Well, we finally got a day in, but it wasn’t very pretty (actually it *was* a beautiful day, just not great for soaring).  The day dawned spectacularly clear, and stayed that way the entire day – blue as blue could be!

By grid time the hawks and buzzards had been up for a while (I actually saw some soaring at about 0830 while I was assembling), so all the signs were positive.  Danny Brotto (P6) and CD Erik Mann (P3) and I think Mike Higgins (WM) were sniffers, and they all stuck on the first try.  Soon the launch was started and we were all anxious to get going…. until the first relights started coming back.  One Sports class pilot (name withheld to protect the guilty) arrived back just as the last Sports class ship was being launched – so he had to go all the way to the back of the line – bummer!  I think all the FAI class stuck, but yours truly got low and was contemplating a strategic relight for a while.

At gate opening time, most of us were managing to get to around 4000′, well below the 5500′ max height, but a few pilots found weak wave and were able to start 1500′ above the rest – ouch!   The task was entirely out in the eastern half of the soaring area, basically up and down Rt 15.  This side is all very landable, although there are a few areas that aren’t quite as inviting.  Early in the day we were seeing 3-4kt climbs to a little above 4000′, but as the day went on, it got harder and harder to get above 3500′ and then 3000′, and then 2500′.  It was sort of a race to see what would happen first – get far enough around to get final glide home, or wind up struggling vainly for that last 500′ of needed altitude.  In my case I wound up holding about 500′ under final glide for the last 15-20 miles, and wasn’t able to get above until I was only  7 miles from home.

When all the dust settled, the results were ‘pretty interesting’ (read wildly out of synch with expectations), Mike Higgins (WM) flying his Discus 2b as a guest in the FAI class spanked everyone with a really nice flight.  Greg Leslie (GL) in his ASW27 won the day for the regular competitors in the FAI class, and Karl Striedieck won in Sports Class with greater than 250 points over second place Moe Acee/Leigh Smith team flying their Discus 2cT.  Perennial favorites Baud Litt (LBL) and Erik Nelson (5E) both landed out, and former National Champ Mike Smith (XM) got in trouble and wound up well down the scoresheet.  Unfortunately, we also heard that Kolie Lombard (KL) broke his Diana 2 badly in a freak landing accident in an otherwise reasonable field.  Apparently he dug a wingtip in just as he was touching down, and the resulting high-speed groundloop did serious damage to the entire fuselage, all the way from the vertical stabilizer to the nose.  Kolie is OK, suffering only very minor bruises and scrapes, but the glider (or at least the fuselage) is probably totaled.

Tonight was banquet night, and we had the usual spectacularly good dinner at the Hickory Bridge Park restaurant, with family style dining in a beautiful setting, followed by a talk given by Danny Brotto about his experiences crewing for Baud and Manu Litt at the Uvalde WGC.

When I left the clubhouse to head for bed, CD Erik Mann was still poring over weather forecast material, trying to decide if tomorrow’s weather is going to be good enough to call a ridge-oriented task.  A ridge mission here is a bit daunting, and you first have to fly 30 miles upwind to get to the ridge in the first place, then fly the ridges, and then fly back that same 30 miles and over the high ground west of the airport to get home.  However, if the weather is right and there are good cloud streets, it is not only do-able, but also quite exhilarating.  Stay tuned!

Frank (TA)