1-26 Championships Day 2 Try 3

No report from yesterday because we didn’t fly. It rained during the pilots meeting and by the end of the meeting, CD Hutch called the day. Leah and I enjoyed a tour of the USAF museum up in Dayton. We returned to Caesar Creek in time to hear JimBob Slocum tell us all about how he was the pilot on the 727 that was intentionally crashed on the Discovery Channel a few years ago. Pretty cool stuff! Then a large group of us enjoyed supper in Waynesville.

This morning the forecast showed that we had basically no chance of storms but strong winds would be the problem. Lift was forecast to be pretty good and some models showed the winds tapering off later in the day. We had a 1 turn MAT with a turnpoint at Lebanon, about 8 miles upwind. From there we were free to go wherever we wanted for 2 hrs. Launch was once again late as the day was slow to develop and the Region 6 Sports Class is in front of us on the grid. My first tow was alright but I just couldn’t find a climb and landed back. Quite a few others were low too and a couple more came back for relights. I was shortly back up and found a good climb as the start gate opened. Off I went into the wind, which was showing about 20 mph. However I had gotten high and into a good band of lift and was able to cruise pretty well, finding lines of lift and not having to stop and circle much. I really didn’t have much trouble getting to Lebanon and although I did see a few 1-26’s in fields on the way, was hopeful that enough of us would exceed the 30 mile minimum distance to get a day in.

From Lebanon I turned downwind and ran back to Waynesville which was a short and easy trip with a killer tailwind. I decided that I had made it to Lebanon once I could do it again. Thanks to several close in turnpoints made for the 1-26 Championship, I had the choice of picking up Wal Mart or the Race Track on the way there, in order to get two points before repeating. It turned out that Race Track was easier to reach and a line of clouds was running from it to Lebanon so that is where I went, slightly right of course. However, i couldn’t connect with that line and soon had to face the entirety of the now 25 mph wind on the nose. It is never fun when your achieved glide angle over the ground is below 10. I was quickly below 2000 feet and saw a field that Ron Sutton (173) had landed in earlier. It looked nice enough, another corn stubble field with small soybeans, and so I landed there too.

It turned out that Ron had befriended the people across the street and arranged to pull the gliders across the road and into their front yard for easy access and easy de-rigging. Thanks Ron! Barb the home owner was most accommodating. Leah was soon there and we were back to the field in time for supper. Unfortunately only Bill Vickland made the 30 mile minimum distance so we didn’t have a contest day. I was third behind him and Bob Hurni. About 4 pilots landed in the same field on the way to Lebanon and had a bit of an adventure dealing with a farm hand and the local sheriff. Kevin Anderson (192) also was apparently featured on the 6 o’clock news as surviving a plane crash. Lucky him. A few days ago Cathy Williams (392) got to buy some soybeans after landing out too. Hopefully I can keep the landouts low key affairs for the rest of the week. Or, better yet, don’t land out at all! Hopefully tomorrow the 4th time will be the charm and we will finally get past Day 2!

 

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