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1. Sierra Cup

44th Annual Sierra Cup

From: Mike McKeever
The 44th Annual Sierra Cup was flown last weekend in Lost Hills, California. We continued to use infrastructure set up during the 2019 World Champs and the site was largely the same as a year ago with a little more vegetation growth. Some of the line markers for the World Champs were gone and there were no sheep which I hope is a coincidence. The weather was very nice for a free flight contest and we had a pretty good turnout for the times in which we live. Contestants took appropriate Covid precautions with some wearing masks and nearly everyone appropriately social distancing. A total of 38 flyers signed up the this Fall FAI contest.

Thursday began the event with F1E. Now this is an event with which I have growing interest. I now am beginning to understand the set of skills one needs to be successful at this event. One does not just throw their models into the pit and win! The top five flyers and scores were:

1-    Fred Terzian    401.5
2-    Jack Greening   387.76
3-    Mike McKeever   358.83
4-    Peter Brocks    328.27
5-    Jerry Fitch     295.76

Saturday brought the large FAI events which were all flown on the same day. Calm mornings with growing turbulent air throughout the day with calm late afternoons, perfect for fly offs.

F1A was the highest attended event this year with 14 participants including three Junior flyers, Noa and Anat Goldstein and Liad Friedman who all flew very well. Three made it to the fly off including Noa Goldstein. Conditions were tricky at times and that resulted in several dropped flights. In the end were the following results:

1-Enes Pecenkovic     1500 seconds
2-Risto Puhakka       1487 seconds
3-Noa Goldstein       1320 seconds
4-Jim Parker          1288seconds
5-Peter Brocks        1272 Seconds

F1B had 12 entries and two Juniors with Sklar Donnelly and Ittai Kohavi. F1B flew from a line just down from F1A and of course had similar weather. Three made this fly off and it took two fly offs to win. The results were:

1-Sevak Malkhasyan  2160 seconds
2-Jerry Fitch       2108seconds
3-Mike Davis        2052 seconds
4-Blake Jensen      1316 seconds
5-Derek McGuckin    1315 seconds

F1C had three contestants and was decided in the first fly off when Ron McBurnett maxed and Guy Menanno dropped. Ed Carroll had crashed early in the event.

1-Ron McBurnett 1680 seconds
2-Guy Menanno   1522 seconds
3-Ed Carroll    254 seconds

F1P also had three competitors and no fly off. Randy Secor was on his way to a win when he lost his F1P before flying the final round. The model was later found and should be returned soon. The contest included an impressive performance from the sixth Junior to fly in Sierra Cup, Henry Feistel.

1-Jim Kelly    1302
2-Henry Feistel    1240
3-Randy Secor    1134

Finally F1Q was a contest between two contestants and no fly off was required. Ben Tarcher maxed out to win the event.

1. Ben Tarcher 1320
2. Jack Murphy 1212

The Mini FAI events were flown in conjunction with the Kotuku Cup Mini’s on Monday. Once again the weather was perfect for a free flight event with enough turbulence that only F1G required a fly off. The results were as follows:

F1G (4 flew)

1-    Jerry Fitch
2-    Tiffaney O’Dell
3-    Peter Brocks
4-    Walt Ghio

F1H (2 flew)

1. Jim Parker
2. Blake Jensen

F1J (3 flew)

1. Dave Johannes
2. Mike McKeever
3. Guy Menanno

F1S (4 flew)

1-    Jack Murphy
2-    Larry Norvall
3-    Guy Menanno
4-    Ben Tarcher

So Sierra Cup was notable this year for six Junior flyers participating, excellent Fall weather in Lost Hills and a good time had by all. I look forward to a non-Covid event for Sierra Cup 45.