The Real Show Begins Tomorrow
Good morning, everyone. I’m sure you will be reading this early on Wednesday since it is getting pretty late in Uvalde as I write this. I am honored to be your reporter for the 18 Meter Nationals and Uvalde Glide.
The first practice day was yesterday. All classes had the same Assigned Area Task. After Start A, the group flew to McKinley, Farias, Anacacho, RanchSbn, Sabinal and then Finish. The launch almost went off without a hitch. Two Navy aircraft forgot to check their NOTAMS and taxied for launch while the gliders were taking to flight. After some discussion on the radio, the Navy trainers were allowed to depart from the intersection while the gliders held. Thanks Mark, for taking care of our fledging Naval Aviators.
Climbs off tow went right to a cloud base of 5,500ft with good lift, superb visibility and a surface temperature of 106 degrees. Everyone was grateful that the cloud bases were rising during the day, so the cockpit temperatures remained tolerable. It seemed like most pilots started right around 2:00pm on the 2:30 minimum task time. The first leg was very good with speeds being kept high by nice lines of good Cu. You did not have to turn much at all. At about the halfway mark in the turn area, blue sky prevailed and most everyone turned there. The second leg was another good one. Clouds were honest, speeds continued to go up and pilots were happy. Going into the third turn area, clouds started to thin out and down track the sky started to look weak. Smart pilots stayed high to give themselves more options. This was where the big decision on what track you took determined where on the score sheet you placed. Some turned a little early and joined a cloud field that seemed way off track. It turned out that was the key to the winning speeds in the Open and 18 Meter classes.
Returning to the field, we did have an unfortunate incident when one pilot got distracted by a radio call in the traffic pattern and inadvertently landed gear up on the taxiway. No one was hurt and the pilot courageously maneuvered his ship off the pavement due to landing traffic behind him. The ship probably received more damage doing this, but it prevented aircraft landing behind him to experience a last minute diversion off the taxiway. As a side note, the landing gear warning system had experienced a failure and the pilot had not fixed it yet due to coming to the contest. Key points, always do a landing checklist out loud in the cockpit and physically look at the gear and flap handles before saying down and set. When a safety system breaks, prioritize its repair. It costs a lot less than a gelcoat repair. Tonight the ship is repaired and will make the first contest day.
For practice day one, in 18 Meter, Fernando Silva finished in third with Jim Frantz in second. Winning the day with a speed of 87.44 mph over 227 miles was Jerzy Szemplinski. In the Open Class, Keith Essex won the day with a speed of 91.54 mph over 240 miles. Dan Mockler was in second with Bruce Taylor in third. In the 20 Meter Class, Pete Alexander and Team 98 took first place with a speed of 78.77, not bad for a bus.
The weather for practice day two was forecasted to be better. We are lucky to have Fernando Silva as our weatherman. I’ve worked with him during several contests, and he always provided a first-class weather forecast. Fernando also adds some additional information when unique weather phenomena occur in the task area. Today we had a cold front moving in from the northwest (the temperature was only going to be a high of 104 degrees) and a sea breeze front was moving in from the southeast. He showed us a movie of the Uvalde area showing the effects of this weather pattern. It was very interesting.
A good number of competitors decided to take the day off, expecting a long string of consecutive days of flying. With good weather forecasted in the long term and temperatures above 100 degrees each day, energy management is going to be a priority for the pilots. Early each morning the crews and pilots will prepare their ships in the relative cool. It will be commonplace for everyone to be staged by 9am each morning. Sean Fidler has two thermometers on his trailer. One is in the sun, and one is mounted in the shade. After the pilots meeting today, I looked at the temperature on each of them. The one in the sun was reading 118 degrees and the shade thermometer displayed 101 degrees. Hydration, energy management, stamina and basic good health practices will play an important part in the competition for all the pilots. Uvalde always tests the pilots and aircraft to their limits.
Again, all the classes had the same Assigned Area Task that began in Start E. From there they headed to Eagle Pass by the border, CrystalC, Rocksprings in the hill country, Bat Cave (a neat side trip if you want to see hundreds of thousands of bats fly at sunset) and Finish. During the start it was easy to climb and get to the initial cloud base of 5,500ft. Most pilots chose to start around 2pm in anticipation of the mandatory pilots meeting and dinner tonight. The first two turnpoints had lower cloud bases in the 7,000ft range while in the hill country, the bases were generally above 9,500ft. One pilot I spoke with got to 10,600ft at the end of a very nice cloud street. Maxing out the Rockspring turnpoint was one of the keys to a superior task speed. Several pilots were on final glide a long way out and you could tell from their faces, they had a blast. I’m not going to report the scores since there is some discussion about a couple of penalties.
After flying, Victoria managed a wonderful dinner and live music entertainment for what our CM called a Ho Down. Sorry if that is an incorrect spelling. I turned in my Texas cowboy hat a long time ago. We did do the mandatory pilots meeting where Mark Huffstutler expertly answered all the questions. His slides and visual aids certainly made the information very easy to understand.
Well, that is all for tonight. I hope the scores will be resolved quickly and we can get on with the big show. The contest team is prepared, the pilots are ready to go, and the weather looks great. Stay tuned for updates and be sure to follow the live tracking on the SSA website and WeGlide. This is going to be an exciting contest, tell your friends to tune in.
Cheers,
Rich Owen
Team 98 Backseater