2014 Ohio Challenge
Middletown, OH USA
July 11-13, 2014

Reported by Chase Donner
Photos courtesy Drew Egerton and George Troutman

The Selection.Com Ohio Challenge took place this past weekend in Middletown, OH.  Event Director, Maury Sullivan and staff welcomed a group of 28 competition pilots and a handful of fiesta fliers to the Midwest town just north of Cincinnati.  

The event kicked off Friday evening with a fun flight Fly-In for the sponsors.  Pilots were asked to find a take-off site just off the airport grounds and to fly back to to an 'X' located on the runway.  Light, but steerable winds made it a nice little flight for pilots.  Given the size of the airport it almost didn't matter where you took off upwind you would have a nice spot to land if you flew back.  In the end a handful of pilots mustered a score with Rick Cusick beating out all others.

Saturday morning brought what would be the only competition flight and along with it four tasks.  The tasks called were a Gordon Bennett Memorial, Maximum Distance Double Drop, Hesitation Waltz, and an Elbow.  General weather conditions were light winds in the bottom few hundred feet, gradually increasing and coming from the Southwest and transitioning to the Northwest as you ascended.  

The field featured the first two tasks.  The Gordon Bennett proved to be a bit tricky for a few pilots as several pilots that were quick to the field threw their baggies at the 'X' and received no results for the task.  There did seem to be an advantage to being early, however, as many pilots were able to drop at the point closest to the 'X' for both the GBM and first MXDD baggie and then hover low over the field and drift West towards one of the remaining two corners of the MXDD triangle.  Al Nels received the winning score on the Maximum Distance and Mike Emich won the GBM.
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After dropping three baggies (hopfeully) at the airport pilots flew 3-4km to the Northeast and had their pick between two Hesitation Waltz targets laid out about a kilometer apart.  Many pilots chose the Western most and closest goal and the results were impressive.  Jim Cusick won the third task with a drop of .15 meters.  Again, it appeared that the earlier balloons were able to navigate the lower winds with a bit more consistency.  

Finally, pilots were asked to fly an Elbow task, which the rule book defines as the greatest change of direction of flight.  A perfect result in this case is 180 degrees.  Point A of your elbow was the closest track point to the Hesitation Waltz goal of your choosing, Point B was your location 10 minutes after Point A, and Point C was your location 10 minutes after Point B.  The earlier pilots hung low after going through the Hesitation Waltz goal and managed to drift slowly to the West.  Taking advantage of this many pilots were able to record scores greater than 100 degrees.  In the end Rick Cusick's 154 degree turn proved to be best.

Congrats to David Troutman for winning his second Ohio Challenge and navigating some fickle winds in the process of racking up some stellar results.  Second place went to AJ Nels and third place to Pat Fogue.  Also special thanks to the organizers who put on a first notch event and who have grown the event from humble beginnings into a fixture for many pilots in the region.