A team writes:

The local weather forecast called for 50 to 60% chance of rain and the skew-T suggested lots of potential for overdevelopment. The task committee called a task to have FUN! We did. Mark Stump gave the best seminar of the meet on safely flying for fun and how to assess the day and your abilities. Next year we will have Stump give his seminar on the first day.

We had a comprehensive weather seminar. The pilots who endured the entire seminar qualified for their Weather Geek III rating, given by that most exalted observer, Dr. Oliver Gregory. Dick Heckman, Region 10 Director, dropped into the seminar and enjoyed the presentation. Ollie did a fine job of teaching the theory of forecasting, and then showing us all how to read the volume of information available to us and apply Stump’s #1 rule: Will it be FUN?

The weather improved enough that we had tuning flights and spot landing flights in the afternoon. Kevin Carter assisted several pilots in tuning their gliders. He has an amazing attitude and has been willing and available to help all week. E-Teammates and cross country buddies, Dave Hopkins and Stan Roberts could not sit still at a hang gliding site on a potential soaring day, and not launch. They set up, Dave launched, went right and eventually got flushed, landing at the Henson LZ. Stan quizzed locals, watched Dave, launched and ran for the sun. He had a low save at 400 ft as he was getting ready to unzip. He cored it up to cloudbase at 4300’, soared for 30 minutes and landed in downtown Dunlap, breaking down in front of the beer store, in the front yard of yet another wonderful and friendly local Dunlapian.

Dave speed packed his glider, made sure Stan was firmly ensconced again in the weather seminar, and quietly walked to launch, after taking some good natured ribbing. Next thing we knew, Steve Lee reported Dave was skyed out and flying all over the valley. Tomorrow morning our new Weather Geek IIIs are going to forecast the day for the task committee. This is going to be easy because tomorrow is going to be BOOWAH!

This is the unofficial entry for the day, written by a committee who had to work to get Ollie’s hands off of the keyboard and post this without his knowledge or approval. If he were here, he would not consent to us posting a notice saying he has been more than helpful in assisting us with safety issues, the weather, the tasks, sharing his knowledge, and his dedication to the sport. Ollie rocks and his enthusiasm is contagious!

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