouds masked the sun roughly half the time, but sufficient warming took place for soft lift and some good soaring.
Nearly all of the pilots' models in each group caught rides, and most got their times as they ran downwind and circled in big blenders of constantly moving air. Joe Wurts quickly made up for his earlier score and stamped his authority on the contest with an 11:59.80 to trounce his group.
However, that was the exception; most groups saw many scores in the high 900s. The last group of Round Three launched into such improving conditions that its flight was clearly a landing contest. The lowest score of the nine was 975. At the conclusion of the round only seven pilots still held a perfect score of 2,000 (allowing for their drop).
The best soaring conditions of the weekend were experienced in Round Four, with only 19 pilots missing the 12-minute max. Fourteen of those were in groups C and D when Muncie's stiff breeze and notorious sink claimed many sailplanes that didn't move back upwind in time for a second ride or didn't quite get the required altitude downwind to make it back home. The wind had picked up significantly, but so had the strength of the lift and sink.
Round Five was punctuated by lift cycles that appeared to be coming more regularly, moving quickly across the flat landscape. For most pilots it was simply a matter of running back to the air that had just passed them.
But the lift was so strong that pilots sometimes found themselves stranded in "no-man's land"—last to launch and attempting the run back only to encounter more sink behind the thermal than they had altitude to burn getting to the lift. This resulted in several flights returning early for extremely low scores, while others made memorable saves as they scouted right and left for alternative air.
Many groups launching at the right moment had no trouble making it downwind to the lift, climbing out, and starting the trek home at huge altitudes. Keen eyes and a good caller were the order of the day; a few pilots were heard complaining that they couldn't see their models.
The sky cleared of high clouds to reveal an endless blue with a smattering of puffy small cumulus clouds forming and dissipating quickly as they blew through. The scoresheet after five rounds showed a tight battle developing at the top, with only 10 points separating Blayne in first place from Mike Verzuh in 10th.
Putting a watch on the regular lift cycles, I saw that a new thermal was blowing through approximately every six minutes in Round Six. This allowed for many solid flight times and culminated in a real fight in the LZ for the prized 80 points.
Only 16 pilots failed to score landing points in the round, mostly because they didn't make it back anywhere near the zone. A notable exception was my flight; I hit myself when my model skidded unexpectedly, yielding a zero landing. With not much rain in September, a good pushover to make the models bite on the hard turf was necessary.
In Round Seven Blayne kept up his consistent scores with another 1,000, to open up a 2-point lead over Joe Wurts. Cody Remington moved into third flying the new V-tailed Vulture.
The Vulture is a great example of some of the new affordable molded sailplanes being manufactured in Europe. It was great to see Cody flying it at this contest.
Round Eight was declared as the last for Saturday, and it proved to be significant; a reshuffle took place at the top. After seven exemplary rounds, Blayne failed to take a read downwind and was trounced by Jim McCarthy and Mike Verzuh in Group J, slipping back to fourth.
Caroline Goldsmith, flying a Tragi, showed real skills all weekend, but none more than in this round. She came in close behind Tim Frickey and Skip Miller (with a Satori) to post a great 969.
The real mover all day was Rich Burnoski, flying a Satori. He had a forgettable first-round flight on Friday, leaving him to start Saturday in 50th place. Such is the skill and consistency of the US F3J team member that he finished 45 places better that day—merely 7 points from the lead.
With Blayne in fourth, Jon Padilla sat nicely in third. Cody was second, leaving Joe Wurts the leader by 5 points going into Sunday.
Saturday had been a long day of competition, but Horizon Hobby—the major sponsor of the WSM—had great things in store for the contestants before the day was done. Each flier received the latest Spektrum AR6255 Carbon Fuse Receiver and a WSM T-shirt as gifts. In addition, there was a raffle that featured many valuable goodies donated by sponsors.
Horizon Hobby also put on a Radian Pro contest in which eight sailplanes were provided for four-man teams to fly. With four flights of 12 minutes max required using a 30-second motor run, the Muncie wind had the last laugh. There were many giggles and much good-natured jostling for air as the eight teams fought an epic battle to make long flights way downwind. A runner was dispatched for some groupings to get the light craft back to the launch area for the next flight inside the one-minute time limit. Horizon Hobby presented the winning team, with the longest accumulated flight time, with four of the Radian Pros.
The day was finally wrapped up with the sun setting and only a few more preliminary rounds to complete the next day before the flyoffs.
Sunday was going to be nicer than Saturday; there was hardly a breath of wind at dawn as we prepared for the final battle. The forecasted temperatures were much lower, though, and jackets were required as we assembled at the soaring site.
By midround the sun was finally doing its work, and some pilots were making their maxes. These conditions demand sound decision making: first a good read and then minimum control movements until lift is found. Many terrific pilots were hurt badly in the first rounds on Saturday and Sunday, doing poorly in the breezy dead air, while others in their flight groups did well.
Round 11 was the last of the preliminaries, allowing plenty of time to conduct the flyoffs. As the regular Muncie lift cycles swept through, sometimes an entire group would catch the ride, while other times pilots who did not make decisive actions at launch fell afoul of the following sink.
Except for the third group away (in which Peter Goldsmith maxed and buried the others making only 2 or 3 minutes), the entire round was flown in air that was slightly more easily read. Only 20 pilots failed to score the max, and most of those were in the first three flight groups.
At the conclusion of the final round, scoresheets were tallied and the 10 pilots making the flyoff were named. Unlucky number 11 was a talented and quickly improving Pat Crosby, flying a Supra, who was merely 2 points out of the money rounds.
- 10th: Mike Reagan — 9,732 points
- 9th: Skip Miller — 9,769 points
- 8th: Craig Greening — 9,834 points
- 7th: Steve Stohr — 9,846 points
- 6th: Jon Padilla — (tied for most 1,000-point rounds)
- 5th: Arend Borst — 9,862 points
- 4th: Mike Verzuh — 9,890 points
- 3rd: Joe Wurts — 9,937 points
- 2nd: Thomas Cooke — 9,971 points
- 1st (prelims): Rich Burnoski — 9,987 points
Flyoff Rounds
I volunteered as an official timer so I could be involved in the action and watch the flyoffs unfold from close quarters. It was wonderful to observe the strategy of the top pilots in a tight battle.
The first launch saw everybody away cleanly and heading for an easy read, only to be called back a minute later when I discovered I was timing the same pilot as somebody else; that meant there was a pilot on the field without an official timer. The mix-up was straightened out and the 10 aircraft were relaunched. Lift that had been marked earlier was a long way downwind by that time, but most pilots chased it because there were no other dependable reads.
A few pilots who were either last to launch or left the run downwind too late suffered the wrath of the Muncie sink as they attempted to return home too early or simply did not reach the lift. Mike Reagan was an exception; he raced downwind, said a prayer, and found the lift a long way from home. Mike carefully worked his way up and back beyond the limits of most pilots' vision to achieve an unlikely max 12 minutes later. Joe Wurts, Mike Verzuh, and Craig Greening scored 12:00.79 to take 1,000 points each in that round.
In the following round Joe avoided the obvious lift downwind to the left, where all but he and Arend Borst moved immediately after launch. Instead Joe ventured forward and to the right to the top of the hill on the east side. His air for the first few minutes was marginal at best. While Skip Miller and the others were checking out high and way downwind, Joe had dropped to an alarming height of less than 300 feet and still had no thermal. Arend was also poking around on the right side but had lost less height than Joe at that point.
Skip asked Cody how Joe was doing. "Not good; he hasn't got a thermal yet," Cody replied quietly.
But Joe seemed calm as he carefully scouted the area he was committed to. Then he started turning the Supra Pro and it stopped descending, gradually lifting around the turn. Within a few minutes Joe's aircraft was higher than those returning from downwind to join his piece of the sky for their ride home. That was a great soaring lesson: a canny pilot stuck to his plan with commitment and was eventually rewarded.
I also watched Arend use the area Joe had scouted to keep his flight going and finish his 12-minute max. An extreme effort would be required from one of the other nine pilots if he were to defeat Joe at a game of which Joe is clearly the master.
Remaining flyoff rounds were contested in great soaring conditions, with strong lift available. They required good eyesight, calm nerves, and steady flying, because the 8–9 minutes of thermaling often resulted in models being almost out of sight downwind before it was safe to leave the up air and venture through inevitable sink on the way home to the LZ. The LZ didn't decide the fate of the top 10 pilots.
In analyzing the scores it seems that more positions were won or lost in the air—being early or late—than were lost in points on the ground. Having a precision flight within a second of the max was not good enough to win.
The scoring system truncated the seconds, so the best-scoring time could be late by up to .99 second. Therefore, a 12:00.99 was scored as a perfect 12:00, while an 11:59.99 was scored as 1 second early. Joe was best at adapting to exploit this timing method, leaving just 1 second on the field during the four flyoff rounds. Others were consistently 1 or 2 seconds off.
Mike Verzuh was the best overall scoring pilot in the final four rounds, but his preliminary-round carryover score was not the highest, so he had a lot of ground to make up. Thomas Cooke landed with great precision, posting the most landing points in the final four rounds—giving up only three points—but was not as consistent with his timing. Landings with his huge and beautifully prepared 4M Xplorer were spectacularly accurate all day.
With one round left to fly, scores were so close among the top seven that anybody could have won. Joe was in the lead by 1 point over Mike Verzuh and 3 points over Thomas Cooke. In the end, Joe's consistency with the clock triumphed by 4 points over a gallant Mike. Thomas remained in third place, merely 2 points further back.
This contest had it all. From the first day to the last, conditions tried every pilot to the max and only the best came through unscathed to fight it out in the finals. It was a memorable event in which each competitor can say that he flew with the world's best at one of the world's best soaring sites.
It is a pity that we have to wait two years before we can experience this fabulous contest again. See you all in 2012. Don't miss it! MA
Sources:
- World Soaring Masters — www.worldsoaringmasters.com
- League of Silent Flight — www.silentflight.org
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
