East Coast Soarers 2011 Kzn thermal champs
If the success of BBM Slopies group is anything to go by, The Facebook East Coast Soarers page is set to become the Kzn soaring communication medium of the future.
RESULTS
Name Total Rank %
Michel Leusch 5000 1 100.0% Explorer
Dave Greer 4980 2 99.6% Esprit
Sean Oellermann 4812 3 96.2% X pro
Russell Conradt 4732 4 94.6% X pro
Don Slatter 4602 5 92.0% Pike/Xpro
Dennis Bird 4225 6 84.5% X Pro
Andre Leusch 4200 7 84.0% X Pro/Ellipse 3
Rudi Smook 2530 8 50.6% Eish
Adi Critten 1787 9 35.7% Luna
Simon Nelson 1691 10 33.8% X Pro crashed
Ryan Nelson 1336 11 26.7% Supra crashed
Luke Johnson 0 12 0.0% DNS
Thanks to Dennis Bird for these pics and making the event happen, third time lucky!
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| Michel calling for Sean Oellermann - Sean easily the most improved senior Kzn pilot. |
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| Sean and Michel after landing - the red and white combo still the one of the most distinctive. |
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| That man Ruscal with Shrekie the glider - thanks for the help and the magic braai, Russ! |
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| Ted Smith the contest director for the day - was starting to check out these fancy planes ;-) |
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| Andre Leusch explaining to Sy how he achieves these demon landings with the evergreen Ellipse 3. |
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| Michel Leusch about to launch for Don Slatter. |
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| Third place Sean Ollermann with Natalie the scorer. |
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| Second place Dave Greer with Natalise the scorer - thanks Natalie. |
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| 2011 Kzn Thermal Soaring champion Michel with Natalie the scorer. |
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| The special sunset finishes off a hectic but enjoyable championship. |
The day started badly with three consecutive line breaks for yours truly. After ranting to all who happened to be in the way about how one should be thermaling in the strong breeze, yours truly went all soggy and blindly pushed forward in round four, being soundly thrashed for the throw away round by Russ and Sean who bailed back downwind at the right time. Having added four peeps of up trim to keep the Esprit parked in the wind, we promptly forgot to take out same for round five, the biggie slot against Michel..... A bit tense after line break four but Ruscal gave the Esprit a monster throw and the craft damn near launched in to outer space, courtesy of the forgotten afore-mentioned up trim and the Russ launch. It was kinda fun to sit in dot country above Michel's 1 second launch Explorer for the ten minutes and it was that small launch time differential that made the difference between gold and silver - I am totally in awe of these brave youngsters who push the limit that hard! Thanks to all, I can only ascribe the result to good ole "beginners luck" and also doff my cap to KZN champs newbie Rudi Smook for a successful first Natals for him ;-). Cheers Dave.
Postscript:
The Nelson clan were understandably reticent to further risk precious models after Dad banged his plane on round one landing and Ryan landed out (fortunately without damage other than a flap servo) with the new Supra. With Dad away for some months and aircraft supply already limited, Ryan is in need of real support from the locals for practice and plane help, folks.
Postscript:
The Nelson clan were understandably reticent to further risk precious models after Dad banged his plane on round one landing and Ryan landed out (fortunately without damage other than a flap servo) with the new Supra. With Dad away for some months and aircraft supply already limited, Ryan is in need of real support from the locals for practice and plane help, folks.
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