Day 3 Whopper

Greetings race fans

So yesterday the racing session was called off due to frontal passage that was predicted to pass mid afternoon and bring with it potentially bad thunderstorms. In all actuality the storms were never as nasty or as wide spread and severe here as they could have been. I went to my Thursday night poker game and came out at 11 PM and it was storming all around but very lightly here. During the night the winds aloft came up out of the northwest and we all knew what that meant. We had a few young “hill rats” as guests who wanted me at the field for 8 in the morning tows. I was concerned as we started these by the lack of surface winds but when we got off the ground it was very obvious that the winds aloft were already good for the mission. My first launch reported back winds at ridge top of 330@22. Game on! I talked with CD Mc Clung and he stated his intentions to get the morning meeting oven quickly and proceed promptly to grid and launch time. I skipped the pilots meeting to take Andy Brayer and his wife to breakfast as they flew in from the hill this morning. When I returned the meeting was over and the gliders were moving out. We moved to the grid a little early and gridded up.

The front of the grid meeting happened with the first launch guy sitting in his glider listening. When the CD asked when he was ready, he states, get out of my way. For the second time this week and rarely in contests these days, we started the launch and never gave a thought to a sniffer.  By this time the ridge winds had hit the ground and some of the tow plane landings were “sporty” to say the least. The winds were strong and steady, not gusty so that was a good thing. The launch went off in 38 minutes and all were in the air by 11:38.

The tasks were long the ridges were strong and the day lasted long. The last racer did not land back on the field until 7:45 PM. A quick look at the score sheet shows the fastest un handicapped speed of the day was 106 MPH. This I remind you is a dry contest!

Everyone had smiles as we lined up for the Glick fish fry and the soft serve ice cream truck. The fish was its usual delicious meal and the ice cream line was long and never really ended until 8 PM. Most everyone headed to bed early after this day. I don’t know what to think of tomorrow yet as the forecast is all over the place.  More news when I have it.

Reporting Live from Mifflin

Brian Glick