PASCO Sawyer Award Program

Sawyer Award List (Click to view list below)

  1. Perpetual X-C Flight trophy
  2. Based on OLC, no need to register. Bbe sure to upload all your flights.
  3. Follows OLC year, which runs October to October.
  4. Must upload flight logs weekly! By Tuesday of each week. (See OLC rules)
  5. Total OLC Score (which uses distance and handicap) times Pilot Factor
    --- New pilots up to 4x OLC score!
  6. Flights in Region 11 - Northern California, Nevada, Hawaii only.
  7. A person can only win the Sawyer two times, then they are no longer eligible. (added in 2010)

Award Chairperson

Contact: Awards Chairperson: Ramy Yanetz

Submit flights to the Online Contest "OLC".

Two Easy Steps to the Sawyer Award!

  1. Fly! Record and upload your flights to the OLC (as IGC files); click on the Gliding Tab or Quick Link on the right side of the page.
    (See OLC Basics for more information).

  2. Provide your Pilot Factor to : Awards Chairperson (do it now!)

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Determining your Sawyer Pilot Factor "PF"

Pilot Experience

Pilot Factor (PF)
Flown 1000km or more 0.7
Diamond Badge or have ever flown 1-500 km flight 1.0
Gold Badge or have ever flown 2-300 km flight 1.5
Silver Badge or have ever flown 3-50 km flights 3.0
All Others 4.0

Sawyer Award Evolves with Technology

The Sawyer Award’s history begins in 1958 when it was established to promote cross-country soaring in Region 11. Its trophy is one that any sailplane aficionado would enjoy keeping for a year, now holding the names of the thirty pilots who’ve won since 1969 (some more than once). (See LIST below)

Scoring for the Sawyer Award is designed to level the playing field between “budding” cross county pilots and the Diamond-level pundits. The OLC scoring has a glider handicap to make the trophy winnable with a club Pegasus or a sparkling Ventus. PASCO multiplies the OLC score with a "Pilot Factor" to allow to give the new pilot a greater chance against an seasoned XC pilot.

Using Technology

A big story in XC flying has been the wide-spread adoption of flight tracking devices, now including hundred dollar GPS’s connected to hand held computers (PDA’s) that create IGC-format flight traces.

Viewing flights with software such as SeeYou and StrePla has also become widespread. Using these technologies and adding the Internet, today we’re seeing the growing and worldwide popularity of Aerokurier’s Online Contest, more commonly referred to as OLC. 

So, the stage is set to make some helpful evolutionary changes in the Sawyer Award, while preserving its basic rules and objective of promoting cross country soaring.

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Sawyer Rules

  1. The Sawyer Contest follows the OLC contest dates, each "OLC Year" runs from October to October. All flights must be uploaded to the OLC per the OLC Rules.
  2. There is no need to register with the PASCO Award Chairperson for the contest, just submit your Pilot Factor. If you do not wish to compete, you can "opt out" by contacting the Award Administrator.
  3. Winners are no longer required to administer the award the following year. It will be administered by the Award Chairperson.
  4. Only the Pilot Factor will be applied to the overall OLC scoring. This will facilitate determining the ongoing standing without the use of complicated spreadsheets. A new Pilot Factor of 0.7 was added for pilots who have flown 1000km or more. The factor multiplier is based on the pilots flight history as of the start of the new OLC year. (New pilots have a 4.0 pilot factor, so your OLC scored is multiplied by 4). Flying a great long flight after the start of the year will not lower your pilot factor.
  5. With each Sawyer Award contestant’s flight data on OLC and available for all to see, the data will be downloaded by the Sawyer Award administrator for post processing to determine each pilot’s “Sawyer Score”. The OLC scoring is based only on the distance between turn points and handicapped for each glider type. The Sawyer post processing will take the OLC score and multiply it by the Pilot Factor to get the final score. Simple and easy. All you have to do is fly, and upload your flights.
  6. The process of competing for the Sawyer Award has become very simple – even effortless for pilots who are already uploading their flights to OLC. Ladies and gentlemen – start your flight recorders! Upload all your flights to the OLC, and submit your Pilot Factor to the Awards Chairperson.
  7. ** A person can only win the Sawyer two times, then they are no longer eligible
More Information?

Want More Information? Email the Awards Chairperson, and watch for updates in the PASCO newsletter WestWind and this web site.

 

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Sawyer Award - Perpetual Trophy

sawyer_award_sm.jpgA Hand crafted wooden glider on a wooden base with previous winners engraved on each side. (click the image to enlarge).

 

 

Sawyer Award Winners

1969 Carl Herold
1970 James George
1971 Paul Kellas
1972 Ray Gimmey
1973 Paul Kellas
1974 Paul Sasse
1975 Gary Kemp
1976 John Seaborn
1977 Bill Saltman
1978 John Seronello
1979 Carl Herold
1980 Don Hurd
1981 Jean Claude Betault
1982 Don Hurd
1983 Shahid Zaidi
1984 John Volkober
1985 Steve Hilliker
1986 Jeff Kroot
1987 Eberhard Lemcke
1988 Gerry Giorgi
1989 Karol Hines
1990 Andrew McFall
1991 Sergio Colacevich
1992 David Volkmann
1993  
1994 Pete Alexander
1995 Peter Kelly
1996 Peter Deane
1997  
1998 Tom Hubbard
1999 Sergio Colcoviech
2000 Ramy Yanetz
2001 Nicolay Thomas
2002 Milt Hare
2003 Brian Choate
2004 Eric Rupp
2005 Darryl Ramm
2006 Ramy Yanetz
2007 Dan Dunkel - OLC: 7,133 SM
2008 Gen Shibayama - OLC: 15,798 points
2009

Darren Braun- OLC: 12,654 points
2010

1- Buzz Graves - 15232 pts

2- Morgan Hall - 11,800 pts

3- Daren Braun - 11620 pts
2011

1- Lee Edling - 20,319 pts

2- Darren Braun - 19,351 pts

3- Buzz Graves - 17,134 pts
2012

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