2003 Contest Report
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The 24th annual Cincinnati Soaring Society Pumpkin Fly took place October 11th and 12th at the Voice of America Park in West Chester. A perfect day with temps in the 70's and light winds greeted the 34 fliers, from Chicago, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and the locals. The VOA park offers wide open space with all needed amenities close at hand. CSS hopes to be able to continue to hold our two major annual competitions here in the future.
Five rounds were flown, 8 minutes, 10, 13, 10, 10. The top ten fliers made time in all rounds with near perfect soaring conditions. The competition was tight with 40 points of 5000+ separating 1st through 5th. Any mistake in the landing circle was very costly in the standings.
Gordy Stahl won the day with his Pike Superior, Paul Siegel second with an Icon, Karl Miller third with an Xtreme. A new face to OVSS soaring Paul Sherman flew well to fourth, followed by CD for the day, Barry Andersen in fifth with a Zenith.
Barry Andersen
CD - SaturdayOn Sunday, the weather gave us something to think about, as we turned the field 180 degrees and launched to the northwest. The morning was ominous, windy and cool, and a few spells of drizzle caused delays early on, but soon the skies opened up and it was shirt sleves again. We had 30 pilots, most of the same faces as the day before.
We flew 4 rounds, times of 7, 10, 12 and 18 minutes. Yes, I called 18 minutes in the last round, as this was the Turkey Shoot round and I wanted to make it a SOARING CONTEST. This made for some real drama as being a spectator was just as enjoyable as flying. Both Barry Andersen and Bill Wingsteadt were last in their flight group, battling it out at 30' altitude at times to make the 18 minutes.
Rich Burnoski took 1st place Sunday with his Pike Superior, Paul Siegel was 2nd flying an Icon and Martn Doney was 3rd flying his Artemis. Turkey shoot winners were Rich Burnoski, Bill Wingsteadt, Jack Iafret, Karl Miller and Jim Carlton. The 2 day high overall award went to Paul Siegel.
Steve Siebenaler
CD - Sunday
Observations this year's Pumpkin Fly Contestants
Had the perfect indifference today and my camber was sometimes confused with my reflex. Today was one of those daze you don't forget..........beautiful skies great friends and suspects thumbs. You may have had a good day but, the food ( if I must say so myself) friends and flying just rocked!!!!!!!!! Man-On-Man is well ...MOM rocks...
My selection of planes was relegated to well, my Wubbie, as all available space was taken by the cooking supplies. (Excuse #1) You will never find a virgin around me, so I pulled the bag off her head and away we went.
A pack of potential DFL's were present......Among which was former DSL and World Indoor Record Holder Watler Van Gorder. (Walter maxed every one of his flights and stayed in the top 10 all day) Me .......well let's say I cooked well (Steve). Paul Siegel was breathing down my neck all day as well. Needless to say I rejected his advances. I began the day 10 points out of DFL but with a last round burial fitting of GORDY himself shame was avoided.
This contest has seen many faces over the past 24+/- years and hats off to Steve and Barry for keeping it alive. You should have seen the DFL award. Which will NOT resided next to last years DFL. Jim Carlton. You are an inspiration, and Reece and Martin, are always CLASS.
Well, Back to the family!
Joe Dirr
October 11, 2003
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Today was one of those soaring days you don't often forget. Beautiful skies and challenging air, warm light breezes in Cincinnati, OH at the Great Pumpkin Fly. You all may have had a 'good' day but it couldn't have compared with this event, why? To start with lunch was two huge deep fried (right on the field) Turkeys, and a pot of sausage gumbo....
It was an open class Man on Man format, no pop offs. The selection of planes ran the gamut from built up RES planes, Pike Superiors, Icons, Zenith's, Artemis, Extremes, Compulsions, NYX's. I was torn between flying my CompFusIcon, or my new Volz Powered Pike Superior...in the end I decided what the heck, its time to break in that blue virgin!
A bunch of the top Points guys were there, so comp was extremely tight. A new superthumb showed up with an Artemis and hung on the leader board right to the end, his name is Paul Sherman, and I am pretty sure we'll be hearing more about him next season (if the family stuff will allow). Paul Siegel flew his Icon and was breathing down my Pike's neck all day. I started with a 4 point lead, that went to 9, then ended at 6 for the win.
That last round with all the contenders up in the same air, virtually at the same time was very cool. And when it was time to land it look like it was raining sailplanes on the approach line up. Very cool to hear them drop in sort of like an automatic weapon....plop plop plop plop plop plop...with everyone eyeballing each other's landing result.
I came in, plug the 100 and bounced to an 87..... yipes, did it open a window for one of the others to slip in front? No one new till the scores were announced, and frankly we all felt like we won cuz it was sooo much fun.
A couple of planes went in due to mysterious "hits" and I used the quotation marks to show that we're not sure what happened to any of them...but one thing I will be talking about on my travels coming up, is about getting those antennas out AND away from fuselages. It looks ugly but your RX then has ALL of the ability designed into it to do its job.
Yep my aileron diff was set just right, and my camber switch sometimes slid and sometimes clicked, but mostly that Pike Superior is an amazing sailplane. This is a contest worth traveling for......if the weatherman cooperates.
The flying site is the home of the famous Voice Of America broadcast spot which kept contact with the world during a couple of world wars past. A HUGE site, with a very active Rocket club, (whose contrails and parachute falls didn't hurt us for cueing lift ;-) .
7 winches all launching near simultaneously, it doesn't get more man on man, same air flown in the group than that...and all those winches incredibly well matched. You should see the award plaque, complete with a 3D Jack O Lantern flying on a Sailplane right in the middle. Wish you all could have been there to watch me win :-)
Gordy Stahl
Louisville, KY
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Barry, Steve and all the CSS dudes:
Thanks for a great Pumkin Fly. Couldn't have asked for better company and weather. Compliments go to chef Dirr for some great grub. Sorry I couldn't make it back for Sundays's event. Congrats to Gordy and Rich for their wins.
AJ
Lexington, KY
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Barry, Steve, John, Bob, Joe and all of the Cincinnati Soaring Society,
Kudos to CSS for a truly great weekend of flying. I have been attending this event since the mid 80's and this one was as good as it gets!
Great flying. As for myself, just okay (did manage to bag a nice frozen bird in the last round turkey shoot, wahoo!) but for those who saw Barry Anderson and Bill Wingsteadt hook it up as the last two standing in the next to last group in the final 18 minute (yep, 18 minutes of bury the pretender and reward the contender) round, we were treated to a fabulous finish. These two guys duked it out downwind, low and as you thought one would drop out, great thumbs and slick aircraft would recover in a one-two punch as the other staggered. Really fun to watch. Took a lot more nerve than I could ever muster. Congrats to Gordy Stahl and Rich Burnoski for their individual wins and to Paul Seigel for the 2 day overall champ.
Great weather. Couldn't have ordered a nicer day on Saturday and a real mixed bag on Sunday that stretched your skills as a pilot and air reader early and then opened up later on.
Great facility! I hope the CSS can acquire the VOA site as a permanent home for soaring. What a nice facility. Plenty of acreage and all the conveniences you may need close by.
Great food! "Chef" Joe Dirr did a marvelous job with the turkey and gumbo. Even this "skinny little boy from Cleveland, Ohio" (apologies to songwriter Alex Bevan ) couldn't resist that deep fried turkey!
Great friends! Thanks for the hospitality Steve S and good job Barry and Steve as CD's for the weekend. I picked a winner for my lone TD contest of the year and got inspired to make an effort to hit more events next season.
All around "Great!" Pumpkin Fly!
Jim Carlton
Cleveland, OH
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I can't say it any better than AJ did. Barry, Steve and the whole CSS group really know how to put together an event. It was my first big contest and I thoroughly enjoyed myself (I realized I can't fly, but I still had fun).
I shot some pictures, haven't had much time to caption them but if you want to see them go here:
http://www.ts3.org/gallery/CSS-2003-Pumpkin-Fly
Kevin Sheen
Pittsburgh, PA~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While Cincy has always had fun events, their flying site was less than the kind of place that would draw soaring pilots because of lift, depth of visibility.
HOWEVER, that is all changed now. Now they have what could be one of the premier TD sites in the Midwest. The field of view of giant sod farms, grass and soil conditions similar. Surrounded by lift generators regardless of wind direction and winch set up versatility to match conditions. Access is excellent and improving, with lots of motels and restaurants with in 5 minutes from the winches.
This is a tremendous soaring site.
Located on the site is a very active and advanced Rocket club, you couldn't pay for thermal indicators like a day of rocket launches. Smoke and chutes, clearly cueing air conditions...sure never when its my time to launch, but in general a lot of great things that make up a great soaring site.
Would even be excellent for some of the electric soaring events becoming more popular. Don't even think twice about putting Cincinnati on your calendar for this coming season!
Gordy Stahl
I know, I have been there, and most other sites :-)