You know that story about how as a teenager your parents seem to be dumb as rocks, but they somehow get a lot smarter as you get older? Well that was the case for the CD’s call today. I’m sitting at the back of the grid cussing out the CD for tasking us in a…
Sailplane Racing News
No contest day at Chilhowee
by Bill Elliott •
The day dawned nice and bright (and cold!) this morning, and everything pointed toward a great day. BMapper (Dr. Jack/Kramer) showed 3-5kt to 4-5000msl, light winds, B/S in the 10’s and probably blue with some possibility of clouds later in the day. Last night the temperature got down into the 30’s, and I was happy…
Day 1 at Chilhowee
by Bill Elliott •
Well, we finally got a day in, and it was a good one. The day started out with fog and overcast, but the fog lifted off quickly and by grid time things were looking pretty good. John Good did the sniffing honors and immediately reported the ridge was working (although not spectacularly so), and he…
Rain Day at Chilhowee
by Bill Elliott •
The only thing the weatherman missed in his prediction for today was exactly when the rain would start. When I woke up this morning, there was no rain and there was actually some sun peeking through some medium level cloud cover. That was the good news – the bad news was the windsock was standing…
Day One Will Be Day One On Another Day
by Bill Elliott •
As you can see, some of us are working to keep ourselves entertained. I personally thought I’d see how many “O’s” I could get in one sentence while practicing for the friendly (most days) competition I am having with my wife on Words With Friends, a mostly fun Scrabble application on our not-so-smart phones. Some…
Practice Day
by Bill Elliott •
The day dawned inauspiciously with a high overcast and significant winds out of the south and southeast. Last night we had some pretty gusty winds rattling the windows (Matt McKrell opined that the gusting was actually wave rotor hitting the ground on the lee side of the Chilhowee ridge). From where I sit in my…
New Air Service to Chilhowee?
by Bill Elliott •
Today at Chilhowee, a nice big roomy Pilatus PC12/47E dropped in to bring guests and wow spectators. After a practice pass (the runway ain’t all that long folks and this big iron can carry roughly 12 people including pilot and co-pilot at 250 mph according to this writer’s secret source), a fine landing was executed.…
Unofficial Practice Day-No Flying
by Bill Elliott •
High clouds moved in today with many strong storms to the west. So far, no rain here but no flying either. Of course, KS decided to fly and has been up for a few hours! Many folks are settling in and enjoying each other’s company. [singlepic id=312 w=320 h=240 float=center] There has been some flying…
2011 R5N (Perry) Archive
by SC Admin •
Pre-Nationals Report from Chilhowee Gliderport
by Bill Elliott •
In the aftermath of the vicious storm that swept through North Alabama and neighboring states last week, Bill and I decided to take a break and ‘get out of Dodge’ to enjoy soaring in nearby Tennessee and to escape the extended power outage, lack of auto gas, and other unpleasantness that prevails in our home…
