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2011 Mount Magazine Air Race
(Posted January 3, 2012)
Now that the 2011 is officially in the rear view mirror, we can announce the results of the first Mag Air Race contest. We only had a few pilots fly it this year with several valid scoring flights made. Race flights that were turned into me were made by Chris Price, Mark Stump, Jim Steele and Donna Steele. Chris's two attempts were not valid due to missing a turnpoint and a GPS battery failure in flight. The effort was made to fly the task, were good efforts and Chris made it the Sod Farm both times but the flights didn't qualify as valid due to his problems.
Jim, Donna and Mark flew several scored flights with first place swapping 3 times. On 4-13-11 Jim and Mark got on the score board first flying the Sod Farm task. Chris tried it too with Chris making goal but missing the SPRING turn point. Jim took the lead by less than one minute on that day. Jim flew the task in 00:55:40 and Stump did in 00:56:25. They both did the flight alone and basically flew the same flight when comparing their ground tracks. 45 seconds separated their two times.
Several slower flights were made by both Jim and Marklater with no changes in the standing until 7-10-11. On that day, Mark turned in a faster time of 00:39:21, taking the lead from Jim. Jim made goal too but turned in a slightly slower time than his previous best. Donna got on the score board with her "Best XC flight EVER!" with a 1:08:11 flight putting her in third place. That's a very respectable time and considering she had never tried a "Race task" before or flown to the Sod Farm, she did great! Now that Donna has done it once, I expect to see her do it more this year. A couple other pilots made the flight to the Sod Farm that day. Chris flew it again but his GPS batteries died in flight leaving him with no track log to score, so no valid flight again for Chris. Dave Dunning made the flight to the Sod Farm too but wasn't flying the task. It was a really good day, maybe one of the best days of the year.
All the flights scored in the Air Races so far were just the Sod Farm task but there are 2 other scored tasks that can be flown, the Dam Triangle and the Ridge Race. No one had tried either of them until late in the year. Both tasks are each worth 1000 points or less to anyone making the tasks. 10-30-11 Jim flew the first Mag Ridge Race task on a west cross day. He did the flight in 00:50:53 in mostly rough thermals which earned him 1000 points for being the only pilot to fly that task and the win for the total points for the year.
Total points for the year 2011 Mag Air Races totaled out to:
1st place went to Jim Steele with 1707 points.
2nd place went to Mark Stump with 1000 points.
3rd place goes to Donna Steele with 577 points.
By task, Mark took first in the Sod Farm task for 1000 points, Jim second with 707 points and Donna third with 577 points.
Jim scored 1000 points points in the Ridge Race task and that put him in the over all lead.
Flying all the tasks will pay off to those that do it.
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Congratulations to the winners and participants.
I hope 2012 sees even more participation and all 3 tasks get flown. I was quite surprised at the close competitive times flown for the Sod Farm task. Just how fast can that task be flow? Stump set the bar low with 39 minute flight but it's a new year now and the score board has been reset. I look forward to seeing how fast the ridge and triangle can be flown too. The tasks are all quite doable at Mag. The Ridge Race task is all on the Mt. and is 8.2 miles long. The Dam Triangle is 13.4 miles and all right in front of the Mt. The Sod Farm task is the XC task and is 25.4 miles long.
The Dardanelle Sod Farm is a common destination for flights from Mag and is not that hard to do on a decent day. It gets more difficult on the crappy days but has been done many times on those days too, just not fast... but doing it gets pilots on the score board. Anyone thinking about flying to the Sod Farm from Mag and has a GPS should consider doing this task. It's basically the normal route flown to the Sod Farm anyway. You just have to get within 0.25 miles of the 2 waypoints on the way there and send in your track log.
I can see pilots flying the Dam Triangle task first, then going on to fly the Sod Farm task and getting scored for both on the same flight! Maybe even all three tasks can be done in one flight on some of the better days. Fly the Ridge Race first, then the Dam Triangle and finish it off with the Sod Farm task. I believe someone out there will do it that way!
To enter a flight, you must fly with a GPS and send your ground track to mrwispy@yahoo.com for scoring. All the turnpoint cylinders must be entered, IN the proper sequence for each task to be scored as a valid flight. Do that and you get scored for the task flown. Course Flight Time is what matters and is scored against the other flights made for each task. Faster flight times get more points for each of the 3 tasks. Each task is worth 1000 points for the fastest flight of the year, with less than 1000 points awarded to the slower flights. At the end of the year, each pilots fastest flight for each task flown (3 flights possible per pilot) get totaled up for a final score. Most points wins!
Come join the fun this year. Check out the details here. http://www.ouachitahanggliding.com/Air_Races/air_races.html
wispy
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