2011 Course

 

View the Picture Gallery for the 2011 Rally.

Read Lauran Paine's article from the September 2011 edition of EAA Sport Aviation Magazine. (1.3 MB PDF) © 2011, Experimental Aircraft Association, Inc., and Lauran Paine, Jr. Used with permission.

For the first time ever, we have GPS tracking data from every airplane in the rally! (Quicktime required).

Click for the complete scoring results for 2011.

The Rally awards much more than just 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Here are some of the other fun awards for 2011:

Special 2011 Awards
Performance Award	Race 11, Mitzi Saylor
Redding Jet Center Quick Turn Award	Race 71, Tom Neale & Bob Edwards (16 minutes, 37 seconds)
Red Baron Award	Race 45, Nathan Simpson & Travis Peden (blown tire in the runup area at Hayward)
Best 1st Time Entry	Race 45, Nathan Simpson & Travis Peden (15th Place)
Worst Fuel Score	Race 6, Roger Stenbock & Milo Laguna
Best Overall Time Score	Race 56, Paul Buenrostro & Kregg Kammack (1 second total!!)
Best Renter	Race 3, Scott & Jessica Allaway
Worst Time Score	Race 57, David Montgomery & Mike O'Leary
Tail End Charlie	Race 57, David Montgomery & Mike O'Leary

Each of the Rally's two legs each include:

• 1 Start Point
• 3 Mandatory Checkpoints
• 1 Timing Point
• 1 Stop Point

The checkpoints, and therefore the course, change every year.  The required checkpoints which define the course are announced the day before the race (see the race schedule) at the briefing and are documented in the race book provided to each team.  The exact course flown is chosen by the pilot of each aircraft.  Remember, this is not a speed race, it is a proficiency race; accuracy counts.

So that prospective racers can get better idea of the materials provided during the briefing, a PDF copy of the 2011 Race Book may be downloaded here (1 MB).

Checkpoints are to be overflown by race aircraft. Each checkpoint can be adequately identified from the air. The two timing points at Checkpoint Howie and Checkpoint Goering are also overflown and race officials on the ground will record the time overhead the timing line.

The 2011 course is described here to provide an example only, the 2012 course will be different, and will not be announced until the day before the race during the briefings. 

The 2011 course included the following checkpoints and stops:

• Hayward (HWD) - Race Starts
• Peterson (CA17)
• Georgetown (E36)
• Brownsville (F25)
• Checkpoint Howie (40-21.894N, 122-13.038W @ 68CA) - Timing Point
• Redding (RDD) - Landing, Fuel and Lunch
• Weed (O46)
• Radome (42-03.97N, 121-58.09W)
• Diamond Lake Juntion (43-04.58N, 121-48.95W)
• Checkpoint Goering (44-05.750N, 120-56.813W) - Timing Point
  Watch the slide show movie of the 2011 fly-bys (17.2 MB, QuickTime required)
• Bend (BDN) - Landing, Fuel, Race Ends

 

Here are the GPS-logged tracks from all Rally aircraft - where they actually flew!

Each checkpoint has a question to be answered to ensure positive identification. A typical checkpoint question looks like this:

Checkpoint #5	Radome
Elevation ~6600
Overfly above 7600'	Lat 42 deg. 03.97'
	Long 121 deg. 58.09'
What is between the two circular structures?
M. vehicle maintenance area.
N. orange roof building.
P. radio transmission tower.

 

The checkpoint at Radome looked like this from the air:

 

So, the answer was:N. orange roof building.

The winners of the 2011 Rally were Race 56, Paul Buenrostro and Kregg Cammack, Rally with only 64 points.