The Top Gun Competition Balloon Club held its Rio Grande Classic (RGC) recently, featuring pilots competing for the RGC Champion, Southwest Regional Champion and New Mexico State Champion.
“A race is not a race for time or distance; a race is all about navigation, getting from point A to point B,” Maury Sullivan, the Rio Grande Classic event director, told KOB 4 News.
Plans to hold a competition in March at Double Eagle Airport had to be canceled due to an unusual spring snow. Conditions were good enough for the event to be held from May 26 through May 29. Pilots could take off and hit their targets with their markers in what proved to be an exciting and successful competition.
“Top Gun as an organizer has had a lot of trouble with the weather getting practice flights in and that kind of thing, but this weekend the weather looks pretty good,” Sullivan said, according to KOB 4 News.
Cash prizes ranging from $800 to $1,000 were given to winners and those who placed in the top three of each division.
“The winner of the state championship and the top three finishers in the regional championship are eligible to win places for next year’s U.S. National Championship that’ll be in Longview, Texas,” Sullivan told KOB 4 News.
Rhett Heartsill of Fort Worth, Texas, won the overall competition with 10,841 points, edging out Trenton Caldwell, who had 10,731.
Heartsill comes from a ballooning family. His father, Joe Heartsill, won a world championship in 1995, five U.S. national championships and five Grand Prix championships, according to Longview News-Journal.
Top Gun Ballooning was incorporated in 1987 with a mission to help balloon pilots improve their skills through education and friendly competition. The club hosts educational seminars, schools and competitive balloon flights to develop pilot skills. “We have monthly competitions where our Top Gun Pilots fly with each other for the monthly Top Gun title and ultimately the club championship,” the website says. “We are rapidly expanding our organization and look forward to Top Gun Events nationally."