The 2011 Ed Levin Speed Gliding event

Chris [blog] and Brian [blog] did spectacularly good job at organising the 2011 Ed Levin Speed Gliding competition. The weather finally co-operated this past weekend, game on ! Co-incidentally Zac Majors was in town and was able to compete (at least in the first day) other big names include Kenny Brown and Brian Horgan from McClure. We got one round in on Saturday (Chris's Start Gate Video) and one round in on Sunday. After the first round the wind was too strong or air too turbulent to safely run the course. [pic stolen from Mark Suttie]I free flew down and can attest to the turbulence, in hindsight I was glad the second run of the day called off. However I hadn't had a good run that morning and could have used a second shot. But with stiff competition I had small expectation of actually placing. Those guys really are good. Here is Kenny going through an "Altitude Control" gate [stolen from Don Herricks Video]
On Sunday conditions looked better but the forecast was worse. We got a round in with the altitude criterion removed, also finish was moved because the wind is 180 from the landing direction. Two very smart ideas.

I had a great time, I learned I still need more ballast (more for control than performance)

This was my favorite picture from the weekend, the camera was still on self timer from the Tandem with Lindsay. It sums up the casual and jovial mood of the very fun weekend.
lots more pictures here :

Results

Rookie Class:
1st, John Hollander, Falcon 3, 2:55.78, DNF, -----
2nd, Mark Suttie, Falcon 225, DNF, DNF, -----

King Post Class:
1st, John Taylor, Ram Air, 1:53.2, 1:36.6, 3:29.8
2nd, Jason French, WW U2 145, 2:03.8, 1:57.7, 4:01.4
3rd, Mark Mulholland, Freedom 170, 2:19.8, 2:25.5, 4:45.3
4th, Robert Booth, Sport2 155, 2:08.2, DNF, -----
5th, Johnny French, Sport2, 2:14.8, DNF, -----
6th, Jim Bowe, Litesport, 2:26.9, DNF, -----

Open Class:
1st, Brian Horgan, Combat, 1:28.6, 1:18.6, 2:47.2
2nd, Kenny Brown, Litespeed, 1:38.9, 1:14.1, 2:52.9
3rd, Eric Froehlich, T2C 154, 1:43.2, 1:25.6, 3:08.8
4th, Ben Dunn, LS RS 3.5, 1:41.6 (+2 gates X 10 sec = 2:01.6), 1:13.8, 3:15.5
5th, Diev Hart, Litesport, 1:52.6, 1:38.2, 3:30.8
6th, Wayne Michelsen, Laminar Z8, 1:54.5, 1:39.6, 3:34.1
7th, Dirk Moris, U2 145, 1:47.3, 1:49.8, 3:37.2
8th, Zac Majors, T2C 144, 1:35.9, DNF, -----
9th, David Royer, Litespeed, 1:44.2, DNF, -----
10th, Pete Welch, Laminar MR2002, 2:12.1, DNF, -----