Contest Website (15/18m) Contestants (15/18m) Contestants (Open Nationals) SPOT Tracking
I apologize for not getting a report out sooner, but the schedule here has been way too hectic for me to have the time to write a decent report. The combination of the additional administrative overhead associated with a pre-world meet, the introduction of FLARM units, and lots of foreign pilots needing help getting their SPOT units set up here has pretty much wiped me out To make matters worse, the micro-castle seems to be parked in an wireless-free zone, and I’m having trouble figuring out how to get on the internet.
Yesterday was the 2nd practice day, and the first one where I got to fly here. As usual, it was HOT HOT HOT (and humid, too). Staying hydrated and cool here is a real problem, and the heat just sucks energy out of everyone. The 15m practice task took us east to Hondo, then north into the hill country, then south to Coyote Ranch, then home. The first leg was pretty blue, but there were good clouds in the hill country, assuming you could get to them. I had a pretty good run, eventually getting to about 11,000′ – very unusual for Uvalde. Speeds were in the 120-130kph range – yes, that’s right – speeds and distances are being handled in km and kph here, due to the ‘pre-world’ nature of the event.
Today was the first official contest day. We didn’t have the traditional overcast skies this morning when I got up, and that was a bad sign. Overcast in the morning usually means great clouds, and no overcast usually means a blue day. At the morning meeting, the weather guy was pretty optimistic that we’d have clouds, but I was suspicious. Out on the grid we could see only a very few cu’s that tended to cycle out pretty quickly. In the air before the start, it was pretty clear we were going to be flying in mostly blue conditions, and as a consequence both the 15m and 18m classes in the regional had their tasks dialed back a bit. The tasks were all ‘racing’ (Assigned task or ‘Speed’ task) tasks today, so all the gliders in a particular class were going to the same 1km circle, so at least we had some marked thermals to work with. In the 15m class, I had the opportunity to fly with the U.S. team, who are here practicing their team flying skills in the same area where the worlds will be held next year. For me, this was very instructive, and I found I could stay with them (and even get ahead a little bit), but in the end they all got home before I did when they charged ahead on the last leg and I got over-conservative (again). At the end of the day, the fast guys were in the 130kph range, and the rest of us were in the 120kph range. In the 15m class, David Jansen won the day with 134.9kph, and in 18m class, Bruce Taylor of Australia won the day with 136.8kph in a borrowed ASG-29. In the open class nationals, Ron Tabery won the day with 77.34mph (The Open Nationals is being run under traditional U.S. rules).
The super-regional contest is interesting because we are being tasked and scored as if it were a world meet. This means we are using km for distance and kph for speeds, but in a nod to the fact that the altimeters in all but one airplane here is marked in feet, task altitudes (start and finish heights) are in feet. In addition we are using world meet rules for starts, which means you can’t start out the top of the cylinder, and there is no concept of giving the benefit of the doubt to the competitor. For instance, if you are in a really good thermal at the edge of the cylinder, and decide you will start out the side and then come back to the thermal, you can easily wind up with a zero for the day. Any subsequent entry into the start cylinder’s horizontal extents before the first turnpoint has been accomplished counts as a new start, and if it is an invalid start (for instance, you are above max height), you get scored as if you had never gotten a good start – the last attempt wipes out all others. In addition, on a racing task you don’t get credit for distance flown inside the turnpoint cylinder – as soon as you have one GPS position inside the cylinder you are scored as if you had flown to the center. In U.S. contests, you can fly to the back of each 1-mile cylinder and get additional mileage.
And another big change here at Uvalde. For the very first time in history, U.S. pilots are flying in a U.S. contest with FLARM! The FLARM folks came through with a shipment of the ‘portable’ FLARM devices, and they were hand-delivered to Uvalde by Lee Kulke. Pilots who were on the FLARM order list for the ‘brick’ (remote display) unit were offered the chance to get a portable unit instead (the ‘brick’ unit hasn’t made it through FCC approval yet). So, about 40 of the 60 pilots here have FLARM units now; I had ordered a ‘brick’ unit, but took delivery of a portable unit for this contest. Today was my first day flying with one, and I have already fallen in love with it. I was running with the 15m crowd when I got an alert that another glider was close aboard on my left side. I looked out and saw that John Cochrane (BB) had pulled up next to me from behind. before FLARM, I might never have seen this until too late, but with FLARM it’s a piece of cake. The indications on the screen are very intuitive, and when it wants to let you know about a possible collision threat, you have no doubt about its intention. Also, it wasn’t anywhere near as obtrusive in gaggles as I thought it might be – it only alarms when its calculations determine there is a potential collision threat in the next few seconds. All in all I’m very happy to have my FLARM unit, and hope it won’t be long before they are in the hands of at least every competition pilot.
Another thing about this ‘pre-world’ meet – there sure are a lot of “furreners” running around Uvalde this week. There is a huge Aussie contingent, some German pilots, and at least one Japanese and one Chilean pilot.
I also have to say something about the way the town of Uvalde has supported this pre-world meet and is planning to support the worlds next year. When I was out here last year for the 15m nationals, I got the impression we weren’t all that welcome. The trailer parking area was more of a desert than a parking area, and everything was covered in dust. There were so many sticker weeds (these buggers had spikes about 1-2″ long) that we started to call it the “flat-tire nationals”. This year, in that same area, the sticker weeds have been eradicated, grass has been planted and watered. It’s still pretty dusty there (the months-long drought here has stunted grass growth despite the city’s best efforts), but its a heck of a lot better now, and will be even better by the time the world contest rolls around. In addition, the city was just finishing up a road extension that allows much freer vehicle access into the trailer parking area without having to drive through/around active airport areas. Three cheers for Uvalde!!
TA
