It Was a Tale of Two Days

We have just come back from a wonderful dinner hosted by the Chamber of Commerce of Cordele.  We are lucky to have a community and city government that really enjoys us descending on their town for two weeks.  Many times, folks complain about noise, traffic and other distractions when special events come to town.  Not here.  Just on the cost of the shrimp served, this dinner cost several thousands of dollars and the Chamber picked up the tab.  I talked to the President of the Chamber, who I have seen for the last six years at this event, she said business wise, the city was thriving.  Growth in the business community was growing but the influx of new residents has not kept pace with the amenities that have come to town.   We are two hours from the southern edge of Atlanta and about an hour to Macon.  This really isn’t a bedroom community for a larger city.  It stands on its own merit.  They are having more manufacturing coming to the county so that should draw more people to the high paying jobs that are being created.

The dinner was great, but the entertainment was even better.  The Georgia Watermelon Queen and Cordele Watermelon Queen were both there to start off the festivities.  They handed out watermelons with seeds and we started to spit them across the landing area which had distance graduations imprinted on it.  Pilots might be able to land an unpowered aircraft in a very small field with little difficulty, but trying to spit a seed across the room, no way.  It was funny seeing them trying to compete with 4-year-old Carter Jane in the room.  Chip Haskell picked the young lady up, moved her all the way down the landing zone, and she let the seed go.  The distance, 32ft!!!!!!  Could be the next watermelon queen.  The Chamber’s President almost fell on the floor laughing.  They might like us, but we have a community ourselves that really makes it easy to fit in somewhere else.  Oh by the way, Ms Jane was charged with a penalty so Randy Morningstar from Tampa Bay Soaring won the seed spitting distance championship. 

The day was forecasted to be difficult, and we put out a task to take that into consideration.  When launch time came, it was evident the day was going to be an even slower start than expected.  Launch times were pushed back several times while the day started to warm up slightly.  Meetings with task advisors were had and task times were changed to reflect the conditions of the day.  Finally, we were able to launch the fleet.  It was a little slow going for some pilots to get up to the top of lift and start.  It was forecasted to be blue in the north section of the task area but with Cu’s showing up down south.  Well, they did have some sort of clouds down there, but no one could call them Cu’s.  All classes had minor variations of the same task.  After the start, they headed southeast to Douglas, west to Moultrie, northeast to Fitzgerald and north to home.  Minimum times were 2hr or longer.

The first leg was really poor for some and pretty easy for others.  It all depended on the line you had.  The second leg was not bad until, as one pilot described it, when he had to fly over those swampy things.  Guess the creature from the Black lagoon made an appearance.  The third leg had some clouds and more areas where the sun was on the ground.  The final glides were difficult for many and there were several finish penalties.  Several landouts occurred, all without incident.  All in all, it was a good day for practicing bleeding. 

In Open Class, Henry Retting finished in third place with Jim Lee in second.  Dick Butler won the day with a speed of 63mph over 218 miles.  For 15 Meter Class, Sean Murphy finished in third, Erik Nelson in second and winning the day was the proprietor of P7 Brewery, Gary Ittner.  Gary’s speed was 60mph over 177 miles.  In the !8 Meter Class, Billy Kerns flying his trusty LS-18-18 finshed in third place.  In second was Steve Vihlen and winning the day was John Usher with a speed of 46mph over 115 miles.  John only has 14 hours in gliders and this is his first contest.  Not only did he have to make the winners speech, but he was also responsible for the safety brief.  Nice job John! The race is still close going into the last day of the regionals.  In 18 Meter, Jim Franz is only 41 points behind first place Ken Sorenson with Steve Vihlen right on their heels.  The Sports Class lead has shrunk to 138 points between Greg Shugg in first and Kevin Anderson in second, but Tim McGowin is looking to increase his position on the podium.  Sorry we did not get this out sooner, we got back from dinner a little late.  Until the end of the Region 5 South contest, stay tuned for the exciting finish.

Cheers,

Rich