National Balloon Classic
Indianola, IA USA
2012
Final Wrap-up photo by Tisha Smith
Going into the final morning there was less than 1000 points separating 1st and 5th. Most pilots figured it would be an easy 2 part task allowing only possible shuffling between the top 3 barring a complete meltdown of the top 3. When pilots made their way into the briefing they found that Bill Clemons knew how tight the top 5 was and wanted to make them fight it out on a 4 parter; MDD, JDG, HWZ, JDG. The excitement was building as pilots were going to get another chance at the Clemons style MDD. and there were enough points on the line to allow plenty of movement all across the top 20. As roll call began the officials could be seen in deep discussion. After roll call Steve West began to give weather and everyone realized what the officials discussion was about. An area of heavy rain had begun to develop 60 miles to the southwest and there was going to need to be a 30 minute weather hold to see what the rain was going to do. After the hold Clemons stepped in front of the microphone and congratulated the 2012 National Balloon Classic Champion Maury Petrehn. The area of rain had intensified and appeared on radar to be moving east northeast making the morning's flight too great of a risk.
Indianola gives out multiple awards including; Farmer of the Year Betty Labertew, Crew of the Year went to the crew of Al Muir. Newcomer of the Year, which is awarded to the highest finishing pilot that is flying at the National Balloon Classic for the first time, this year the Newcomer of the year was Yudai Fujita finishing 22nd overall. The first ever "Big Fish" award which went to the lowest ranking pilot to win a task was awarded to Jason Gaines. One of the highest honors a pilot can receive at the National Balloon Classic is to be awarded the John Russell Spirit of Ballooning Award, this year that honor went to Jeff Thompson. To truly appreciate what it means to win this award you would have had to be there to not only witness Jeff Thompson speechless but also teary eyed and emotional. After all of the awards were handed out it was time to get to the top 20 finishers. As each pilot was called up they shook hands with all of the other top 2o finishers and were presented their check by the National Balloon Classic Queen, Chloe Crain. When the winner was called up Maury Petrehn shared the spotlight with daughter Elle, who gave high fives to all the top 20. When Maury stood behind the microphone to talk you could see how much it meant to share this moment with his daughter. This was Maury's fourth win in Indianola but his first in a decade. At the evening pilot meeting was a large bag of candy with a note reading "Victory is sweet and should be shared"- Maury The weather cooperated very well with the exception of the high heat. Over the course of the 9 day event the pilots had flown 14 flights, performed 3 night glows, and flew 28 tasks between the individual flight tasks and the 18 tasks that were flown for the overall championship. Congrats to all pilots on a week of incredible flying. We can only hope that next year provides as much excitement as this year. Next year's dates appear to be July 26 - Aug 3.     Friday Morning
Friday Morning
With a 5 knot wind from the southeast, and only 2 flights left everyone knew there would be a lot on the line this morning. When the doors for the briefing slid open there was a 5 part task sheet waiting for them, MDD, JDG, JDG, JDG, HWZ. The Min Double Drop was the trademark Bill Clemons Minimum with 2 triangles in 2 different locations, aside from that nothing seemed to be too tricky about this task sheet. Early pibals showed plenty of left and a relatively good right turn above putting most all pilots into one of 3 yards in southeast Warren County. As pilots worked their way into the first half of the MDD and the first JDG it looked as though there was going to be a ton of great scores on the MDD with the number of baggies that were in the "top" third of the triangle. The JDG received it's fair share of good scores with 7 markers under a meter but it was Scott Armstrong's 0.13 meter drop that earned him the top spot on task 15. When pilots jumped back up to get into the right turn and head to the second half of the MDD and the second JDG the right turn had started to go away and only 16 pilots were able to make it to the JDG. The best throw went to Joel Worthington who was able to get a score of 7.11 meters. However no one was able to get their second marker into the other half of the MDD. The third JDG of the morning was at the Indianola Balloon Grounds. Pilots were still searching for a right turn but were hoping that with it's giant scoring area they could at least get a score on this JDG. The right started to come back but it wasn't until the later balloons were between tasks 16 and 17 so once again even with the large scoring area only 19 pilots managed to get a score. Allan Keller worked his way in for a 3.36 meter drop to take the top spot on task 17. With the return of the right turn and some good steerage for the HWZ pilots had their choice of a road target that was a little further to the left or a hay field that was further to the right. Most pilots chose to go with the further left road target since the right turn hadn't returned quite soon enough for them to make it over to the hay field. Most of the later balloons went for the hay field as it gave them the larger scoring area and they now had plenty of steering. Even though the later balloons had the more steerable winds, Todd Isley didn't seem to need all the steering they had to get a 0.57 meter drop and win task 18. After Friday morning there are now 18 tasks complete and one more competitive flight to go. The top 5 sees a couple new faces creeping into it after this morning's flight and is separated by just 1000 points. The current Indianola top 5 are; 1st Maury Petrehn, 2nd Todd Isley, 3rd Branden Bloom, 4th Aaron Foelske, 5th Ron Nollen. Depending on the weather and what Bill Clemons has up his sleeve this could get interesting.     Thursday Morning
Thursday Morning
When the doors to the pilot compound opened at 5 minutes until briefing time the first thing everyone noticed was the task sheet, or should I say the lack there of. Two minutes before the doors opened for briefing Bill Clemons' staff ran around and picked up the task sheets they had already completed. After roll call, Clemons explained that he had a challenging 3 part task laid out but that 5 minutes before the doors were to open the winds had switched, so there would be a 30 minute hold while a new set of tasks was laid out. After the hold pilots were given a 3 part task; XDD, JDG, HWZ. The Max Double Drop would utilize the scoring area at the balloon grounds along and the JDG would be at the balloon grounds in it's normal location. As balloons began to launch the winds once again became unreliable, sending pilots who were still waiting to inflate looking for a new launch site. Over the course of the flight the winds made it tricky to get good scores and the last 6 balloons to launch were the ones who ended up with the best steering getting 4 of the top 5 spots on the XDD. Aaron Foelske won the XDD with an amazing 501 meter score beating second place by 85 meters. On the JDG Branden Bloom solidified his spot in the top 3 with a 0.53 meter drop. Also a special thank you to special guest scorer Cory Bloom for coming out and assisting with the scoring of the XDD. The changing winds made it impossible for the early balloons to make it to the HWZ but the later pilots with their better steering were able to get close to the 100 meter scoring area of one of the HWZ's, Aaron Foelske just missed getting his baggie into the scoring area as his drop came in at 106 meters. Bill Clemons decided that since no one was able to get a score on any of the HWZ targets that he would throw that target out. The morning task really shuffled some pilots around and tightened up the point spread of the top 5 which now looks like this; 1st Maury Petrehn, 2nd Branden Bloom, 3rd Matt Fenster, 4th Todd Isley, 5th Leroy Clair. With 2 days of competition left and less than 1000 points between 1st and 6th, it's anybody's race.      Wednesday Morning
Wednesday AM
Wednesday brought another 4 part task, this time it was a FIT, JDG, CRAT, HWZ. The winds were not as light as they had been the first 2 mornings but were still light for Indianola winds. The winds were out of the Southeast but began to swing around to become more out of the Northwest as you went over 2000 feet. The FIT was a walking path at a Warren County park. the scoring area was defined by being 100 meters east or west along the trail and 10 meters north or south of the "Blue Tape". For thos who have never been to one of Bill Clemons' events, he uses a blue 1.5 inch webbing similar to a load tape to define what is out on a gravel road edge. On this morning Clemons used the blue tape to define the center line of the trail. The park was located along a river so as pilots approached and cleared the trees lining the river they dropped in and slowed down to a near snail's pace in a strong left turn making their way to the target. 8 pilots managed to work the winds and come away with drops under 1 meter. Top honors for this target went to Jason Gaines with a drop of 0.10 meters. The JDG was a very large front yard that was fairly easy to spot. With the direction pilots were coming in to this target, depending on their line, pilots had to clear a small tree line before the target so the low slow approach was not as easy an option especially with a left turn that was beginning to die off. Once again 7 pilots were able to get scores of under a meter the best of which belonging to Maury Petrehn with a Drop of 0.03 meters. The CRAT was at the Indianola Balloon Grounds and took advantage of the incredibly large scoring area that Bill Clemons and his group of volunteers laid out the week before. Along with the normal timed rotating 4 quadrants; A,B,C,D there was also an area E that was always live that consisted of the fabric of the X and the first 5 meters outside of the scoring area. The Area E became a major player as the left turn went away before pilots got to the field and most had to settle for long scores on the far east end of the field as only 4 pilots were able to get scores closer than 100 meters. Al Appenzeller was the only pilot that was able to get closer than 65 meters with a drop of 8.78 meters. The HWZ gave pilots their choice of a paved road in an undeveloped area or large back yard at a house that has a deck that the owner describes as their "balloon viewing" deck. With the left turn gone pilots had to figure out a way to make it over to the target of their choice. This involved a trip up to 3000 feet to catch a wind to back them up and get them on the right line to make their approach. Many pilots found while making their descents into the target that a new wind layer had developed around 500-600 feet since they had had last been there that would affect their approaches by pushing them too far west of the target to be able to get a score. Only 10 Pilots were able to work the winds well enough to manage scores, the best of which was Mike Reinert with a drop of 22.67 meters. Wednesday could best be described as a shake up day as many pilots struggled to get 3 scores but Maury Petrehn found a way to get all 4. After Wednesday morning and 11 tasks your top 5 now looks like this; 1st Maury Petrehn, 2nd Branden Bloom, 3rd Jeff Thompson, 4th Harold Graves, 5th Leroy Clair. There are 3 competition flights remaining in the 2012 National Balloon Classic, plenty of time for more shake ups in the standings, and who knows Bill Clemons may still have a couple of tasks saved back to shake things up even more. |
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Tuesday Morning
uesday Am
Tuesday morning provided lots of steering for a 4 part task that consisted of a FIT, JDG, HWZ, JDG. The FIT and last JDG were both road targets, the JDG was a nice large yard, and the HWZ gave pilots the choice of either the Indianola Balloon Grounds or Thad and Peggy Bloom's back yard. After the briefing pilots headed northeast of town to find a launch site. The majority of the 65+ balloons all wound up taking off in the same front yard of a woman who could best be described as being "extremely happy" to have all of us there.
The first road target was on a wide open East West gravel road between to farm fields and with surface winds being more out of the North it made approaches very nice. Pilots would work the right turn and then drop into the left turn to roll across the road anywhere from about 5 to 25 feet off the ground. 6 pilots worked the winds to pull off scores under a meter. With the event using proportional scoring and the top 4 drops being separated by only five hundredths of a meter, that's right 0.05, the top 4 pilots all received 1000 points but the best drop of the 4 belonged to Terry McGonegle.
To make their way to the second target pilots needed to get back up into the right turn and once again drop down into the left to cross the target. Some pilots ran into congestion issues when making their final approach and were forced to take less than desirable scores. 11 pilots had scores under a meter at this JDG with the median score being under 14.5 meters, but showing everyone how it was done at this target was Scott Armstrong with a drop of 0.03 meters.
As pilots made their way to the HWZ they had to make a decision of whether to take the low line and try to use the left turn to make it to the balloon grounds or whether to use some of the right turn and go to the Bloom's house. The majority of the Pilots chose to make their way to the target at Bloom's house while only a few chose the balloon grounds. The winds were beginning to let up and the left was beginning to come and go as pilots worked their way to the third target. Scoring wasn't quite as tight at this target but there was still enough steering for 3 pilots to manage scores under a meter including a perfect 0.00 drop by Maury Petrehn.
The fourth and final target of the day was the second road target. This target sat on a gravel road that ran North South. Parts of the road had tall trees on the west side with some shorter trees and a bean field on the east side. The trees made approaches a little more difficult, as did the fact that the left turn was pretty much gone by the time pilots reached this target. For the pilots at the back of the pack nearly all the wind was gone by the time they got to the final target. Only 7 pilots managed scores of under 10 meters, with Christine Bertsch showing the boys how it's done with a drop of 0.48 meters.
Tuesday provided a little shake up in the standings as at the end of the day and after 7 tasks the top 5 now looked like this; 1st Matt Fenster, 2nd Maury Petrehn, 3rd Brandon Bloom, 4th Jeff Thompson, 5th Harold Graves. The forecast for the rest of the week still looks excellent and we can expect to see a lot more tasks before this one is over.
Tuesday morning provided lots of steering for a 4 part task that consisted of a FIT, JDG, HWZ, JDG. The FIT and last JDG were both road targets, the JDG was a nice large yard, and the HWZ gave pilots the choice of either the Indianola Balloon Grounds or Thad and Peggy Bloom's back yard. After the briefing pilots headed northeast of town to find a launch site. The majority of the 65+ balloons all wound up taking off in the same front yard of a woman who could best be described as being "extremely happy" to have all of us there.
The first road target was on a wide open East West gravel road between to farm fields and with surface winds being more out of the North it made approaches very nice. Pilots would work the right turn and then drop into the left turn to roll across the road anywhere from about 5 to 25 feet off the ground. 6 pilots worked the winds to pull off scores under a meter. With the event using proportional scoring and the top 4 drops being separated by only five hundredths of a meter, that's right 0.05, the top 4 pilots all received 1000 points but the best drop of the 4 belonged to Terry McGonegle.
To make their way to the second target pilots needed to get back up into the right turn and once again drop down into the left to cross the target. Some pilots ran into congestion issues when making their final approach and were forced to take less than desirable scores. 11 pilots had scores under a meter at this JDG with the median score being under 14.5 meters, but showing everyone how it was done at this target was Scott Armstrong with a drop of 0.03 meters.
As pilots made their way to the HWZ they had to make a decision of whether to take the low line and try to use the left turn to make it to the balloon grounds or whether to use some of the right turn and go to the Bloom's house. The majority of the Pilots chose to make their way to the target at Bloom's house while only a few chose the balloon grounds. The winds were beginning to let up and the left was beginning to come and go as pilots worked their way to the third target. Scoring wasn't quite as tight at this target but there was still enough steering for 3 pilots to manage scores under a meter including a perfect 0.00 drop by Maury Petrehn.
The fourth and final target of the day was the second road target. This target sat on a gravel road that ran North South. Parts of the road had tall trees on the west side with some shorter trees and a bean field on the east side. The trees made approaches a little more difficult, as did the fact that the left turn was pretty much gone by the time pilots reached this target. For the pilots at the back of the pack nearly all the wind was gone by the time they got to the final target. Only 7 pilots managed scores of under 10 meters, with Christine Bertsch showing the boys how it's done with a drop of 0.48 meters.
Tuesday provided a little shake up in the standings as at the end of the day and after 7 tasks the top 5 now looked like this; 1st Matt Fenster, 2nd Maury Petrehn, 3rd Brandon Bloom, 4th Jeff Thompson, 5th Harold Graves. The forecast for the rest of the week still looks excellent and we can expect to see a lot more tasks before this one is over.
Monday Morning
photo by Diane Woodruff
Indianola, Iowa
Sunday Morning pilots awoke to storms in the area and an optimistic event staff who had a 2 part task ready for them. Pilots were told that we were on the back side of the rain that we were going to go on a 1 hour weather hold. At the end of the hold it was obvious that the storms haddissipated and the rain had moved out. Unfortunately surface winds had picked up and a significantlow level jet made conditions unsafe and the morning flight was cancelled.
Monday morning's early pibals were showing light winds with over 100 degrees of steering. Pilots found a 4 part task; FIT, MDD (gravity drop), JDG (gravity drop), HWZ. During the meeting pilots were told to drop the FIT and add an additional option to the HWZ, as winds were becoming even lighter and beginning to shift.
The word of the morning was patience. It took tons of it as while looking for a launch site, no 2 pibal readings were alike with the exception of their speed or lack there of. As pilots found launch sites and balloons began filling the Indianola sky there were 3 distinct lines pilots were using with over 70 degrees of difference between the farthest right and farthest left lines.
As the 3 lines converged on the Indianola balloon grounds the slow speed and changing surface winds lead to a lot of congestion at the MDD, JDG scoring area. Many pilots were forced to drop from high due to the congestion and only 19 pilots were able to achieve a result on the MDD with the best result being 9.98 meters by Harold Graves. Harold also won the JDG with a drop of 1.95 meters.
As pilots left the MDD, JDG scoring area and began making their way to the HWZ, the "pack" once again spread out into 3 very different lines even though everyone chose to fly to the same target. The line used by the first 4 pilots to reach the target paid off in that not only did they all have drops under 1 meter but they were also able to avoid the massive congestion that the majority of the other pilots would have to face once they got to the target. Fighting his way through the congestion and laying claim on the HWZ with a drop of 0.17 meters was Yudai Fujita.
At the end of the first 3 tasks the top 5 looks like this; 1st Harold Graves, 2nd Jeff Thompson, 3rd Brad Smith, 4th Matt Fenster, 5th Branden Bloom. Forecast for the remainder of the week look good, so stay tuned to keep track of the action as the week has only just begun.
Sunday Morning pilots awoke to storms in the area and an optimistic event staff who had a 2 part task ready for them. Pilots were told that we were on the back side of the rain that we were going to go on a 1 hour weather hold. At the end of the hold it was obvious that the storms haddissipated and the rain had moved out. Unfortunately surface winds had picked up and a significantlow level jet made conditions unsafe and the morning flight was cancelled.
Monday morning's early pibals were showing light winds with over 100 degrees of steering. Pilots found a 4 part task; FIT, MDD (gravity drop), JDG (gravity drop), HWZ. During the meeting pilots were told to drop the FIT and add an additional option to the HWZ, as winds were becoming even lighter and beginning to shift.
The word of the morning was patience. It took tons of it as while looking for a launch site, no 2 pibal readings were alike with the exception of their speed or lack there of. As pilots found launch sites and balloons began filling the Indianola sky there were 3 distinct lines pilots were using with over 70 degrees of difference between the farthest right and farthest left lines.
As the 3 lines converged on the Indianola balloon grounds the slow speed and changing surface winds lead to a lot of congestion at the MDD, JDG scoring area. Many pilots were forced to drop from high due to the congestion and only 19 pilots were able to achieve a result on the MDD with the best result being 9.98 meters by Harold Graves. Harold also won the JDG with a drop of 1.95 meters.
As pilots left the MDD, JDG scoring area and began making their way to the HWZ, the "pack" once again spread out into 3 very different lines even though everyone chose to fly to the same target. The line used by the first 4 pilots to reach the target paid off in that not only did they all have drops under 1 meter but they were also able to avoid the massive congestion that the majority of the other pilots would have to face once they got to the target. Fighting his way through the congestion and laying claim on the HWZ with a drop of 0.17 meters was Yudai Fujita.
At the end of the first 3 tasks the top 5 looks like this; 1st Harold Graves, 2nd Jeff Thompson, 3rd Brad Smith, 4th Matt Fenster, 5th Branden Bloom. Forecast for the remainder of the week look good, so stay tuned to keep track of the action as the week has only just begun.
National Balloon Classic
Indianola, Iowa
The end of July beginning of August in Iowa means sweet corn, garden tomatoes and the National Balloon Classic. This year the Classic will run from July 27 - August 4, with competition tasks being flown on mornings beginning Sunday the 29th with the final competitive flight being Saturday the 4th.
Every year pilots fight it out to get the honor of having their name added to the list of Indianola Champions which include what many believe to be some of the greatest competitors ever; Dennis Floden, Bruce Comstock, Sid Cutter, Steve Jones, Al Nels, brothers Johnny and Maury Petrehn, Joe Heartsill among many others. Indianola has a history of being one of the most competitive events in the country, drawing many of the nations top pilots. This year some of the pilots that are normally favorites to win the event will be showing up a day into the competition as the National Championships in Longview Texas overlap the first weekend of the Classic. However many other top pilots will be at the event for the full week.
The Race director for the Classic will be Bill Clemons who always does his best to make the event challenging, calling 4 - 6 part tasks on a regular basis. Clemons' task calling will be widely varied taking full advantage of the full variety of BFA tasks that don't require a logger or observer. Clemons is also known for having one of the largest marker measuring areas in the country as he tries to take advantage of as much of the 125 acre Classic field as he can, painting out a scoring area that can be used for multiple tasks including; FIN, GBM, Crat, XDD, MDD just to name a few. If the weather pattern central Iowa has been in for most of the summer continues pilots can expect to fly an incredible amount of tasks over the week, but better bring plenty of water as temperatures have been in the upper 90's to low 100's most of July.
The end of July beginning of August in Iowa means sweet corn, garden tomatoes and the National Balloon Classic. This year the Classic will run from July 27 - August 4, with competition tasks being flown on mornings beginning Sunday the 29th with the final competitive flight being Saturday the 4th.
Every year pilots fight it out to get the honor of having their name added to the list of Indianola Champions which include what many believe to be some of the greatest competitors ever; Dennis Floden, Bruce Comstock, Sid Cutter, Steve Jones, Al Nels, brothers Johnny and Maury Petrehn, Joe Heartsill among many others. Indianola has a history of being one of the most competitive events in the country, drawing many of the nations top pilots. This year some of the pilots that are normally favorites to win the event will be showing up a day into the competition as the National Championships in Longview Texas overlap the first weekend of the Classic. However many other top pilots will be at the event for the full week.
The Race director for the Classic will be Bill Clemons who always does his best to make the event challenging, calling 4 - 6 part tasks on a regular basis. Clemons' task calling will be widely varied taking full advantage of the full variety of BFA tasks that don't require a logger or observer. Clemons is also known for having one of the largest marker measuring areas in the country as he tries to take advantage of as much of the 125 acre Classic field as he can, painting out a scoring area that can be used for multiple tasks including; FIN, GBM, Crat, XDD, MDD just to name a few. If the weather pattern central Iowa has been in for most of the summer continues pilots can expect to fly an incredible amount of tasks over the week, but better bring plenty of water as temperatures have been in the upper 90's to low 100's most of July.
