Aloft - 2014 BFA Southeast Regional Championship
Friday Evening Marginal conditions in the Greenville, SC area led to the cancellation of the sponsor flight, thunderstorms both to the East and West of the flying area were the culprit. Saturday Morning Saturday morning greeted pilots with clear skies as pilots made their way to the briefing. Loggers, weather sheets, and diagrams awaited at each competitor's table as pilots began to sort through what they had been given. Shortly after the briefing began it became clear that brisk wind conditions would lead to a weather hold while the situation was monitored. Sam Parks and his team were reporting consistent pibal readings of 20 knots at just a few hundred feet. Unfortunately, the winds didn't trend down enough to allow for a flight and at 8:00 am the flight for Saturday morning was officially cancelled. Saturday Evening Saturday evening brought improving conditions as the atmosphere stabilized after the frontal passage early Saturday morning. Sam Parks put together two tasks for the pilots a Hesitation Waltz (HWZ) and Pilot Declared Goal (PDG), and the tasks could be flown in any order. Shortly after the briefing ended pilots made their way to the main launch field and spread out as they tried to get a good feel for the wind direction so that they could make their Pilot Declaration for the (PDG) prior to launch. Most pilots seemed to choose their PDG goals prior to the Hesitation Waltz given the relatively short scoring period for an evening flight. Some good results were seen on the PDG with the winning result being Chase Donner with a score of 3 meters. The HWZ turned out to be hotly contested after a fairly steerable evening late. Jeff Sweet won this task with a result of .46 meters - two good tasks to get the competition going a this year's Aloft. Sunday Morning Excited competitors picked up a task sheet containing four tasks and a bonus "trash can throw" for a cash prize on Sunday morning in Simpsonville. The tasks for the morning included a Fly-In, Gordon Bennett Memorial, Judge Declared Goal, and Fly-On task. General weather conditions were winds out of the North/Northeast on the surface and coming around to out of the South at 3,000 feet AGL. Most pilots decided to take off to the South and fly the upper level winds into the first target and not be subject to the potential fluctuations of the surface winds. As it turned out three pilots in a row (Joe and Rhett Heartsill as well as Nick Donner) all managed to put their orange baggies in one of three trash cans at the main launch field where the Fly-In and Gordon Bennett were located. As their reward they will all get an equal share of the $3,000 cash prize. The cash will also be split with any pilot that can successfully place their marker in the trash bins on Monday morning. Nick Donner recorded the best score on the Fly-In with a .41 meter drop, followed by Joe Heartsill at 1 meter, and Jeff Sweet with a 1.21 meter drop. The Gordon Bennett was made up of two triangles, shown below, with one triangle 20 feet closer to the "X" and thus the best scoring option. The best result on the Gordon Bennett was again recorded by Nick Donner, followed by Rhett Heartsill and then Joe Heartsill. From the main launch field pilots ascended to a couple of thousand feet so they could track to the North and make it to the Judge Declared Goal. Given the wind condition pilots essentially had to pass the targets up to the North and then curl back around to the South for the best approach. Chase Donner won the Judge Declared Goal with a result of 1 meter, followed by Nick Donner at 1.42 meters and Jeff Bartlett close behind with 1.52 meters. |
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Sunday Evening
Severe thunderstorms moved through the area around 6:00 pm and forced the cancellation of the Sunday evening flight. One more competition window remains for Monday morning. Scores below:
Severe thunderstorms moved through the area around 6:00 pm and forced the cancellation of the Sunday evening flight. One more competition window remains for Monday morning. Scores below:
