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Well, I *think* it was day 4 today. Actually I’m very sure today was day 4, because I mistakenly gridded up my glider on the Day 5 spot today, and was roundly booed by the assembled multitudes – bummer.
Up at the crack of dawn – nice overcast, so we were optimistic (overly so as it turned outI) that we would have a good ‘Uvalde day’. Assemble, water, grid (oops – used the day 5 grid position – see above)
At the morning meeting, the weather guy gave us the bad news “Well the clouds you see out there are at about 2500′ msl, and they will continue to rise throughout the morning until they get to about 5000′ msl, at which point they will dry out and disappear – poof!” (he actually said “poof”).
Grid time was the usual 12:10 – note that it’s not 12:00 or 12:30, but 12:10. I was pushing for 12:08:30, but CD Ken Sorenson put his foot down and said he wasn’t budging from 12:10 by even one second ;-). Seriously though, activities here are scheduled down to the minute. When Sorenson says the launch will start at 12:30, he means the first glider starts rolling at 12:30, and woe be unto the errant pilot who delays the launch for any reason short of a missing wing or pilot appendage.
At launch time there were still some clouds that hadn’t yet quite gone ‘Poof!’, but the trend toward blueness was obvious. Moreover, we were having trouble even climbing above the ridiculously low start altitude of 4500′ msl. Task setter John Good told us at the morning meeting that the lower-than-low start altitude was intended to keep us from gaggling in the wispies at cloudbase. Hmm, the weather guy says “poof” and the task guy worries about too many gliders at cloudbase. Don’t these guys talk to each other? ;-).
Again today I got to fly with the 15m U.S. team guys, and again it was a graduate course in how the pros do it. When you have the likes of John Cochrane (previous world team member), Mark Keene (previous world team member), David Leonard (current team member and Condor legend), Sarah Kelly-Arnold (current team member), Francois Pin (current team member), John Seaborn (current team member) all flying in the same class at the same contest, you can’t help but learn something. Not only that, but the team has been particularly gracious about letting me and others tag along and listen to their decision-making – another level of learning. Here at the pre-worlds, team flying is expressly allowed and team frequencies are made available for any country team that would like them. The U.S. team is using at least two frequencies, and I suspect the other teams use them as well.
When I first signed up for Uvalde, I thought it was going to be just another regional contest (one of eight regionals for me this year), so I wasn’t really prepared for the difference in competitive level here. In short, these guys are GOOD, with a capital ‘G’. Most of us on the racing circuit have read at least some of the classic racing books, and have read multiple times about the importance of leaving a thermal when the climb rate starts to degrade, yada yada yada. Well, it’s one thing to read it, and quite another to have U.S (and other country) world team pilots demonstrate graphically and immediately what happens when you take one or two more turns in a thermal when it starts topping out – I mean these guys leave a 7kt thermal when the climb rate degrades to 5kt! Heck, in Ohio we only see 5kt thermals in our dreams, much less leave them! Man, these guys will leave a thermal at the drop of the hat, and be off over the horizon at the speed of heat before you can say “what happened?”
Today I was determined I was going to be just as draconian as they were, and I was going to keep up with them for the entire task – a short jaunt from Uvalde to Laredo 100 miles to the south, then northeast to Devine, then back east to Uvalde – “only” about 450km. Oh, did I mention it was almost completely blue the entire time, with top of lift around 6000′ msl (about 5000′ agl)? Unfortunately I got separated from the pack pretty early, and spend much of the first leg trying to stay out of the dirt and catch up (as if I was going to catch a pack of gliders consisting entirely of current and previous world team members). Just before Laredo I was run over by Francois Pin (FP) and Sarah Kelley-Arnold (56) flying as a team. For the rest of the race, I tried my damnedest to hang on to their coat-tails, because being out in the blue alone, 100 miles from my trailer didn’t really appeal to me, and because I really really wanted to prove I could fly with these guys. Francois and Sarah were clearly doing well as a team, and I felt a little bad about leeching on their flight (but not bad enough to stop!), but I was able to stay with them for the rest of the task, and even got a little bit ahead for some of it – absolutely breathtaking for me! ;-).
Based on what I’m seeing from here at the pre-worlds, we have every reason to be terribly proud of our current U.S. team members, and the cast of national champions and previous U.S. team members here to support the team and make it better. These guys go out there each and every day and find a way to make it happen. Not only that, they are taking the time and energy to be nice and supportive to us cannon-fodder types that can only dream of one day being on the U.S. team. Yay USA!
TA
