Field of flight
battle creek, mi
2012
Wrap up
Photo by Cindy Petrehn
John Pretrehn is back to his winning ways stateside. He dominated most of the weekend winning four tasks of twelve and when he wasn't leading his brother Paul was in front who ended up a strong second. It is difficult to keep up with the 931.5 point average John had for the week.
Rounding out the top three was Rhett Heartsill who jumped defending champ here in Battle Creek Nick Donner on the last flight. Joe Heartsill brought home a solid fifth place finish. Among the top five there are thirteen National Championships and three World Championships so the competitiveness of the field can not be overstated.
Lastly John Petrehn will have position of the traveling Championship Belt among Team USA for two weeks before their next competition.
Congrats to everyone including the Field of Flight staff for a safe and competitive event when they were able to fly.
We are still waiting for task five so it will be posted when it becomes available.
Rounding out the top three was Rhett Heartsill who jumped defending champ here in Battle Creek Nick Donner on the last flight. Joe Heartsill brought home a solid fifth place finish. Among the top five there are thirteen National Championships and three World Championships so the competitiveness of the field can not be overstated.
Lastly John Petrehn will have position of the traveling Championship Belt among Team USA for two weeks before their next competition.
Congrats to everyone including the Field of Flight staff for a safe and competitive event when they were able to fly.
We are still waiting for task five so it will be posted when it becomes available.
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Saturday Morning
Four tasks were called this morning after a forty-five minute hold for weather. A storm moved south of the area over night bringing some light rain showers and unstable winds to the area through briefing time. During the hold the winds shifted as expected and targets were selected for the morning.
Task nine was a Fly-in south of town similar to what competitors saw on Thursday morning. Finding a launch site was beyond nerve racking as time was again getting close and a nice site that was used Thursday morning looked like the angle with the winds might not work. Nearly every balloon except those apart of Team USA used this field while the Team USA competitors, mostly unplanned, drove up a different road and were frantically looking for permission in a field that could have fit every balloon. Once in the air the winds shifted slightly to the east and for about 10-15 minutes it looked like only those six balloons would make it to the this target. However as pilots got closer the winds kicked back in hard to the northeast and balloons started climbing to look for the right turn. Rhett Heartsill may have won this target with a drop above 700 feet down to a meter or so from the center. It was difficult to get a score inside the legs of the X here.
Task ten let pilots chose between two goals. Almost every competitor went for the southern of the two targets as it would set them up better for the next task a little better. John Petrehn had a nice wind shift to the right just above the ground for a drop right in the center on this task.
Task eleven again continued to have a strong turn on the surface. Most pilots were reluctant to trust this turn as it has gone away the last few days as they approached. Joe Zvada dialed in his new racer with the lone drop under a meter followed by Shawn Raya and Rhett Heartsill.
Task twelve was a Maximum Distance Double Drop task with no baggies. Competitors had a large area to fly through and achieve their results. There was some confusion as to what altitude pilots could be at to achieve a result on this task and as a result lost of balloons who went to the southeast corner of the box descended from altitude to make sure that they were below 1700 MSL to achieve a score. As it turns out the officials interpretation was that there was no altitude restriction on this task. Jeff Pestun bested the field and went to the northeast corner and easily won this task.
Task nine was a Fly-in south of town similar to what competitors saw on Thursday morning. Finding a launch site was beyond nerve racking as time was again getting close and a nice site that was used Thursday morning looked like the angle with the winds might not work. Nearly every balloon except those apart of Team USA used this field while the Team USA competitors, mostly unplanned, drove up a different road and were frantically looking for permission in a field that could have fit every balloon. Once in the air the winds shifted slightly to the east and for about 10-15 minutes it looked like only those six balloons would make it to the this target. However as pilots got closer the winds kicked back in hard to the northeast and balloons started climbing to look for the right turn. Rhett Heartsill may have won this target with a drop above 700 feet down to a meter or so from the center. It was difficult to get a score inside the legs of the X here.
Task ten let pilots chose between two goals. Almost every competitor went for the southern of the two targets as it would set them up better for the next task a little better. John Petrehn had a nice wind shift to the right just above the ground for a drop right in the center on this task.
Task eleven again continued to have a strong turn on the surface. Most pilots were reluctant to trust this turn as it has gone away the last few days as they approached. Joe Zvada dialed in his new racer with the lone drop under a meter followed by Shawn Raya and Rhett Heartsill.
Task twelve was a Maximum Distance Double Drop task with no baggies. Competitors had a large area to fly through and achieve their results. There was some confusion as to what altitude pilots could be at to achieve a result on this task and as a result lost of balloons who went to the southeast corner of the box descended from altitude to make sure that they were below 1700 MSL to achieve a score. As it turns out the officials interpretation was that there was no altitude restriction on this task. Jeff Pestun bested the field and went to the northeast corner and easily won this task.
Friday's Two Flights
This morning Jim Birk called four tasks in stable steerable conditions at briefing time. There was no hold other than for the printer to catch up to all the task paperwork that Jim had for us!
Task four was a Fly-in to a target about a kilometer to the north of the airport and competitors had to launch at least three kilometers away. Almost every competitor was within a few hundred meters of each other at a storage unit facility on the north side of the river. Winds were very steerable and scores were very close with 20 inside the legs of the X and 10 less than a meter. Bob Gonzales won this task with a .03m drop just edging Nick Donner who had a .07m drop.
Task five had two targets fairly close to each other at the Lakeview High School area. One target was in the parking lot and the other just outside the baseball field. Scores again were tight here with Chuck Walz besting the field. The crews played an important role in this target because they had to declare a provisional target for task seven. From there if competitors missed task six they could still achieve a result on the next task.
Task six proved to be a challenge as the winds would not allow you to fly at 500 feet over the city and still get to the target. That meant all the balloons had to cycle up to 4000 feet MSL and then back down. The first few balloons misjudged the descent and achieved a GPS score. This target saw some very close scores with Jeff Peston getting the closest result followed by Rhett and Joe Hearstill. This is the target where competitors were to write their declaration on the baggie tail for task seven.
Task seven was the Fly-on task that was declared on the baggie of the previous task or by the crew at task five. John Petrehn made the best approach out of rapidly changing winds at the end of the flight.
After the morning flight the scores had the Petrehn brothers on top with Paul leading the field. John was second followed by Bob Gonzales. Nick Donner was fourth and Gary Heaving was in fifth.
Friday evening's flight was a Multiple Judge Declared Goal with the common launch area out of the airport. The winds were forecast to change about 8pm with a hard turn to the northeast. Taking off early was the best decision and even that didn't prevent most of the field from not getting a score. John Petrehn won this task with a score just outside the legs of the X followed closely by Rhett and Joe Heartsill.
Overall scores now have John in first followed by Paul. After that Bob Gonzales and Nick Donner stayed in third and fourth despite them both getting no results. Rhett Hearstill is now in the top five just 42 points behind.
Task four was a Fly-in to a target about a kilometer to the north of the airport and competitors had to launch at least three kilometers away. Almost every competitor was within a few hundred meters of each other at a storage unit facility on the north side of the river. Winds were very steerable and scores were very close with 20 inside the legs of the X and 10 less than a meter. Bob Gonzales won this task with a .03m drop just edging Nick Donner who had a .07m drop.
Task five had two targets fairly close to each other at the Lakeview High School area. One target was in the parking lot and the other just outside the baseball field. Scores again were tight here with Chuck Walz besting the field. The crews played an important role in this target because they had to declare a provisional target for task seven. From there if competitors missed task six they could still achieve a result on the next task.
Task six proved to be a challenge as the winds would not allow you to fly at 500 feet over the city and still get to the target. That meant all the balloons had to cycle up to 4000 feet MSL and then back down. The first few balloons misjudged the descent and achieved a GPS score. This target saw some very close scores with Jeff Peston getting the closest result followed by Rhett and Joe Hearstill. This is the target where competitors were to write their declaration on the baggie tail for task seven.
Task seven was the Fly-on task that was declared on the baggie of the previous task or by the crew at task five. John Petrehn made the best approach out of rapidly changing winds at the end of the flight.
After the morning flight the scores had the Petrehn brothers on top with Paul leading the field. John was second followed by Bob Gonzales. Nick Donner was fourth and Gary Heaving was in fifth.
Friday evening's flight was a Multiple Judge Declared Goal with the common launch area out of the airport. The winds were forecast to change about 8pm with a hard turn to the northeast. Taking off early was the best decision and even that didn't prevent most of the field from not getting a score. John Petrehn won this task with a score just outside the legs of the X followed closely by Rhett and Joe Heartsill.
Overall scores now have John in first followed by Paul. After that Bob Gonzales and Nick Donner stayed in third and fourth despite them both getting no results. Rhett Hearstill is now in the top five just 42 points behind.
Thursday Morning
The first three tasks were flown this morning following a forty-five minute hold for the winds. Once it was determined that the winds above 800 were actually decreasing rather than increasing three tasks were called for a quick flight around south Battle Creek.
The first task was a Judge Declared Goal that competitors had to be 3 km away from for their launch sites. The biggest factor with this goal was that it was set to close at 830, just one hour after the briefing ended. Many pilots were either late to this target or had to drop baggies from higher up as they rode the quicker winds to get into the scoring areas. This seemed to be a 'Texas Target' as both Gary Heavin and Joe Heartsill were on the center square from field reports.
The second target pilots had the choice of two, the first being further west than the other. The further west target would also allow for pilots to steer into the last target. Several of the first balloons to fly to the church (west target) missed wide right as the left had turn all but vanished in the short flight between this target and the previous target. John Petrehn we hear road winds a few hundred feet up and then dived into the target for a safe and possibly first place score on this task.
Lastly for this morning the third task was much further south and much harder to steer into. Pilot had to use the fast winds about 1200 feet up to steer to the right to make their approaches and many overshot the field that this task was in. Other pilots were not able to get enough right had turn because they had to through at the school (further east target) from task two. Both of the Heartsills, Shawn Raya, Bob Gonzales and John Petrehn were among the competitors to be scored at this goal with baggies on the ground. Many scores will be GPSed with this target.
UPDATE on scores.....the scoring program has had a glitch and is being worked on. There are currently no scores available for any tasks where a competitor had a GPS result. There is a back up plan in place to manually determine results.
The first task was a Judge Declared Goal that competitors had to be 3 km away from for their launch sites. The biggest factor with this goal was that it was set to close at 830, just one hour after the briefing ended. Many pilots were either late to this target or had to drop baggies from higher up as they rode the quicker winds to get into the scoring areas. This seemed to be a 'Texas Target' as both Gary Heavin and Joe Heartsill were on the center square from field reports.
The second target pilots had the choice of two, the first being further west than the other. The further west target would also allow for pilots to steer into the last target. Several of the first balloons to fly to the church (west target) missed wide right as the left had turn all but vanished in the short flight between this target and the previous target. John Petrehn we hear road winds a few hundred feet up and then dived into the target for a safe and possibly first place score on this task.
Lastly for this morning the third task was much further south and much harder to steer into. Pilot had to use the fast winds about 1200 feet up to steer to the right to make their approaches and many overshot the field that this task was in. Other pilots were not able to get enough right had turn because they had to through at the school (further east target) from task two. Both of the Heartsills, Shawn Raya, Bob Gonzales and John Petrehn were among the competitors to be scored at this goal with baggies on the ground. Many scores will be GPSed with this target.
UPDATE on scores.....the scoring program has had a glitch and is being worked on. There are currently no scores available for any tasks where a competitor had a GPS result. There is a back up plan in place to manually determine results.
Wednesday Master Briefing
Wednesday morning seven balloons flew in a self-declared practice flight. The winds were just about out of the south on the surface and went about 30 degrees to the right (northeast) as pilot climbed and generally flew lower than 1000 feet. Speeds were fast but manageable as both Joe and Rhett Heartsill were able to land on the side of the road where they had called their last practice target.
In the afternoon after much needed naps and getting things in order the event registration took place at the Holiday Inn Battle Creek. A new and MUCH appreciated feature was the happy hour during registration. Many murmors could be heard about beer being mandatory at master briefings in the future!
Thursday mornings forecast is for flyable conditions again flying to the north with good steerage to the east and southeast as pilots climb. The limiting factor for the morning might be the ceiling as a few weather models are calling for a ceiling and high winds.
We want to tank everyone for putting their votes in on the poll the last couple of days. The readers have picked Rhett Heartsill to reclaim the title and win here in Battle Creek for second time, he is the winner of Field of Flight from 2010. Tom Roush was a solid second place vote and on the prowl for two wins in a row in Michigan in back-to-back weekends. The write-in votes favored the Petrehn brothers John and Paul with each getting five votes.
We will post another poll on Friday/Saturday to see if the pilot currently in first will bring home the win or someone else in the field.
In the afternoon after much needed naps and getting things in order the event registration took place at the Holiday Inn Battle Creek. A new and MUCH appreciated feature was the happy hour during registration. Many murmors could be heard about beer being mandatory at master briefings in the future!
Thursday mornings forecast is for flyable conditions again flying to the north with good steerage to the east and southeast as pilots climb. The limiting factor for the morning might be the ceiling as a few weather models are calling for a ceiling and high winds.
We want to tank everyone for putting their votes in on the poll the last couple of days. The readers have picked Rhett Heartsill to reclaim the title and win here in Battle Creek for second time, he is the winner of Field of Flight from 2010. Tom Roush was a solid second place vote and on the prowl for two wins in a row in Michigan in back-to-back weekends. The write-in votes favored the Petrehn brothers John and Paul with each getting five votes.
We will post another poll on Friday/Saturday to see if the pilot currently in first will bring home the win or someone else in the field.
Battle Creek - Field of Flight
This coming week will mark the 30th time that Battle Creek, MI has hosted an event during the summer months. Executive Director over everyone is Barb Haluzska who has been involved with every event dating back to the 1980 World's Minus One event leading up to the World Championship in 1981. Today the event has evolved into the Field of Flight which is an individual competition. Previously the event was the US Team National Championships and something most competitors hopes comes back in the future.
Balloon Event Director is Jim Birk who is sure to challenge the competitors to the fullest. Morning flights have a typical low level jet but calm/stable winds near the surface which makes for a lot of fun approaching targets and the evening flights are usually steerable, though competitors might have to go to a few thousand feet to get the steerage.
Forecasted weather is for highs in the upper 90s Thursday and Friday and upper 80s the other days. Winds might be a factor with evening flights but mornings will be muggy early but flyable.
Also part of the event is a HUGE carnival type atmosphere on the grounds of the Battle Creek airport starting Thursday and running through Monday and the highlight of the weekend will be the air show featuring the Thunderbirds on June 30 and July 1. Visit the event website here for more information on what else is going on besides the balloon flights.
We have included an interactive poll for the week below. The last two winners of the event and the remaining top four from last year are on the poll and there is a space for you to write in your answer for anyone else you think will win. We are expecting some fierce competition from all competitors and especially the members of Team USA who are using the Field of Flight as a tune-up to the World Championship in August. Expect scores to be tight at the top and exciting flying as always. We will have pictures, scores and updates posted as soon as possible following all the flights.
Balloon Event Director is Jim Birk who is sure to challenge the competitors to the fullest. Morning flights have a typical low level jet but calm/stable winds near the surface which makes for a lot of fun approaching targets and the evening flights are usually steerable, though competitors might have to go to a few thousand feet to get the steerage.
Forecasted weather is for highs in the upper 90s Thursday and Friday and upper 80s the other days. Winds might be a factor with evening flights but mornings will be muggy early but flyable.
Also part of the event is a HUGE carnival type atmosphere on the grounds of the Battle Creek airport starting Thursday and running through Monday and the highlight of the weekend will be the air show featuring the Thunderbirds on June 30 and July 1. Visit the event website here for more information on what else is going on besides the balloon flights.
We have included an interactive poll for the week below. The last two winners of the event and the remaining top four from last year are on the poll and there is a space for you to write in your answer for anyone else you think will win. We are expecting some fierce competition from all competitors and especially the members of Team USA who are using the Field of Flight as a tune-up to the World Championship in August. Expect scores to be tight at the top and exciting flying as always. We will have pictures, scores and updates posted as soon as possible following all the flights.
