USA 18M and Standard Class Final Results

Congratulations to Gary Ittner and Phil Gaisford on winning the US 18M
and Standard Class Nationals.

Scores are still preliminary. Very close contest for both classes.
Peter Deane was only 2 points behind Phil (about one turn in a thermal
over the contest). Chip Garner was only 19 points behind Gary flying
the 15M DuckHawk. He had an impressive last day win at over 85 mph and
nearly 4 mph faster than anyone else.

A second hearty Congratulations for both Phil Gaisford (flying my WX Discus 2A) and Peter Deane -- 1st and 2nd Standard Class (although that could easily change order with final scores)! Gary Ittner and Chip Garner also flew a magnificent contest -- Congrats for their 1st and 2nd place!

You might be wondering why I didn't fly my Discus 2A at the Standard Nats. I've been very busy preparing IT presence and software scripting in order to support the WGC in Uvalde with Dan Gudgel. Last January, I decided it would be too much pressure on my preparation for weather support to both fly at Nationals and spend almost 4 weeks down in Uvalde. I decided at the SSA convention I would loan my ship to a pilot for Montague. It was Peter Deane and Chip Garner that suggested I offer it to Phil Gaisford.

At that time I decided... "What a great idea!". I can support the U.S. Standard Class team (Peter and Phil) and also add contestants for the Montague Standard Nats. Phil probably wouldn't have driven the 6000 miles round trip from Massachusetts. Costs are high enough as it is for Peter and Phil to fly the Worlds in Argentina starting in December.

I encourage anyone with an interest in supporting top U.S. team pilots to loan out their contest ships and help defray expenses. It might be the only time your glider wins a U.S. Nationals!

Walt Rogers, WX

PS - Gosh... it sure looked like a great contest. Maybe I should have flown myself.

On Thursday, July 5, 2012 9:35:20 PM UTC-7, Tim Taylor wrote:
Congratulations to Gary Ittner and Phil Gaisford on winning the US 18M
and Standard Class Nationals.

Scores are still preliminary. Very close contest for both classes.
Peter Deane was only 2 points behind Phil (about one turn in a thermal
over the contest). Chip Garner was only 19 points behind Gary flying
the 15M DuckHawk. He had an impressive last day win at over 85 mph and
nearly 4 mph faster than anyone else.

So how good is the Duck Hawk? It must be as good as a ASG-29-18, could this be? Nothing could be better than a German built sailplane, it must be a fluke. But what if it is? American made? Windward should lend the US team a Duckhawk, but nothing can be better than a ASG-29-18 right? Way to go Chip.

On Thursday, July 5, 2012 9:35:20 PM UTC-7, Tim Taylor wrote:
Congratulations to Gary Ittner and Phil Gaisford on winning the US 18M
and Standard Class Nationals.

Scores are still preliminary. Very close contest for both classes.
Peter Deane was only 2 points behind Phil (about one turn in a thermal
over the contest). Chip Garner was only 19 points behind Gary flying
the 15M DuckHawk. He had an impressive last day win at over 85 mph and
nearly 4 mph faster than anyone else.

So how good is the Duck Hawk? It must be as good as a ASG-29-18, could this be? Nothing could be better than a German built sailplane, it must be a fluke. But what if it is? American made? Windward should lend the US team a Duckhawk, but nothing can be better than a ASG-29-18 right? Way to go Chip.

On Jul 6, 1:42*pm, wrote:
On Thursday, July 5, 2012 9:35:20 PM UTC-7, Tim Taylor wrote:
Congratulations to Gary Ittner and Phil Gaisford on winning the US 18M
and Standard Class Nationals.

Scores are still preliminary. Very close contest for both classes.
Peter Deane was only 2 points behind Phil (about one turn in a thermal
over the contest). *Chip Garner was only 19 points behind Gary flying
the 15M DuckHawk. He had an impressive last day win at over 85 mph and
nearly 4 mph faster than anyone else.

So how good is the Duck Hawk? It must be as good as a ASG-29-18, could this be? Nothing could be better than a German built sailplane, it must be a fluke. But what if it is? American made? Windward should lend the US team a Duckhawk, but nothing can be better than a ASG-29-18 right? Way to go Chip..

John,

I'm not sure how you come to any of your conclusions. One day or one
contest does not show a performance difference between gliders. Also
the world is far from Germancentric on gliders today. Polish and Sourh
African glider are considered excellent racers today. The US team has
been offered the DuckHawk. As a pilot that has worked most of your
flying career to make the team would you take an unproven glider to
the World's or would you take the glider you have flown for the last
few years and know inside out?

The DuckHawk appears to be a very good glider. It will be fun to see
it fly at a strong site such as Uvalde or Hobbs against the current
15M gliders. It showed it can fly in weak conditions at Mifflin this
year. Pilot feedback on the handling and ride after a long day will
be interesting.

I have not seen anyone putting the glider down, it will just take
time for information and experience to prove quality of the glider.

On Friday, July 6, 2012 7:08:18 PM UTC-7, Tim Taylor wrote:
On Jul 6, 1:42*pm, wrote:
On Thursday, July 5, 2012 9:35:20 PM UTC-7, Tim Taylor wrote:
Congratulations to Gary Ittner and Phil Gaisford on winning the US 18M
and Standard Class Nationals.

Scores are still preliminary. Very close contest for both classes.
Peter Deane was only 2 points behind Phil (about one turn in a thermal
over the contest). *Chip Garner was only 19 points behind Gary flying
the 15M DuckHawk. He had an impressive last day win at over 85 mph and
nearly 4 mph faster than anyone else.

So how good is the Duck Hawk? It must be as good as a ASG-29-18, could this be? Nothing could be better than a German built sailplane, it must be a fluke. But what if it is? American made? Windward should lend the US team a Duckhawk, but nothing can be better than a ASG-29-18 right? Way to go Chip.

John,

I'm not sure how you come to any of your conclusions. One day or one
contest does not show a performance difference between gliders. Also
the world is far from Germancentric on gliders today. Polish and Sourh
African glider are considered excellent racers today. The US team has
been offered the DuckHawk. As a pilot that has worked most of your
flying career to make the team would you take an unproven glider to
the World's or would you take the glider you have flown for the last
few years and know inside out?

The DuckHawk appears to be a very good glider. It will be fun to see
it fly at a strong site such as Uvalde or Hobbs against the current
15M gliders. It showed it can fly in weak conditions at Mifflin this
year. Pilot feedback on the handling and ride after a long day will
be interesting.

I have not seen anyone putting the glider down, it will just take
time for information and experience to prove quality of the glider.

Thanks Tim,
Your' observation are spot on and not having much experience with the process of entering a sailplane or why they fly the sailplanes they fly in international compition your comment makes sense. I believe that the Duckhawk will continue to prove itself as time goes on and the support the US soaring community shows for an American made sailplne would only help a company contine in creating and improving the product. What needs to happen is that the US team should at least evaluate the performance by flying the Duck Hawk. If a pilot takes an unproven and fresh out of the box sailplane and wins the 15 meter (I know a Guest pilot took first over all), flew well in the open class nationals, and places second in the 18 meter National, it should at least be taken seriously, to say that it needs more time to evaluate so be it, but if the US team wants to win I would think that if there was sailplane out there that gave them an advantage they would at least take a very hard look at it.

John

On Jul 6, 7:08*pm, Tim Taylor wrote:

The DuckHawk appears to be a very good glider. It will be fun to see
it fly at a strong site such as Uvalde or Hobbs against the current
15M gliders. It showed it can fly in weak conditions at Mifflin this
year. *Pilot feedback on the handling and ride after a long day will
be interesting.

Gotta say that I saw the DuckHawk in-flight out on the course a few
times during the Nats, and was extremely impressed! We had 6-10-knot
thermals at times in the Montague Nationals and the plane held its
own, despite the short wing (compared to the 18-meter boys). I
believe Chip was flying with a wingloading somewhere between 11 and 12
lbs/sq-ft - impressive!

Personally, I think that the thing holding the DuckHawk back is not
anything to do with its performance. Its that the plane is radical
compared to the status-quo. Sailplanes have settled in to a certain
look and style for the last 3 decades, and the DuckHawk shakes up that
whole formula. Greg Cole has an attitude and a vision that he
believes in, and its an uncompromising one. He's not trying to one-up
the German manufacturers; he's trying to do something completely
different and he's unapologetic about it.

We've seen this with cars and other consumer items through the years -
a comparable (or even superior) product languishes because of user-
acceptance issues, when the customer has strong preconceptions of what
the end-product "should be". Hopefully the DuckHawk avoids that fate;
because its a pretty cool ship with some special capabilities!

--Noel

On Friday, July 6, 2012 7:08:18 PM UTC-7, Tim Taylor wrote:
On Jul 6, 1:42*pm, wrote:
On Thursday, July 5, 2012 9:35:20 PM UTC-7, Tim Taylor wrote:
Congratulations to Gary Ittner and Phil Gaisford on winning the US 18M
and Standard Class Nationals.

Scores are still preliminary. Very close contest for both classes.
Peter Deane was only 2 points behind Phil (about one turn in a thermal
over the contest). *Chip Garner was only 19 points behind Gary flying
the 15M DuckHawk. He had an impressive last day win at over 85 mph and
nearly 4 mph faster than anyone else.

So how good is the Duck Hawk? It must be as good as a ASG-29-18, could this be? Nothing could be better than a German built sailplane, it must be a fluke. But what if it is? American made? Windward should lend the US team a Duckhawk, but nothing can be better than a ASG-29-18 right? Way to go Chip.

John,

I'm not sure how you come to any of your conclusions. One day or one
contest does not show a performance difference between gliders. Also
the world is far from Germancentric on gliders today. Polish and Sourh
African glider are considered excellent racers today. The US team has
been offered the DuckHawk. As a pilot that has worked most of your
flying career to make the team would you take an unproven glider to
the World's or would you take the glider you have flown for the last
few years and know inside out?

The DuckHawk appears to be a very good glider. It will be fun to see
it fly at a strong site such as Uvalde or Hobbs against the current
15M gliders. It showed it can fly in weak conditions at Mifflin this
year. Pilot feedback on the handling and ride after a long day will
be interesting.

I have not seen anyone putting the glider down, it will just take
time for information and experience to prove quality of the glider.

So if Chip flew the Duck Hawk in the 15 meter nationals with less than 5 hours in a unproven sailplane and won (second over all), and a glider that he did not know inside and out, he must be somthing special. I wonder if you flew the Duck Hawk at Miffin if you would have placed and better than 10th, but of course you would not fly somthing that was unproven or you were not familar with. But the Duck Hawk must be better than a Ventus 2a at least all of that week.
Somtimes you have to change the way you fly, or think to win. Good luck at the worlds.