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2011 SOUTHWEST FAI CHALLENGE

OCTOBER 29 & 30, 2011

BOULDER CITY, NEVADA

The weather at the Dry Lake in Boulder City is like the old nursery rhyme. When it is good it is very good. When it is bad, it is very bad. So what would it be for 2011? Absolutely perfect! Two memorable days of temperatures in the high 70’s and low 80’s and chases that some competitors were heard to count in “steps”. Motorcycle chases were definitely an option for most of both days. To quote SW FAI regular, Rich Rohrke, we had two “bluebird” days with “winds gusting to zero” much of the time!

Rich spent Friday pumping up one perfect practice flight after another, but when Saturday morning dawned he found the one bad spot of air on the entire field and fell a miserable 3 seconds short of the 240 second max in round one. Peyton Tetrick, Brian and Janna Van Nest’s granddaughter who has just started flying F1B fell a few seconds short as well, but from the signs of things will be right up with the big boys pretty soon. As Peyton continued to practice the craft, the rest of the field…..all remaining competitors including Rich were 100% clean for rounds two through six. 50 straight maxes! Awesome! Unfortunately, round seven turned ugly for Jack Emery and world traveler Pim Ruyter. That left seven clean for the fly-off. What we thought might take a few rounds was resolved very quickly as Co-CD Bob Beecroft skillfully opened the fly-off window right at the beginning of a ten minute “hole”. We all stood around and looked at each other and our passive thermistors for 8 minutes and then were off in a flurry. I found just enough to edge Perris-Saturday teammate and 2010 winner Bob Piserchio by one second at a whopping 3:53 to 3:52, with Blake Jensen gliding in for third at 3:20.

F1A followed almost the same pattern. A few “drops” in round one and mostly maxes during the day left three flyers qualified for the fly-offs at the end of round seven. As soon as the fly-off horn blew Jim Parker, Brian Van Nest and Mike McKeever scattered to different parts of the lakebed. After several minutes of circling, Jim and Brian launched at about the same time and seemed to be gliding well but appeared to be in need of help to make the 5 minute max. Using the shrewd judgment and icy nerves of a World Champion, Mike saw an opportunity and gently towed his short wing model to the ground. He quickly re-loaded, and in the last minute of the window, zoomed his long wing fly-off model into the sky…….for a solid 2:49 and a third place finish! Brian touched down at 3:44 and Jim cruised to victory at 4:46..

We still see very few power flyers at this event, but we appreciate those that do come. Now regular attendee, Henning Nyhegn makes this his last stop before heading home to Denmark. He took first (and last) place honors in F1C again this year. We were also very happy to see Glenn Schneider in attendance for the first time and hope he becomes a regular. Glenn flew unchallenged, but never the less near perfectly for a win in F1P. No participants in F1J…….heavy sigh.

While the fuel-powered models are few and far between at Boulder City, the electric events are growing. F1Q had six entries, double the total from F1C, F1P, F1J and Vintage FAI Power combined. Larry Bagalini won his first fly-off ever by besting F1Q heavyweight Bernie Crowe in the first fly-off round with a max to Bernie’s 139 second effort.

Promptly at 7:15 on Sunday morning the horn sounded to begin the first Espresso Fly-Off round. A Southwest FAI tradition, each of the “mini” events (plus Vintage FAI Power) has its own separate morning endurance fly-off, timed to the ground in a 10 minute controlled window. These fly-offs are run just like an afternoon fly-off except they are open to all entrants in each event. Blake Jensen and Tiffaney O’Dell bombed off magnificent 283 second and 229 second flights respectively with their mini-wakefield F1G’s. Brian Van Nest topped the F1H scores with 228 seconds followed by Mike McKeever at 215 seconds. Glenn Schneider began his walkover win in Vintage FAI Power with a beautiful 320 second flight. The Espresso flights are recorded separately from the five normal rounds and the winners receive a SW FAI espresso cup. The scores are only used as a tie breaker if three conventional fly-offs can’t determine a winner at the end of the day. This is the first year since including this format that we actually DID need the tie breaker scores. You will notice in reviewing the scores however, that winning the Espresso fly-off is not a guaranteed win in the main event as there is still a lot of flying to be done.

Once the normal rounds began, the CD’s were able to take a breather from the Espresso hustle and appreciate what was beginning as another near perfect day. As the rounds unfolded, it was apparent the flying was near perfect as well. Sixty of the sixty-five official round flights recorded in F1G and F1H were maxes and Glenn Schneider stayed clean in Vintage FAI Power for the win. That’s a 93% max ratio in those three events. Nobody dropped more than one round in those events and three of the five drops were in the last round. Wow! Blake, the Americas Cup leader, Tiffaney, Peter Brocks, Charlie Jones and Larry Bagalini squared off in the F1G fly-off. Larry had a line break at a most inopportune time and missed the window. Blake & Tiffaney inexplicably glided out of lift and fell short of the 3-minute max, although Blake held on for third. Charlie and Peter ran the table through the 3, 4 and 5-minute flights and used the tie-breaker for a decision. Peter secured the win with his 205 second morning Espresso flight vs. Charlie’s 192 seconds. In F1H, three of the four entrants found themselves in the fly-off after Espresso winner Brian Van Nest was tripped up in the last round. Norm Smith fell a little short in the 3-minute fly-off and took third, but like F1G, Mike McKeever and Jim Parker remained clean through the three fly-offs and reverted to the tie-breaker for a conclusion. Jim’s Espessso flight could not shake a stall and that came back to bite him as Mike walked away with the victory with 215 seconds vs. Jim’s 86 seconds.

E-36 was added to the venue at the last minute at the request of the electro-crowd. Three entrants were charged up and plugged in with Bernie Crowe nipping John Oldenkamp by five seconds for the blue glassware. Larry Miller struggled a bit, but finished flying for a respectable third place finish. We are always happy to see our annual P-30 group, all local to the Las Vegas region. This year, none of them maxed out, but Gerald Antonucci, Robert Hodes and Bill Holt finished in that order and took home the P-30 glassware. Jon Zeisloft, one of the founding fathers of this meet came out on Sunday with a beautiful although untested version of Ray Monk’s FAI Power model fitted with a Galbreath OS Max III. An instant DT that was a little quick on the draw folded the wing before the model was dialed in, but it showed great promise and should be ready for competition very soon.

Even with the fly-offs running later than normal, we were still able to complete the presentation of awards, pack up and get all but the over-nighters off the field and on their way home by 4:00PM. Thanks to John & Sally Clapp and to Andrew Barron who almost always make the long trip from the east coast to fly with us, and to Charlie and Geralyn Jones who come almost as far. Blake & Tiffaney from Oregon have become regulars and it was nice to see the Farmer Family on the entry roster as well. Thanks to Bob Beecroft for managing the official table on Saturday so I could fly and to Linda Piazza for the yummy hot dogs barbecued to perfection and provided gratis for anyone that was hungry.

For some us, we showered up and headed into town for a nice dinner and a couple frosty margaritas as we did a little hotel hopping and took in the sights and sounds of Halloween Eve on the Las Vegas Strip. Quite the experience, especially as midnight approached. A wonderful end to a wonderful weekend.

Hope to see you next year. The Boulder City lakebed is quite a remarkable place to fly.

F1A (12)

Jim Parker	210	180	180	180	180	180	180	286	1576

Brian Van Nest	210	180	180	180	180	180	180	224	1514

Mike McKeever	210	180	180	180	180	180	180	169	1459

Lee Hines	198	180	180	180	180	180	180		1278

Don Zink	210	180	180	145	180	180	180		1255	

Andrew Barron	210	180	180	180	180	090	164		1184

Jim Farmer	177	176	142	180	180	180	000		1035

Peter Brocks	162	132	172	170	170	055	159		1020

Logan Tetrick	210	180	014	131	180	180	114		1009

Jimmy Farmer(Jr)	62	180	145	081	180	180	000		0928

Norm Smith	200	140	081	000	093	180	180		0874

Joseph Farmer(Jr)045	173	147	173	104	180	000		0822

F1B (11)	

Bill Booth	240	180	180	180	180	180	180	233	1553

Bob Piserchio	240	180	180	180	180	180	180	232	1552

Blake Jensen	240	180	180	180	180	180	180	200	1520

Charlie Jones	240	180	180	180	180	180	180	180	1500

Tom Ioerger	240	180	180	180	180	180	180	177	1497

Richard Wood	240	180	180	180	180	180	180	174	1494

John Clapp	240	180	180	180	180	180	180	000	1320

Pim Ruyter	240	180	180	180	180	180	148		1288

Rich Rohrke	237	180	180	180	180	180	146		1283

Jack Emery	240	180	180	180	180	180	097		1237

Peyton Tetrick(Jr)166	179	144	180	171	158	064		1062

F1C (1)

Henning Nyhegn	067	120	144	132	180	143	180		0966

F1P (1)

Glenn Schneider	180	180	180	180	180	131	123		1154

F1Q (6)

Larry Bagalini	180	180	180	180	180	180	180	180	1440

Bernie Crowe	180	180	180	180	180	180	180	139	1399

Mike Roseberry	151	180	180	159	180	180	180		1210

John Oldenkamp	180	180	109	180	180	173	180		1182

Larry Miller	180	180	180	180	167	180	095		1162

Mike Pykelny058	103	165	180	155	180	180		1021

ESPRESSO FLY-OFF

F1G			Blake Jensen		283

F1H			Brian Van Nest	        228

Vintage FAI Power	Glenn Schneider	        320

F1G (10)

Peter Brocks	120	120	120	120	120	180	240	300	205	1525

Charlie Jones	120	120	120	120	120	180	240	300	192	1512

Blake Jensen	120	120	120	120	120	149				0749

Tiffaney O’Dell	120	120	120	120	120	124				0724

Larry Bagalini	120	120	120	120	120	000				0600

John Clapp	120	120	120	120	112					0592

Ralph Hotz	120	112	120	120	120					0592

Mike Pykelny	105	120	120	120	120					0585

Tom Ioerger	120	120	120	120	105					0585

Richard Wood		DNF									0000

F1H (4)

Mike McKeever	120	120	120	120	120	180	240	300	215	1535

Jim Parker	120	120	120	120	120	180	240	300	086	1406

Norm Smith	120	120	120	120	120	162				0762

Brian Van Nest	120	120	120	120	107					0587

P-30 (5)

Gerald Antonucci	120	116	120		356

Robert Hodes		120	114	120		354

Bill Holt		101	120	120		341

Ralph Hotz		DNF				000		

Mike Roseberry	        DNF				000

VINTAGE FAI POWER (1)

Glenn Schneider	180	180	180	180	180		0900

E-36 (5)

Bernie Crowe		120	120	120		360

John Oldenkamp	        120	120	115		355

Larry Miller		070	094	120		284

Larry Bagalini		DNF				000	

Mike Roseberry	DNF				000

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