Well, the first possible contest day at Perry started not with a bang, but a whimper. The wind was not quite howling, but was brisk and cold this morning while we assembled and watered up. I remarked that it was so cold that I thought I was back in Florida at the recent Seniors contest. We had to do the mandatory pilot meeting this morning, so everything was a little more rushed than usual. I was out assembling and watering up my glider at 0800 so I could be finished in time for the 0900 meeting. I have gone to so many of these mandatory safety meetings that I can now practically recite them from memory, but you have to be present to sign the all-important ‘you were here’ sheet, so I was dutifully present at the appointed hour.
After the safety meeting, the normal 1000 pilot meeting started, where the highlight was listening to weatherman Scott Fletcher (SF) tell us how dismal the soaring weather was going to be. Somewhere around “Buoyancy/Shear ratio of 3 or less”, I started regretting getting up so early to assemble and load my glider to the gills with water. And then CD Richard Maleady put the finishing touches on any remaining optimism by announcing that another pilot meeting would be held at 1130, and not to pull out to the grid (fortunately, there was no grid sheet available on the first day or I would probably have done that too).
Back at the 1130 meeting, Scott said there was some reason for thinking that conditions might improve later in the day, so the CD told us to grid at 1230, and he was planning to send Al Tyler (8H aka Mr. Perry) up as a sniffer. Al was launched, and struggled for quite a while. He never actually had to land, but he did keep having to return to the same thermal. He would get up to about 3000′ msl and go off looking for another climb, only to reappear back in the same place at 1800′ msl. This went on for at least an hour, at which point it was decided to launch the entire standard class (all 8 of them) as a last-ditch effort. Soon there were 3 gliders in one thermal, and 5 in another, all at 3000′ msl or below. The kept asking glider pilots whether they were reporting in msl or agl, hoping (I think) to get another 450′ out of the deal. Unfortunately, everyone was adamant that they were reporting msl conditions. The day winner for altitude was Don Wasness (1E) in his ASW-24, who got to 3400′ msl (briefly) before next being heard at 2300′ msl a few minutes later.
Eventually it became clear that the day wasn’t improving, and Richard wisely pulled the plug. Some standard guys landed right away, and some elected to keep struggling. I started the long walk back to my truck so I could bring it back down to the grid to get my glider. The timing worked out about right, as by the time I got back with the truck, all the 18m guys in front of me had already hooked up and were towing back. All I had to do was swing my glider around, hook it up and start back down the runway. Just for completeness, there were a number of pilots who took tows, and a few that actually went around the task. Greg Shugg (1ST) was reported to have landed out at House Movers, an airport that is nice and long, but only about 15.5 meters wide.
I overheard an interesting conversation as I was walking back along the grid to get my truck. Seems that Rick McGinnis (RM) and Steve Cameron (tow pilot at this meet) were arguing about a bet they had made earlier in the day. Rick had opined that “we” (this will become important later) were probably not going to fly today, whereupon Steve opined that of course we would. This rapidly escalated to the betting stage, and the initial stakes were a breakfast biscuit at the cookhouse for the winner. Later it escalated even farther to dinner at the ‘5 Guys’ in their mutual home town of Asheville, NC. Now, after the day had been called, Steve was trying to weasel out on the bet, stating that, in fact, he HAD flown (the tow plane, that is). Rick’s response was “not so fast, the original bet was that “WE” wouldn’t fly, and as he (Rick) HAD NOT flown, then he was the winner and Steve owed him the dinner. In my role as a low-life muck-raking Soaring Cafe journalist, I was perfectly happy to blow this banter between good friends completely out of proportion. And along those lines, I’m planning to start the rumor that the bet will be settled the old-fashioned way, with dueling pistols at dawn. Maybe I can get yet another Soaring Cafe post out of the deal ;-).
Anyway, the rest of the day was spent in the usual way, programming in my Micro-Castle, helping a couple of guys out with problems (John Mittell with a plumbing problem as he worked to fashion an improved watering system for his ASW-27, and Dave Martin with a Flarm problem), and working up an appetite for tonight’s chicken on a beer at the cookhouse. Notably missing from Perry this year is Ray Galloway and his lovely wife Lillian. Ray has been at every Perry contest since I started flying here in the mid 2000’s (and probably at every Perry contest ever), and I miss the benedictions he gave at every meal under the tent. Rain or shine, Ray always had a smile on his face, and a kind word in that deep southern drawl of his. Last year at Perry, Ray was presented with Baud Litt’s “The Galloway Theory of Evolution” poster, and I now carry my copy of that poster around in my Micro-Castle. I asked around about Ray and was told that he is staying home this year to care for Lillian. I’ve got my fingers crossed and my prayer wheel spinning for both Lillian and Ray.
The other day I was whining to Glenn Holden, soaring pilot and photographer extraordinaire, about how my task-master Soaring Cafe landlord was insisting on photographs with my posts. Glenn volunteered to feed me some of his to save my readers from having to put up with my pickup-truck phone camera shots, so I have included a few that he emailed to me. For anyone interested in seeing what Glenn does professionally, he can be reached at holdenga@sourcecomputing.com or at www. sourcecomputing.com. Thanks Glenn!
Popular weather for tomorrow is calling for sunny skies and a high of around 72, with northeast winds 5-9 mph, so maybe the increased temperature will give us more Perry-like conditions – stay tuned!
Frank (TA)
