​The second race of the Georgia-Tennessee-Alabama (GTA) race series was hosted by the Southern Eagles Soaring club at LaGrange, GA (LGC) airport on April 7th and 8th. Compared with the first GTA race held on March 24-25 at Quitman, GA (see the report by Lane Bush), the weather was very favorable with blue skies and just enough Cus to make it easy to find lift of 4-5 Kts to 6400′ feet MSL. Wind was calm on Saturday, but gusted to 20 mph on Sunday with an advancing cold front.

After an airport and area briefing by SES President Charlie Finn, the race briefing was conducted by Chris Ruf. Eight contestants participated with 7 in A class and one in B class. The B-class entrant was Dr. Joe Reeves from Savannah in his pretty LS-4 appropriately named Whistlin’ Dixie (WD).

Saturday’s task was a 2.5 hour Turn Area Task with a nominal task distance of 141 miles. The course was LGC northeast to Windrift, under the ATL airspace, then back to LGC, and on to Auburn (AUO) airport, home of the War Eagles, and return (see SeeYou image below). Fernando Silva in his ASW-27 (FS) won the Saturday race, flying 152 miles at a raw speed of 59.6mph (53.4mph handicapped). After a year without competing, Fernando is back with blazing saddles. Nice to have you back in the mix again Fernando! Tim McGowin in his 304CZ 15M (2EZ) took second, missing only 2 of 1000 points, and Chris Ruf in his 303 Mosquito (H6) took third. Fourth through 8th respectively were: Bill Drury H201 Libelle (TJ), Dieter Jaeger, Standard Cirrus (SA/OG), Tim Larsen, 304 CZ (1FL), and Chuck Patterson, ASW-20B15M (ZF). Joe Reeves LS-4 (WD) won B Class, flying 89 miles.

Sunday’s A task was a Turn Area Task with a nominal distance of 131 miles flown from LaGrange to Meadowlark (GA75, owned by Phil and Linda Laberge of Concord, GA) then west to West Point Lake, then back east to Pine Mountain, GA (KPIM). Scattered cus that turned to clear blue skies with stiff westerly winds added to the challenge. Joe Reaves started first to get a head start on his long trip home. He got 1000 points for 80 miles at 46mph. The A classers placed as follows: Tim Larsen, (1FL), Dieter Jaeger in his newly acquired Standard Cirrus (SA/OG), Chris Ruf (H6), Tim McGowin (2EZ), Leo Benetti-Longhini (JS1), Chuck Patterson (ZF) and Bill Drury (TJ). Unfortunately Fernando was unable to participate in the Sunday race. Leo Benetti-Longhini in his stunning JS1-A started very late (having attended his hangar partner’s wedding in Alabama the night before) and faced weakening conditions and an advancing front to finish 5th. As one contestant put it, “if you come late, you better have a JS1!” Dieter (OG) led Chris (H6) and Tim (1FL) around enough of the course to prove that he is not rusty after taking a few years off from racing. It is good to have Dieter in OG back in action!

The weekend was most enjoyable with a relaxed, friendly atmosphere and an enjoyable dinner together at Hog Heaven. Unfortunately, the inadvertent timing on Easter weekend limited the number of contestants, including SES Ace and GTA regular, Wally Berry (WB). SES looks forward to continuing to host GTA races.