Finally, frontal passage!  Blue skies in the morning! The 10 AM Dr Jack/XC Skies update was better than the morning’s…  The competitors have a spring in their step.

It looks like 3 knots to 3,000′, getting a bit higher in mid-afternoon, and abruptly shutting down about 4:30 PM, when you will want to be on final glide.  There is a lot of moisture, and Toronto (a small town on the western outskirts of Ottawa) had some rain and flooding last night.  Grid time is 12:30 and we expect to launch as soon as the sniffer “sticks” – you throw him up and he stays up. Karl Boutin has volunteered to sniff in his ASW-20, KB, and as I write this 12:04 PM, he’s launching.

Here are the Tasks for today – if things go as expected and there is not a change on the grid:

Club is up first on the grid, here’s their task:

John Firth – a famous Canadian soaring pilot, first to fly a 750 kilometer flight in North America (from Kars, Rideau Valley Soaring School (RVSS), July 10, 1977 to Bethany, to South River (Algonquin Park), and return, frequent Canadian Team member at World Contests (70, Marfa Tx, 72, Vrsac, Yugoslavia, 74, Waikerie, Australia, 76, Rayskala, Finland, 78, Chateauroux, France), dropped by to see what was up with the Nats; stories such as his landout in Romania at the Yugoslavia Worlds, which required retrieving the glider (big heavy Kestrel) in pieces, hand-carried, to the border (5 km away) were very entertaining.  John flies a PIK20E, and if the conditions permit, he will soar in from Carp Airport (just west of Ottawa (not as far as Toronto)).  Great to see him!

More photos of Nationals competitors (photos by Dan Duclos):

RN, Raphael Nunes, SOSA, flying an SZD-55.

M7, Martin Lacasse, Gatineau Gliding Club, flying a Gatineau club ASW-24

After yesterday’s scrub, two 18m glider pilots decided to swap aircraft to see what the difference was; Nick (ST) flew the HP 304S Shark, and Gabriel (W6) flew Nick’s Lak-17a.  Their short flights confirmed it was marginally soarable, but shut down before a task could have been flown (with launch, start gate delay, and the length of the soarable day).

   

   


   Nick in the Shark – that’s a big cockpit…

   

Gabriel in the Lak-17, with crew ST, Christine helping

Shark from the Lak – photo by Gabriel Duford. Note the line of Cu to the south, lower, over the areas that had been drenched.  The ratty Cu are obvious.  In the area of Casselman, Ontario, SW of Ottawa. It was interesting to hear each other’s impressions of two generations of 18 metre span gliders with similar performance (Shark 0.845, Lak 0.855).  The Shark is brand new, and the Lak17a was certified in November, 1994.