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Results


On Saturday, the last day of the pre-Worlds, US Single Surface National, US
Sport Class Nationals, and Rigid Wing Big Spring Open started with a spot
landing contest. Talk about fun and a great show for the local folks. Seppi won
the pre-Worlds spot landing contest landing on the cone while I came in twenty
feet behind him and had to go to the side to avoid hit him. Mike Glennon was
second and Jonny Durand third. Chris Cheney, the only local Big Spring pilot,
won the Sport Class, David Duke, the Single Surface class, and Campbell Bowen,
in his first foot landing on his AIR ATOS VXR, the rigid wing class. I got five
spot landing flights on the WW Falcon 3 - 170, but wasn't in the competition as
you had to fly in class, but had two landings within three feet of the spot,
beating David Glover in the competition between the co-meet directors.


It sure was great to fly the WW Falcon just for fun and whip it around and come
in fast in as much ground effect as you can on a single surface glider. The
trick of spot landing well is to get your glider in ground effect at high speed
well in advance and then use the stability of ground effect and the speed as
control and power to put yourself at the spot.


Most pilots only took one spot landing flight, but I kept going back for more
racing with the ultra light Falcon back to the waiting tugs that would pull me
to 500' for another attempt. The sky was dark with heavy clouds and we had a
little bit of rain earlier, and it was cool enough to make it very comfortable
with a five mph south wind.


While there were thick mid level clouds over us, but it was clear to the west so
there was hope. The task committee met right during the pilot meeting held a bit
later around 11 AM and called a 68 mile task to the north northeast not knowing
whether we would have any lift, but hoping to allow us to dribble down wind. We
put the launch time back to 1:30.


As the launch time approached the mid level clouds moved east away from us and
cu's began to fill in from the south. It was clear to the northeast with just a
few dapples of forming cu's. We wondered what would be our fate as the day was
so unsettled.


After a weaklink break at 500' for me we all climbed up under the cu's that were
forming over the airport and soon were at cloud base at 9,000'. Very quickly the
sky was filling with cu's and to the northwest a few of the cu's had already
begun to tower. But we were stuck, already so quickly at cloud base and ready to
go, but almost required to wait forty five minutes until 2:30 to start the race.
Oh, but for a chance to remake that now stupid decision to call a one hour
launch window for a mere six pilots who got off in five minutes, even with the
weaklink break. Still it looked clear to the north northeast and there was a
chance.


Finally, we released ourselves and having scattered before the start window
time, I headed north to the northeast edge of the cloud street and to the east
of the little bits of rain showers and virga. There was plenty of sunshine and
blue sky to the east.


Dave Giles was over to the west under the darkest clouds and near the virga high
and racing back to the start circle as he had to go outside to get up. He would
stay high the rest of the flight. On the other hand  after a twelve mile
glide I was at 1,700' AGL searching for lift at the edge of the clouds.
Fortunately, it was where I was searching.


I could see virga and dust devils a few miles to my west, but I was quite a bit
west of the course line already and wanted to stay near the edge of the clouds
in case I needed to run from the conditions. After getting up, the lift improved
and I joined Ollie as we headed toward Gail half way to goal. We noticed Mark
Stump way off to our west under the clouds deciding to land.


In spite of the presence of cu-nimbs nearby the air felt great, so unlike Monday
when we continued to fly near a cu-nimb that was many orders of magnitude larger
than what we experienced on this day. The lift was solid and not over whelming.


Ollie didn't find any lift at Gail as I headed in a different direction and
climbed out quickly. Now there were three or four small rain showers to the west
and virga to the northwest. I kept to the east side of the clouds, but well west
of the course line.


Belinda was driving out in front of me and reporting that Jim Yocom was low a
few miles in front under the dark clouds. I tried to run to the northwest to get
on the west side of the clouds but after three miles noticed that there was an
even thicker cylinder of rain between that direction and the goal. I turned back
to the northeast to run for eight miles to get around a small cylinder of virga.


The lift was good under the dark clouds and I stayed well below them. It was
easy to get around the virga and then I headed right toward the goal from
fourteen miles out on the west side of another small patch of virga getting a
little wet in the process.


I had Belinda at goal telling me that the main rain was five miles to the west,
which I could also see, and that the conditions at goal were benign. It was all
in the shade for the last fifteen miles and I wanted to be sure I was a long
ways away from cloud base as at first I had plenty of lift. We had been over
rough land for almost the whole flight, but the airport was just over the lip.
You wanted to get to the airport to have an easy landing.


It was benign at the airport with just enough wind to make for an easy landing.
Dave Giles was already there and Bo Hagewood, who started at 2:00 PM ignoring
the flex wing start time at 3:00 PM, was right behind me. Soon flex wings were
pouring in behind me.


Attila Bertok, who was leading the meet, won the day. The conditions stayed
benign at the airport, but darkened considerably behind us along the course.
This cut off pilots who were later or slower. Many pilots landed or flew back to
Big Spring because of the conditions that they encountered.


There was serious discussion after the fact about the safety of the conditions.
Drew Harris, the safety director, and David Glover were continually in contact
with pilots and drivers during the task and, unlike in Florida during the
Worlds, they didn't stop the task as they were getting word that pilots were
safely negotiating the conditions. For me it was always easy to run off to the
east and land if things got out of whack.


Later Attila, who did not like the conditions and complained at goal about how
we should not have flown in the conditions, was easily persuaded to protest the
day and the protest committee ruled the day invalid for the pre-World class. The
task counted for the other competitions.


For me the day felt much better than Monday and while it was very exciting
because of the presence the rain showers and the cu-nimbs, the air was a
pleasure to fly in. The fact that there was, or at least it seemed to me there
was, an escape, while on Monday the cu-nimb was just too big and there were
others squeezing us from the west.





Belinda took this shot earlier in the meet. Click for higher resolution version.