2nd Day of Slovenia Cup and banquet.
First flight on Saturday was the 4th round flight for Dillon and in smooth zero wind and neutral air we got a horrible launch as his 4m X2 went out flat. Although we were lowest Dillon headed straight for the village at the bottom of the valley and hooked up with the lightest lift to get his time. 9:55-99 for the 1000 points.
Jeff was next and his launch on his Code 0 X3 went better but still not as good as the others in the air. Jeff also ventured deep over the town also and found a boat patch to ride out.the clock. The lift was enough to maintain but barely. Jeffs time of 9:53-98 was enough for the 1000 also
Jim was last to fly in Rd 4 and he flew in straight lines near the mountain and made a few turns in good air. As he came back over the field their was sufficient air to make his time for a great 9:55-100 and 1000.
Another great round for USA. At the completion of Rd4 Dillon was still even in 1st place with Arjun on 4000 points. Jeff was one point behind on 3999 in 4th place. Jim was in 6th place on 3995 points. DP was in 9th place on 3991 points. Gordon was in 15th place on 3986 points and Stoil improving to 87th and Noah to 99th.
ROUND 5
Jeff followed Jims 4th round to be first up in Round 5. He got a much better launch with a little tweaking of his camber and started at a similar height to the pack. The air was just starting to pop and Jeff had no trouble finding good air where the sun had been working the longest. The mountain to the east really shields the ground in the valley and although it is daylight at 5:30 the sun doesn’t actually rise above the mountain to warm our area until after 7:30am. Jeff made 9:54-99
Dillon followed Jeff and also worked soft air to easily make his time. His landing was perfectly on time but flying the slight heavier 3.8 he over flew the spot in the zero wind to make a 9:55 -97
Jim Was next and the plane stalled on launch and went hard right and then left and then popped for a low launch. Jim headed for the trees and worked up and down and then found a bump to turn. He tried hard to keep it going but in the end succumbed to gravity and finished with a little over 5minutes to end his chances in the flyoffs.
Noah flew next in ever improving conditions and made some great turns in air toward the mountain to never be in trouble. He returned to make a gem of a landing and score a 9:55-100.
Gordon was next and when these flights were back to back it was a little hectic to make sure everyone was on field and in place for the next group. In this case Jeff and Gordon would stay out at lane 11 after helping Noah. Dillon would need to join them for Gordons flight. At 2 minutes Dillon was not there. Gordon was yelling DILLON – DILLON and within a few seconds there was a chorus as every team down the line took up the chant until it reached the tents and Dillon was seen racing out of the USA tent hurdling the fence and sprinting out to lane 11. It was all quite comical. Gordon got off early, went to air almost overhead toward the tents and corkscrewed skywards. Once again he was off line on the landing and made a o9:55-94.
Stoil flew next and he made the best launch he has done yet getting off in 3seconds to be high guy. He worked two different thermals made his time easy and returned for a 95 landing. After touching down he realized he left his model in thermal camber for the Landing and didn’t have enough down for the push over.
Daryl was last up in Rd 5. It was kind of fun as the Germans took a half second speed tow. Daryl zigged left to great air behind the tents and pulled flap to not mark the air as the German pilot was low and struggling in the center of the field. In spite of DPs efforts to keep his lift a secret the Germans got out anyway. Daryl had dome fun got his time and made a 9:55-98 which was more than enough to keep him in the flyoffs list.
Dillon’s poor landing dropped him to 5th after 5 rounds with Jeff moving up to 3rd. DP was in 9th with a small cushion of less than 2 points to stay in the final 14. Gordon dropped back to 20th and Jim finished up in 77th courtesy of his shirt flight. Stoil is 81st and Noah 99th.
ROUND 6
Noah launched great with a 2.5 second tow and had a very enjoyable flight in extremely hot conditions with lift pretty well in every corner if the field. Noah really had some fun and Jeff provided him with sone good landing tutelage to push the clock. He ended up half a second short of perfect in the end and had.to push over for a 91. The resulting 9:57-91 showed him what he can do by working the clock at the back end.
Dillon was last to fly before lunch and took a solid tow of 2 seconds or more to take marked lift behind us. The local birds are what we call flippys in Florida and they fly around starting here and there catching insects at about 100 feet up. in Florida these birds are actually Purple Martens. We don’t know what they are called here but they look and act exactly the same and very accurately show us air. Dillon climbed out quickly and returned to make a solid 9:56. 2-99.
After a hot lunch in a hotter tent we watched a couple if groups fly before DP was up for his final flight to stay in the flyoffs group. He simply needs a solid flight to keep his position.
Final positions before flyoffs saw three USA pilots in the 14 lane flyoffs. Dillon qualified in 3rd place, Daryl in 6th place and Gordon in 12th place.
.Gordon decided not to fly in the flyoffs so he could help the Team achieve its goals. The finals were set for 3 rounds of 15 minutes
FLYOFFS 3x15min
The flyoffs began in dwindling conditions at 4:30pm. There was a gentle prevailing of about 5to7mph from the west toward the mountain.
The first round saw launches to the South up the cart and everybody took super short tows and most pilots headed upwind and left crosswind toward the mountain where finally the group hooked up to thermal and climb out past the towering cliffs to finish high above the mountain and downwind to the North.
Much of the time during this 15min flight the models were hard to see against he majestic backdrop of the granite and tree lined slope. It was often intense release as the lift allowed our model to break free of the impossible background and suddenly be clearly visible in the azure blue of the sky above.
It was a long 15 minutes but at the end of the time slot Dillon Graves works the clock to perfection to hit a 14:98. 6- 99 but was eclipsed by Joe Wurts with a 15:58.1 -100. DP shot a 14:57.5 and bounced back from a 100 to a 98. It was an easy round which everybody maxed.
The second round was a total disaster with everybody relighting and eventually the round being re flown due to crossed lines. In the reflight DP took a short tow and was at no point comfortable until the clock had used up 14 minutes and there was a minute left as he zigged and zagged and burned up the clock without ever getting high enough to relax. DP shot a 14:58.6 -99 (with another bounce back from the 100.) Dillon got out very deep but suffered heavy sink on the way home to finally end up on the tree line with 2 minutes still to go. Although he eeked out the clock on the treeline he finally finished up short by just 8 seconds and his contest was over .
The final 3rd round of the flyoffs saw DP off in 2 seconds to go left over the tents and worked air with JW at about 100 feet for a few minutes climbing slowly. Dillon also went to the same area but erred too far to the right and dropped out at 5 minutes in to take a relaunch. Both DP and JW gradually made the light air work to finally end up reasonably happy far downwind over the corner with 5 minutes to go. DP made it back to hit a 57.6-98 with another bounce back from The 100. The ground has hardened up considerably sinCE the rain early in the week.
It was fantastic to see DP of the USA Team on the podium in 3rd place. As the results were read.
JW 1st with 2995.8, oleander Chekh of UKraine 2nd with 2994.6 and DP 3rd with 2994.5. Jan Littva was 4th with 2994.2.
Very close at the top as anybody could have won with the slightest amount of luck.
Dillon was awarded 1st place Junior and I think the Slovenia Cup was a great success for the USA Team as we learned much to help us perform well next week in the big event.
Saturday night was the banquet in a courtyard of a local castle. Not only was it picturesque but the outdoor atmosphere made the wonderful meal quite surreal. The food was amazing and the smorgasbord spread a sight to behold.
