Monday May 13 – Day 2 at the 2013 Sports Class Nationals

Another great ridge flying day at Mifflin – two in a row is very unusual (actually, two ridge days, consecutive or not is pretty unusual for a Mifflin contest).  Todays weather was pretty much a repeat of yesterdays, with a bit more overdevelopment later in the day, making the required upwind transition a bit more tricky.  The task was a 3-hour TAT, with turns at McConnellsburg (20 miles), Mifflintown (10 miles), Keystone Gliderport (10 miles) and Raystown Dam (15 miles).  The only non-ridge section was the upwind transition from the Mifflintown circle to the Keystone circle, and pilots chose a number of different ways to skin the cat.  I chose incorrectly, and spent what seemed like three weeks scratching around the Stone mountain ridges just north of Mifflin, trying to find a climb to get me the rest of the way.  I finally did, but it was *not* pleasant!  This is twice in two days that I have had trouble with an upwind transition under what looked like spectacular streets – maybe I need to send my glider out to street-obedience school (or maybe the pilot!).

I met up with Evan Ludeman (T8) just at the Keystone turn, and we both headed south along Tussey ridge, planning to max out the Raystown circle and then use the Raystown Dam ridge route to get back home.  At first, Evan was a mile or so ahead, and I slowly overhauled him, eventually passing him below and outside.  When I called “Tango Eight, Tango Alpha passing below and outside”, Evan acknowledged with “Roger, but don’t get used to it”.  Then, for the next 80 miles, we flew pretty much wingtip to wingtip, trading the lead several times, neither giving an inch willingly to the other.  All this time of course, I’m cursing his ASW-20’s handicap, knowing that he is laughing all the way to the scorer’s table.   I pulled a bit of a fast one on him at the transition from Tussey to the Raystown dam ridge, as he started turning in a thermal, and I just pulled up and went for the transition.  I got maybe a half-mile on him, but then I marked a thermal at Raystown dam and we was able to catch up, and then we were wing-to-wing all the way up Jack’s to the finish – what a rush!

Flarm again proved it’s worth – several times alarming on completely invisible head-on gliders along the ridges.  It got to the point where I just accepted the fact that there was a glider there somewhere, and took evasive action well before I could see it. This makes head-on encounters much safer, as not only does the evasion maneuver lower the chances of a collision, but also significantly increase mutual visibility.

1-26 Wunderkind Daniel Sazhin stubbed his toe a bit today, but still managed a 3rd for the day.  I was talking to Daniel after the flight and discovered that the 1-26 view of the ridges is wildly different than mine; a downwind transition that is basically a yank-and-bank procedure for my V2bx might require one or more good thermals, and a lot more consideration of landing options.  And, of course, upwind transitions that I don’t even notice require a lot of planning and thermalling on Daniel’s part.  All in all, even though his handicap will almost always crush the field if he makes it around at all, I think I’ll stay with my V2 ;-).

 

The new "hot ship" at the 2013 Sports Class Nationals.  Not hard to find on the grid amongst all the white glass

The new “hot ship” at the 2013 Sports Class Nationals. Not hard to find on the grid among all the white glass (photo by Robin Clark)

Daniel Sazhin, fully togged out for arctic flying at Mifflin

Daniel Sazhin, fully togged out for arctic flying at Mifflin (photo by Robin Clark)

Popular weather for tomorrow is for much calmer winds (i.e. probably not a ridge day), with decent thermal opportunities.  XCSoar seems to agree, so hopefully we’ll have another soaring day, although mostly thermals I think.

Stay tuned!

Frank

 

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