Three Tasks Finish the MidUSA Ohio Challenge
The original task sheet Sunday morning called for as many as four tasks to be flown by competitors Sunday morning, all with limited scoring areas to be sure officials had ample time to prepare results for the awards brunch. Unfortunately, slow winds and questionable visibility forced Sullivan to cancel the first of four tasks in order to limit the field's flight in the river bed.
The Fly-In at Hook Field featured an X on a runway and pilots tried to figure out just how much left was going to be there on the surface as they made their approach. It seemed the longer and more stable the balloon was on the surface the more left the balloon turned. Several piltos were able to record very good results.
The second targets of the morning and third overall was a Hesitation Waltz roughly five kilometers Northeast of Hook Field. The more popular target was located in a gravel lot and just East of the gravel lot the other target was located in a large well kept grass field. With the fear of the low left going away as the flight went on many pilots chose to stay low after dropping at Hook Field in order to make sure they would be able to reach the second target. In the end the left remained relatively consistent as long as pilots allowed their balloons to settle into the surface winds.
The final task was again a Hesitation Waltz located to the Northeast. By this time in the flight most of the field was watching their Dakota 10 GPS units to make sure they would have enough time to reach the final target. The low left seemed to come and go for pilots and was stronger for some. Again the more common target was the Western most of the two and located in a small park. The second of the two targets was located in a large soccer field behind a local high school. Nick Donner, Zach Burgess, and Paul Petrehn all made nice approaches and were able to score very well on the final target.
In the end Nick Donner proved to be too much for the field through four tasks. He simply dominated winning one task and earning 900+ point scores on the other three. Check out the scores and you'll see it was over seven hundred points back to second place, Rick Cusick and another hundred points to third place finisher Chase Donner. Congrats Nick on another top finish. This makes his second win in two weeks (Battle Creek).
{youtubegallery=2011 Ohio Challenge}
