Here's the latest info on this years “Beat the Heat” DLG contests.  Those of you who were able to compete in last year's B the H contests, know that they start at 7 AM sharp and usually finish around 11 AM.  This years contest will be held on the last Saturday of each month from June through September.  Although these contests will not be sanctioned events, there will be a $10 entry fee which will go to support the “2009 Arizona Open” which will be held up in Eloy on either the last weekend in October, or the first weekend in November.  Did I mention that Dr. Dave will once again be the CD for this year’s contests.

April 4th and 5th, 2009, SAGE hosted the second annual Blue Skies over Arizona HLG contest.  Due to ceiling restrictions currently in place at SAGE Field the contest was held at the Phoenix Model Aircraft Club field located in Eloy Arizona.  Peter Brocks of PMAC was the AMA CD of record.  A big thanks goes out to Peter and PMAC for making this years BS over AZ possible.  Many of the twenty-six contestants “blew” into Eloy the Friday before the contest hoping to get a feel for the new field and to help get things ready for the contest.  SAGE President, Philip Brister had nothing but praise for all that made this year’s contest a success, considering the challenging weather.

The pictures below are an attempt to capture the feel for this years Blue Skies event:

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Congratulations, you found the field!	Waiting for the dust to settle

Aradhana makes his move	How high can you go?!

One fancy wind sock!	There was no shortage of lift

Jennifer our Head Burger Flipper	“I’ll have a double cheese, hold the onions”

	Hope we can do this again next year. Philip
Alvin enters the latest score sheets

Sunday, October 26th, SAGE hosted a contest called the “Cool Down” to celebrate the end of summer flying.  The “Cool Down” was a follow on to the successful “Beat the Heat” HLG contests flown at SAGE Field earlier in the summer.  If Dave Rosenthal had not promoted the idea of HLG contests flown in the dead of summer, we would have missed out on a lot of great flying.  Thanks Dave.

“What a great contest!!! Philip, thanks again for the score keeping and all your help. Linda and Gaige for their help. Bill Wolfe for helping me transport all the barbecue stuff so I wouldn't get in any trouble with my wife. Pete for doing all the grilling.  Aradhana came all the way from NM to help us with our contest. Aradhana conducted a great clinic on detection of thermals. He gave a lecture,then several us would tell the group where the thermals were. Then several pilots would launch to see if we were right. Instant feedback!! As the practice session continued the group got better at predicting where the thermals were. This will really help us in future contests and practice sessions.  We had a barbecue after the contest which gave the pilots a chance to relax and do some socializing. These contests gave us a wonderful opportunity to hook up with a lot of great pilots
from all over Southern Arizona.”

Dave