Xueye Open Contest – Laiwu – Day 2 Thu 22nd

The weather co-operated for another day with Thursday dawning at around 5:30 to a cloudless sky and nothing more than a zephyr to stir the trees occasionally. What little wind there was later in the day was mostly from the South West to WSW.
Roman announced early that we will be flying 2nd round duration to complete Rd 2 and then we will fly speed and then distance of round 3. Roman also has a plan to finish early today to allow time for model registration and winch testing today rather than Friday and than the actual World Championships can be started on Friday morning. That will give us an extra day in hand to overcome the lost time expected from the possibility of rain next week.

Many people have been asking what aircraft are being flown so I visited each team and compiled a nearly comprehensive list of the models in use.
Nigel Wilkinson (Sth Africa) – Ceres
Craig Goodrum (Sth Africa) – Fosa
Rudi King (Sth Africa) – Fosa
Jason Webber (Sth Africa) – Fosa
Darrel Zaballos (USA) – FS3
David Klien (USA) – FS4
Kyle Paulson (USA) – FS4
Tom Kiesling (USA) – Fosa
Glauco Lago (USA) – FS3
Tim Traver (USA) – Vampire
Gordon Buckland (USA) – Target
Martin Herrig (Germany) – FS4
Fiedler Christian (Germany) – FS4
Michael Seyfang (Germany) – Shooter
Andreas Herrig (Germany) – FS4
Andreas Kuntz (Germany) – FS4
Laurent Gauthie (France) – Shooter
Patrick Medard (France) – Hurricane
Fabrice Estivals (France) – Radical
Tim Kullack (Australia) – FS4
Steve Keep (Australia) Fosa
John Skinner (Australia) – Fosa
Susumo Kodo (Japan) – Tanga
That’s all I could get today but I will add the rest of the Japanese, China flew Tiea from RCRCM and HongKong planes tomorrow. (Hongkong flew Ascots.)

The duration task began around 9:00am in extremely hazy (smog) skies with a distinct possibility of losing complete sight of your model if you flew more than 500 – 600 meters away. The air was good though with more than enough bouyant areas to make it fairly easy to avoid the sink and get your time. Darrel found a pretty strong lift area out deep over some nearby apartment buildings in Group one to complete in 10:02 – 100 to take the 1000 points. Tim also flew in Group 1 and just fell short of completing the time by 56 seconds to make a 9:04 – 100. Group 2 saw much of the same with the adjacent road, construction and buildings upwind to the west providing nicely bouyant conditions. Martin Herrig took the group with a 10:00 – 100 while Kyle made a 9:58 – 100 to stay right there. Group 3 was won by Susumo Kodo with a perfect 10:00 – 100 while I was a little early to touch the Target for a 100 pointer at 9:58. Andreas Kuntz took out the 1000 in Group 4 with a 9:59 – 100 while we had a bye. Yasuhiro Suzuki showed his TD skills also with a perfect 10:00 – 100 in Group 5 while Dave made a respectable 9:59 – 95 to compete duration for Round 2.

Roman gave us a short 15 minute break to prepare for Rd 3 distance and the first group up launched in conditions which were now livening up with active air available sometimes adjacent to the course and sometimes on course.
Group 1 was flown very well by Michael Seyfang of Germany with a 25 on the west side of the course while I started on the East where we thought we had a read and had to transition to the west for a 17. Group 2 saw Martin Herrig make the 1000 points with 22 laps while David made 19. Group3 was Andreas Kuntz with 1000 points for 23 while Tim Traver made great turns to get 21. Group 4 was won by Tim Kullack with 25 laps while Tom flew an excellent round tied him with 25. Andreas Herrig took Group 5 with 21 laps to beat Darrel on 18. Group 6 was won by Kyle for the 1000 points with 23 laps.

Roman announced that after speed was complete we would be wrapping up and getting prepared for the worlds.
3rd round of speed was underway quickly with Roman moving things along to allow time for all the model and winch checking to be done tonight.

Once again speed was flown in the reverse order of the scores already posted. There was a small breeze to aid launches and the air was pretty reasonable for speed but not any real strong thermal activity comng through the course.
Fastest in the round was Andreas Herrig with the fastest time of the contest at 13:43. Kyle was close behind with a run of 14:77 and third fastest in Round 3 was Martin Herrig with a 15:03. The rest of the speed times for USA were: Darrel with a very fast run of 15:42, Dave 15:84 and Tom 17:33. Tim Traver finished the contest on a high note also with an 18:26 and I managed a 21:69.

The 3rd round of speed concluded the Xueye Open contest and the final results saw Andreas Herrig our winner on 7876 points. Martin Herrig 2nd on 7809, Michael Seyfang 3rd on 7663 and Andreas Kuntz 3rd with 7655. Highest place US Pilot was Kyle with 7th place and 7377 points. Darrel was 8th 7292. Tom finished 12th – 7201. Dave was 13th – 7144 Tim 20th on 6412 and Gordon 21st on 6290. Glauco was unable to complete the contest due to a broken model.

Fastest time in the contest for speed was Andreas Herrig with 13.43. Kyle laid down a real nice run with 14.77 for 2nd fastest. Martin was 3rd with 14.96. Darrel flew a 15.42. David was 15.84. Tom posted a 17.23 with some very safe turns at B. Tim flew a great run also with a PB at a contest of 18.26 and Gordon a 19.28.

It was truly a huge amount of fun for Tim Glauco and I as helpers to fly here in China in this event and we were honored to be able to spend two days flying with such a great bunch of people. Every competitor was super friendly and flew the contest in a great spirit. The amazing thing was the lack of problems with the Base B or Base button pressers. Roman has done a magic job of training them. We now have a long contest ahead of us with the World starting in the morning.
Cheerio
Gordon