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PASCO Sawyer Award Program
Revised: Feb. 2015
To make the Sawyer Award more achievable to the less experienced XC pilots, we are making the following changes starting this year (2015):
- Limiting it to a single win - the award can only be won once going forward.
- Minimum 5000 points to qualify to win .
- In addition to the perpetual trophy, the top 3 places will receive acrylic awards.
- The current standing will be announced periodically. To facilitate this, if you would like to participate, please send your pilot factor (described below) to the PASCO Awards Chairperson, Ramy Yanetz, Email: ryanetz@yahoo.com
Sawyer Award List (Click to view list below)
- Perpetual X-C Flight trophy
- Based on OLC, no need to register. Be sure to upload all your flights.
- Follows OLC year, which runs October to October.
- Must upload flight logs weekly! By Tuesday of each week. (See OLC rules)
- Total OLC Score - Minimum 5,000 points to be considered [Revised 2015] (which uses distance and handicap) times Pilot
Factor
--- New pilots up to 4x OLC score! - Flights in Region 11 - Northern California, Nevada, Hawaii only.
- A person can only win the Sawyer 1 time, then they are no longer eligible. (revised in 2015)
Award Chairperson
Contact: Awards Chairperson: Ramy Yanetz
Submit flights to the Online Contest "OLC".
Two Easy Steps to the Sawyer Award!
- 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).
- Provide your Pilot Factor to : Awards Chairperson (do it now!)
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.
Sawyer Rules
- 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.
- 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.
- Winners are no longer required to administer the award the following year. It will be administered by the Award Chairperson.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- A person can only win the Sawyer once, 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.
Sawyer Award - Perpetual Trophy
A
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 Colacevich |
| 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 - 15,232 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 | 1- Buzz Graves - 22,418 points 2- Uwe Kleinhempel - 20,732 points 3- Darren Braun - 18,135 points |
| 2013 | 1- Jim Payne - 16,439 points |
| 2014 | 1- Jim Payne - 15,850 points 2- Pat Alford - 15,439 points 3- Matt Gillis - 15,012 points |
| 2015 | 1- Matt Gillis - 13,747 points 2- David Anisman - 13,618 points 3- Uwe Kleinhempel - 10,347 points |
| 2016 | 1- Uwe Kleinhempel 14,749 points 2- Dan Colton 11,369 points 3- David Anisman 10,949 points |
| 2017 | Thomas Greenhill - 19,064 points |
| 2018 | Zach Yamauchi - 25,372 pts |
| 2019 | Wyll Soll - 15,504 pts |
| 2020 | Kurt Thams - 10,295 pts |