It Was Dark and Gloomy Until It Wasnt

After three days of practice, dinners on the town and beer around the P7 Brewery, it is time to start the real show.  But let’s talk a little about Cordele.  This was a very small town in central Georgia when I started coming here in 2007.  The airport is run by an energetic man and his wife that always makes you feel right at home.  The local government supports the contest in many ways.  It isn’t unusual to see several locals come out every year to watch the contest.  Today we had a young man who worked the line for several years before he went off to join the Air Force.  It was funny seeing a kid that you worked with grow up to be a fine young man.  The airport has had several upgrades and the city put in an RV park just for this contest.  Yesterday I spoke with one of the City Councilmen and they were going to have a meeting to discuss airport improvements for the future.  It’s always nice to have a community that really wants to support a contest.

After a couple of weeks hosting a XC Camp, the members of Mid Georgia Soaring and Tampa Bay Soaring had a great time.  The weather was great, and everyone were able to improve their cross-country skills.  As they were pulling out, the contest participants were filling in.  Pretty soon the RV park was mostly full of groups sitting around enjoying snacks and adult beverages.

When the day started, the weather forecast was less than stellar.  The gossip around the breakfast table was about if this was going to be our first rest day.  Scott Fletcher, our weatherman was a little more optimistic, but not by much.    We went to the grid and expected a 12:15 first launch.  The sky was very overcast and dark.  Three sniffers were launched to see what the real conditions were.  To everyone surprise, they were climbing well and soon the fleet was being thrown into the sky.  The task was opened at launch, but we did do the radio calls the National participants would hear during a real start just for my practice. Even CD’s need to exercise all the facets of the job.  Hopefully it will prevent a mike click with a blank mind and dead air.

On course, the pilots were having some good legs and some survival legs.  Everyone flew the exact same task and the speed differential between the classes was dramatic.   The sun was not out as much as in the past few days.  There were no landouts and everyone seemed to have a great time. 

The launch and recovery were very well flown and certainly a marked improvement from yesterday.  In the 15 Meter Class Erik Nelson finished in third place with Mike Sorenson (Yes, he is one of those) in second and John Fessenden finished in first place with a speed of 61mph over 122miles. In Open Class, the two big ships did not fly but Tom Johnson flying his Ventus 2 finished in first place with a speed of 44mph over 89miles.  Rus Howard finished in second after picking up one of our ground crew to show him cross country flying.  They had a ball!

In the 18 Meter Class, Rick Hoffmann finished in third, Billy Kerns flying his LS-8-18 was in second and Ken Sorenson was in first with a speed of 62mph over 139miles.  Sports Class had a close race today.  Eric Lambert finished third with John Usher in second with Greg Shugg winning the day with a speed of 37mph over 39 miles.  Greg beat out John by only 6 points.

Tomorrow morning is the Mandatory Safety meeting and the first contest day.  The weather should cooperate (guess I just jinxed it now!) and we are expecting a good race.  The OGN network is up and operating, so tune in and watch all the excitement.  Thanks all for now.  Take care and fly safe.

Good night from Cordele,

Rich Owen