Some random thoughts about the 15 meter nationals here at Mifflin.

The contestant list this year is incredible!

• Chip Garner (CG), perennial standard-class national champion and U.S. Team member, showed up today with his new 15-meter flapped super-ship the American-made Duck Hawk.  I have yet to get a good look at the glider, but I hope to see if I can fit – maybe  a U.S. manufacturer can give the Europeans a run for their money?
• Mark Keene (7K – maybe FS), the guy who seems to be always battling with Chip in standard class, is competing here with another borrowed glider (I think Fernando Silva’s ASW-27 but I’m not sure)
• Tim Taylor (TT), last year’s 15m champion at Logan, Utah.  It’ll be very interesting to see how Tim adapts to ridges that wouldn’t even qualify to be included on Logan maps, and the generally much lower altitudes (and no oxygen!)
• John Cochrane (BB) the  guy who was running away with the Logan championships until he had to withdraw with back problems
• Hank Nixon, aka Admiral Nixon, who one year put his glider in the  Raystown Dam reservoir, and the next year came back to be crowned 15 meter champion
• John Seymour (SM) former U.S. Sports Class champion
• Francois Pin, current Club Class U.S. Team member, and  an absolutely frightening talent in 15m class.  At Perry this year, he killed the 15m class on Day 2 with a speed almost 10mph faster than everyone else.  In his victory speech all he could talk about was the mistakes he made, and how he should have been able to go even faster!
• John Seaborn, current 15m U.S. Team member
• Tim Welles, former U.S. Team member
• Karl Striedieck, aka “Bird trapped in a man’s body”, and the guy who literally wrote the book about soaring in the Mifflin area.

And I’m sure I missed one or more, so I apologize in advance, but you get the picture – this is going to be a real OK-corral last-man-standing shootout, and I’m just gob-smacked to even be on the same airport with these guys.  Assuming the weather doesn’t completely rain us out (as happened last year), I’m looking forward to a real barn-burner experience.

On a different subject, the FLARM guys have definitely responded to all the reports of sensitivity problems and both Lee Kuhlke and Dave Nadler are here to get things worked out, and to introduce the ‘brick’ model to the fleet.  Talk about dedication – Dave left his Antares super glider in the box on what has to be one of the great flying days of the season, so he could focus on the FLARM problem

The Duck Hawk 15m racing glider prototype, produced by Windward Performance of Bend, Oregon, could be a legitimate contender for the top 15m racing spot.  Amazingly, we have seen next to nothing about this in Soaring magazine, and I think that is a real crime. Here we have an American manufacturer doing great things with glider technology, and it gets next to no publicity from our U.S.  soaring organization – go figure.  Anyway, if you believe the posted specs, the Duck Hawk has some pretty impressive numbers, and I for one am drooling for  a look at it.  Maybe I’ll start planning to spend all my book and SPOT tracking money on a  Duck Hawk winglet instead of an Arcus one (oh wait!  I don’t think the Duck Hawk *has* winglets – rats!)

Stay tuned for more completely unreliable stories and outright fabrications!

Frank (TA)