Saturday May 11 at Mifflin Sports Class Nationals

I’m writing this from the Micro-Castle, nestled up against the southeast corner of the maintenance hangar at Mifflin.  Unlike most years, I was a late-comer here as I kept seeing nothing but rain in the long-range forecasts.  So, rather than sit at Mifflin in the rain, I stayed home and grouched around the house scaring the cats and making my wife miserable.  Finally on Friday I decided to leave even though Saturday’s forecast was no better, and proceeded to drive the entire way from Columbus in the rain.  The photo below was taken about 100 miles west of Mifflin at about 5pm local time.

Welcome to sunny Pennslyvania, site of the 2013 Sports/Club Class Nationals

Welcome to sunny Pennsylvania, site of the 2013 Sports/Club Class Nationals

Saturday wasn’t much better than the above photo, but it did clear off enough in the afternoon for some flying, and about half the field was able to get weighed.  I got myself registered and also sat in on the very well attended ridge briefing hosted by Karl, Seymour, Good, and a few other long-time ridge runners.  Adding to the interest for this ridge briefing was the rumor that Sunday (the first contest day) might be a ‘ridge day’, with westerly winds at over 20kt predicted.  Westerly winds are not the best for ridge running here, especially in the northern sections of the soaring area where the ridges bend to almost due east.  It is common for pilots to think that things are going very well while they are going downwind, only to wind up on the ground when trying to negotiate the same stretch of ridge going the other way – bummer!

When I walked over to the Mifflin Soaring Association clubhouse to register, I was struck by the nearly complete wall mural in the west entrance hallway.  This is a floor-to-ceiling collage derived from hundreds of photos taken during construction of the clubhouse, something that artist Becky Lewis-Thompson has been working on ever since the clubhouse itself was finished.  Earlier this evening I was talking to Iris Striedieck at tonight’s dinner/mandatory safety meeting and I asked Iris if it would be all right if I took some photos of the mural to include in my Soaring Cafe post, and she said I should ask the artist herself.  Just then Becky came up to ask Iris a question, and so I was able to get Becky’s permission to photograph the mural, and as a bonus, Becky volunteered to be in the photo herself.  It is still not quite finished, and you can see in the photo the black thread gridlines used as a drawing aid, but that doesn’t diminish in any way the impact of the result.  If you ever get anywhere near Mifflin, you have to come by to see this mural.

Becky Lewis-Thompson with her stunning depiction of Karl Striedieck.  Note the black-thread gridlines used as a drawing aid

Becky Lewis-Thompson with her stunning depiction of Karl Striedieck. Note the black-thread gridlines used as a drawing aid

 

As I mentioned earlier, tomorrow’s forecast is for very windy, with 6-8 kt thermals up to around 8000′ msl.  The task call will be ‘interesting’ to say the least; the forecast wind direction is considerably more westerly than optimum for a ridge day here, especially in the northen portions of the soaring area.  On the other hand, it may not be bad enough to call a non-ridge task (east-west tasks are traditionally called on marginal ridge days to avoid tempting pilots to try to run ridges in unsafe conditions).  Stay tuned!

Frank (TA)