A Restful Day Was Had by All
Rest days are always a welcome relief by some and a missed opportunity by others. For the CD, I accompanied P7 to Macon for a visit to 3 craft breweries. We found a really nice hazy IPA at the first place called Ocmulgee Brew Pub. It is certainly worth the visit. The food was great but the portions were large. The other two breweries were ok and I cannot remember the other pubs names.
A large group when to a manufacturing plant that makes drone engines. The head engineer personally designed over 450 engine types for the company. One of the designs was a two cylinder, 1 cycle engine. The two sided piston is mounted on a shaft that cycles between two combustion chambers and produces 300hp. Everyone said they had a great time and I’m sure we will see one of these designs in a sailplane soon. He was at the convention 2 years ago showing the concept. Now the company, A.M.P.E.R, has working designs in production.
Some of the pilots didn’t have enough flying, so Sarah and Tim McGowen provided tows on the “rest day”. David McMasters flew a declared 500K flight and Shawn McGowen almost completed his 300k declared distance. Jason Arnold got airborne a little late and was just shy of completing the 500k task. While Jason and the guys (with 1 lady – Adriana) were having fun, Sarah was returning 220 emails and voice messages for their company and doing laundry, all the while being in 2nd place in the 15 Meter Nationals. Who says pilots cannot multitask.
Tomorrow will be another flying day. In Open Class, Dick Butler and Jim Lee are only separated by 118 points for the lead. Dick is going to have to be careful because Jim is hungry for the win. In the 15 Meter Class, the race is very close with the top 5 separated by only 88 points. Mike Sorenson is in first followed by Sara Arnold, Sean Murphy, Robin Clark, and Jared Granzow. Do not count out Erik Nelson, Mike Smith and Jae Walker. They are tough competitors and pilots who never give up. With only 2 days of flying left, the 18 Meter Class are separated by only 167 points. In first place is Ken Sorenson with Jim Franz and Steve Vihlen close behind. In Sports Class, Greg Shugg has a pretty good lead. That happens when you win every contest day. This gives him a 251 point lead over Kevin Anderson and Wally Berry. Nothing is set in stone in any of these classes. Friday will be unsettled weather so there is an opportunity for a dark horse to appear out of the pack. Stay tuned for the races and make sure you put Cordele on your calendar for next year. It’s always good to have a rest day, on a very flyable day, because the pilots are tired of flying. Until tomorrow, stay high, fly safe and return home.
Best Regards,
Rich