Finally, a Day in the Books
After several rest days, equipment repair days and tourist trips, we finally have a contest day at Hobbs. The morning meeting started with a less than stellar beginning. Tom Pressley was on Zoom after about 15 minutes of trying to figure out how to get picture and sound at the same time. Finally, we got Tom and all he had was “Have a good day” and then he hung up. Sir Richard Kellerman gave the weather brief expeditiously since he is computer literate, not like most soaring pilots. Richard told us the weather could be good or could be not so good. However, the good seem to outweigh the bad and that is exactly what we had.
Anytime you put on a contest, stuff happens. Pilots drop out, tow planes break, or they find something wrong during the annual or it is the weather. These are the things a Contest Manager always worries over. You try and mitigate the risk and always have a plan B in the hip pocket. Today we found out we would only have 3 tow planes for 3 Nationals totaling 56 aircraft. Remember, we are here where the density altitude is 7,700ft and we are flying most of the ships at max gross takeoff weight. It certainly isn’t Florida! At the start, the contest organizers had commitments for 7 towplanes. Soon they were down to 4 and 1 half. The one-half tow plane could only tow the Club Class ships. Contest management is working on the problem and I’m sure a solution is soon to be found.
During the morning meeting, Kerry started introducing the pilots. Today it was the 15-Meter folks. The first person to be introduced was Davis Chappins who flies 5Z. Davis had his dad crewing for him which is really cool. However, not many of you know that Davis is the individual who builds most of the OGN stations for the SSA. He built the ones for Seminole-Lake where I’m from and it has made a big difference in the enjoyment of the Seniors and other contests throughout the US. Thank you, Davis, for your hard work.
There is always some criticism of the US Soaring Team and questions why we do not do better at the Worlds. Well, Francois Pin and Tony Condon brought back the team bronze medal from the 13.5-meter class and Francois finished on the podium. Tonight, I had dinner with Eric Mozer who finished second twice in the WGC. Sarah Arnold has won three medals in the Women’s World Glider Championship including the gold. Karl Striedieck finished second in the WGC and Doug Jacobs won the Worlds, so we cannot be too upset. We have a great crew of new pilots entering the scene including two friends of mine in 18-meter. Sean Murphy and Sean Fidler are great pilots but not the only ones that could win in the Worlds. Our bench is strong and under the direction of the US Team Captain Pete Alexander, I’m sure we will be seeing great results in the future.
At many glider competitions, accidents happen, and you see some pilots and crew with bandages on their body. In Perry, I had the unfortunate accident of falling down a flight of 5th wheel stairs. Luckily, it was the first step. My good buddy Greg Shugg came to my rescue and fixed me up. At the meeting this morning, I asked Virgina (a crew member) why she had a big bandage on. Seems like her German Shepherd mistook a kiss for a little nip. Another crew had a large wrap around his wrist. This one was caused by a dirt bike accident. So, it looks like soaring is not the only thing that causes injuries.
Now for the flying part. The weather was not encouraging, but hopeful that we would get a day in. Just before we started the launch, we found out 2 tow planes were not going to be available for the launch. That is not good news for anyone. As the day passed 12 noon, the sky started to turn hopeful. The wind was a little less and the cloud bases a little higher. Soon the 15-meter pilots were in the air and the rest of the grid waited to see what happened. Almost everyone stuck and the grid continued launching. The 18-meter class had a two hour Turn Area Task that took us north to Tatum, east to Plains, south to Seminole, northwest to Abandoned and Finish. The first leg was a rip-roaring drag race to the back of the cylinder. Very few turns, if any, were needed to get there. The leg to Plains was a little tricky. There were no streets since we were going cross wind. The clouds were also a little softer. The big climbs on the first leg gave way to 3 knot climbs in broken lift. The leg south to Seminole was good for some and a pain for others. If you stayed in the top half of the lift band, life was good. Getting below 4,000ft AGL was a little harder. I saw a good number of gliders low on this leg. Soon we were making the turn for Abandoned and looking for that good climb to get final glide. Hobbs always has a chance to get you into bad sink on final glide. It always pays to have a little altitude in the bank here. In the end, most pilots enjoyed the day. Even the only landout came back to the field blaring “We are the Champions,” music from Queen as they returned to the ramp.
In 15-meter class, finishing in third place was Davis Chappins, with Mike Sorenson in second. Winning the day with a raw speed of 77.86mph over 194 miles was Jared Granzow. Remember, Jared was the one guy who had a gear collapsed on landing just a couple of days ago. Thank you, Rex Mayes, for providing Jared the information to get him flying again. The Sports Class started last today, and I must take my hat off to them. It took 2 hours and 35 minutes to get the grid launched today. If I was in Sports Class. I probably would have been sleeping when the kids hooked up the tow line. This is not a knock on the contest folks, they have been dealt a bad hand, through no fault of their own, during the last couple of days. In third place was Christopher Gough who is the son of a former partner of mine. I am so happy the apple fell close to the tree. Great job Christopher! In second place was Marco Raaijmakers, someone I plan to meet tomorrow. In first place is anther good guy that we all respect in the soaring community, Andrew Brayer. He completed the 117 mile task at 77.57 mph raw speed.
In the 18-meter class, the top three shouldn’t surprise you. All have been to the Worlds. In third place was Erik Nelson who is lucky to have his daughter Tenley crew for him. She recently competed in the Nationals in cross country track, and she had enough energy to put up with 100-degree heat to crew for dad. Gary Ittner, the best craft beer brewer in the soaring world, finished in second just .07mph behind Bob Fletcher who finished in first. Bob did the 176.23 mile task at 87.50 mph. Not bad for what we all thought was going to be a terrible day. Thank you, John Lubon and the task advisors, for giving us a great run!
Well, that is all for tonight. Looking forward to many more days of racing in the next week. Hope you will join us watching it on the OGN network. Follow us on Facebook and the SSA website.
Goodnight, all. Just remember we have men and women all over the globe serving in our military protecting our freedoms. Think of them tonight and we all hope they are safe.
Cheers,
Rich Owen
ZO