Thank you to everyone who shared their photos from the Baldy Fly in last weekend on the yahoo group lists. As was evident in the photos, we had spectacular weather and a great turn out for this event. With just over 75 pilots registered, we raised almost $2300 for the Baldy Butte fund. This significantly offsets the $3,000 annual land use fee for Baldy for next year.
The NWPC and the CBCC chose the Baldy Fly-In to hold the First Annual Bi-Wing Fling Competition. The launch area and the LZ provide plenty of room for everyone. There were no incidents or even close calls reported. Maybe a few bruised egos but nothing that a good comp doesn’t warrant.
There were 14 bi-wingal teams registered for the comp. The pilots combined their top scores from the best of two flights for the total team scores.
There were the usual contests: longest duration, highest altitude, speed gliding, spot landing and style points. But also we added points for Cross pollination (earned when a pilot takes a tandem on the other style of wing), and team spirit for coming up with a team name and a performing a team cheer.
The Winning Teams (in order of Hang/Para):
1st Place:
Chris Culler / Tom Allen: Combined score = 1808 points
- Both were first place winners of the speed glide. Chris at 2:20 minutes and Tom at 4:36 minutes.
- Tom earned Cross Pollination points by taking Sunny Jim Fenison on a tandem paragliding flight. (If any one has pictures of this, I’d like to have a copy.)
2nd Place:
Team name: Bags and Bones
Tom Johns / Chris Amonson: Combined score = 1542 points
- - By the skin of their team cheer, they came in 2nd (25 points)(25 points)
3rd Place:
Team name: DJ Jazzy Free Flight
Darren Darsey / Jared from Chelan: Combined score = 1537 points
- Valiant effort by both pilots.
- Darren came in 2nd on the speed glide at 2:40.
- A team cheer would have given them second place.
Honorable mentions:
4th Place:
Team Name: Hambone
Jeff Beck / Joe Sullivan: Combined score =1365
- A cross pollination flight at the end of the day definitely helped.
- Joe coming in 4th on the speed glide at 5:36 definitely helped.
- Jeff sinking out on the speed glide definitely hurt.
- And it was a fun team cheer and tribute to a friend.
5th Place:
Team Name: Cross Harp (they are both harmonica players)
Sunny Jim Fenison / Rob Heim: Combined Score = 1185
- Jim’s cross pollination flight with Tom Allen in his costume was entertaining. Was that doobie really a prop?
- By far, they had the best team cheer (written by Sunny Jim and performed solo by Rob.)
The Other BiWingal Teams:
Aaron Sweptson / Matt Cone
Kerri Sweptson / Ken Rector
Jimmy Culler / Jeff Morgan
Kurt Hartzog / Ashley Guberman
Gary Braun / Andreas (with the cool accent)
Rod Reider / Paul Kunzl
CJ Sturtevant / George Sturtevant
Russ Gelfin / Jeff Morgan
Larry Snyder / Jens Steinhagen
Thanks Aaron for doing all the loopity loops! That was pretty awesome!
A huge thank you to our sponsors and volunteers:
- Flytec for donating over $250 worth of shirts and flight gear.
- Izzi Sodas for cases of refreshing all natural, no sugar added sodas.
- Rich Hass and Bob Bunger for organizing the fly in every year and for donating the beer and the port-a-pottie, respectively.
- Steve Wilson, Naomi & Peter Gray for doing site orientations
- Darren Darsey for designing the BiWing Logo.
- Wally Adams for making wonderful fleece jackets with the BiWing logo that were given as prizes.
- NWPC & CBCC for seed money
- And to all the volunteers who helped set up the potluck and clean up after the party was over.
See you next year!!!
Lynn