It’s been ten days since the end of the Nationals, and a little over a week since I stumbled out of Mike’s van at Grove City and drove myself back home. In that time, I’ve managed to shake off the bug-eyed wandering prophet’s stare that I had going for a few days—oh, you think, these […]
Tag Archive for 2012 US Open Class Nationals
Cross USA nonstop
by Bill Elliott •
Check the SPOT/APRS links, folks. Looks like we’re set to make this cross-USA trip a nonstop run (except for gas stops, and a trailer tire that went flat just west of Evanston, WY). Hours ago: Now: PS: Special thanks to Big-O Tires of Evanston, WY for getting us back on the road so quickly. Also: […]
Day 9 update delayed…
by Bill Elliott •
…since we’re driving home! Please stay tuned—day 9 was a blast!
Day 9 at Minden
by Bill Elliott •
Gridding up: it’s the final day of the 2012 US Open Class Nationals. For the first time in the contest, our task took us north: This modified assigned task (c.f. Day 0) had numerous turnpoints, many of them intended to steer pilots east around Reno and its busy Class C airspace. After heading up and […]
Day 8 at Minden
by Bill Elliott •
Off again into the blue, blue skies over Minden. What a great photo—thanks, Stewart! Unfortunately, this photo also shows the moment when JOY was experiencing some of the best lift it would see all day… Contest weathermancers Doug Armstrong and Stewart Tattersall put a bargain on the table: if temperatures could rise enough for thermals to […]
Day 5 at Minden
by Bill Elliott •
Day 5 (remember, we’re counting from 0 on this blog; it’s the sixth day of racing). It got windy, but that didn’t keep us out of the air, or these birds for that matter (you may have to click to see them). We spotted those guys northbound while flying south to Desert Creek Peak at […]
Awesome final glide photo
by Bill Elliott •
Check out Rick Indrebo final gliding into the finish after the fifth day’s task! We ended at the same time, from roughly the same direction, so we went in side-by-side. I shot this photo, which you should click to view full-size: All contest flights end with a final glide. Somewhere out on the task, you […]
Day 4 at Minden
by Bill Elliott •
Q: What’s better than one amazing soaring flight over the Sierras? A: Two of them. There is a spectacular video for those who read on. Gliding once over the Sierras in June is unexpected. After we did it a few days ago, a few of the Minden regulars remarked on how we were so lucky […]
Day 2 at Minden: YouTube video!
by Bill Elliott •
At last—here is an overview video of Day 2 at Minden! We’ve been flying with a GoPro camera suction-cupped to the canopy, and occasionally it manages to work. On a four hour task, it can just barely capture the whole thing before we land. That’s a lot of video, so I wrote a program that […]
Leftovers from Day 2
by Bill Elliott •
A couple things from Day 2 that I didn’t fit into the earlier post:
Contest director John Godfrey is from Pittsburgh, and gave an introductory Pittsburghese lesson at the morning pilot’s meeting.
Later on, things got hot on the ramp. A s…
