The Glider Mud Olympics
At the morning brief, Fernando told us all about the amount of rain that had falling around the Uvalde area. You did not need to be a rocket scientist to see that the trailer parking area was flooded. Sean Fidler was everywhere! Preparing his ship for tow to the grid and his shoes looked more like snowshoes than hiking boots. The amount of mud and straw attached to the bottom probably added a pound or two to his ship. When all the gliders went on the taxiway enroute to the grid, it looked like the remnants of a tractor pull. There was mud everywhere!!
Finally, the ships were on the grid and the competitors went to the morning pilots meeting. You always must stop and have a cup of coffee and a pastry just inside the entrance to the auditorium. Miranda from the Local Fix sold morning treats before the meeting. Now, right before you entered the auditorium there was a sign that said, “No Food or Drinks Please”. Too bad the school doesn’t know that pilots cannot read.
The expected weather today was for a late start due to all the rain over the last two days. Everyone was sent on a 3:15 Assigned Area Task heading east out of Uvalde then out to the hill country where there was much less rain. The maximum start altitude was only 4,000ft so you can imagine how weak it was.
The 18-meter class was sent from Start A, Diversion, Fredericksburg, Junction and then Finish. The top pilots started late, around 2:45pm. There might have been a little start gate roulette. The first leg was blue, 2-3 knot climbs with clouds in the distance. Hondo was a good place to get your first climb. Right before the first turnpoint, the quarries gave the pilots a climb to 4,500ft and speeds started increasing when the gaggle got to the clouds. At cloud base, the race was on. Cruising at 110 knots smiles started showing on the competitors’ faces. The second leg was a good run, well connected to the clouds. Over the hill country, climbs were better, cloudbases were higher and speeds again increased. On the third leg, decisions on how far to go into the turnpoint was the deciding factor to where you were on the score sheet. The sky looked great, but no one knew how tough the last leg was going to be. Those that thought the speeds were going to keep increasing were wrong. The clouds were separated by greater distances, some clouds looked great but were very weak and arrival times started slipping for some pilots. Just when you thought you were going to be under time, you are suddenly and hour over time. Motor starts and landouts interrupted good standings for some of the pilots. In third place was Bif Huss with Sean Fidler in second. Winning the day was David Greenhill in his new AS-33Es, covering the 264 miles at 70.62mph.
With one day to go, Sean Fidler has a 69-point lead over Sean Murphy. In third place, David Greenhill is only 14 points behind Sean Murphy. Between 4th place and 8th place, these pilots are only separated by 58 points. It is still almost anyone’s race. Last year in the 18-meter Nationals, Sean Fidler beat Sean Murphy on the last day. I’m sure Mr. Murphy would like to get some payback.
In the 20-meter group, we started from Start C, Castroville, Techirhart, Junction and Finish. We had a lot of discussion about whether we should attempt the task due to low altitudes, weak conditions and the conditions in the hill country. In the end, Adam Woolley started but abandoned the task, which was a good decision since he had a borrowed glider. Garret, he took very good care of your baby. Rob Cluxton and David Hart in 4D started but the first leg was super weak, and they returned to the field. Barry Jaeger and Dick Andrews made a very good decision and started early. Even though they got down to 900ft AGL on the first leg, they were able to climb out and were the only 20-meter pilots to make it around. Team 98 started 25 minutes after them and ran out of lift at the end of the day. This shook up the score sheet in 20-meter. In third place is Team AXC with 4700 points, with Adam and Pasi (Team 1) only 13 points behind Team 98 who is in first place now. Tomorrow will decide who will win the class. I am very lucky that I personally know 3 out of 4 of these Teams. The last 2 weeks I wish I spent more time with Adam and Pasi. I follow Adam in his posts and have learned from them. Pasi and Adam seem to be the guys you want to have beers with. I’m sure I’ll see them at the WGC next year.
The Open guy’s kind of did their usual thing, not paying attention to any of the short wingers. They went across the blue holes, leisurely making it to the cu in the high country. On final glide, it was tough but when you can float like these magnificent ships, you make it home. For today, John Cockrane was third with Bruce Taylor in second. Keith Essex won the day again with a speed of 73mph over the 293 miles. Overall, Keith is in first place. Jim Lee is 182 points behind, so he needs some help. John Cockrane is only 41 points behind Jim so a change in second place is not out of the question. One person that we have not spoken about much in this contest is Bruce Taylor. A fantastic pilot who will most likely be in the 20-meter class at the WGC next year in Uvalde. He is one of the nicest people you will ever meet, but I would not like him behind me on final glide. I would love to fly with him in a two seater or have a pint with him at Broadway 830 in Uvalde next year.
That’s it for tonight. I hope you liked these reports. Tomorrow we will have two reports, one in the late morning and one after the banquet. I believe the scores will be held close until the awards are given out tomorrow night. Until tomorrow, fly safely, stay high and mentor a kid along in XC flying.
Cheers,
Rich
Team 98 Backseater