2019 1-26 Championship, Practice Day 1
Contest Director Report, Daniel Sazhin
https://youtu.be/WQhvZc65MyE
We have a big crew that's going to be putting this on. Very notably, Bob Hudson, the airport manager who's going to be helping run the airport and the ops and things like that. We have Leonard, that's going to be doing the retrieve desk, and a whole host of ground ops and lots of folks will be helping out. You're going to be seeing a lot of these folks.
Today is going to be a practice day. It's a practice day for the contestants, it's also a practice day for the administration, as is tomorrow. Today it's going to be more informal. Tomorrow we're going to try to run it as a contest day, really try to make it work that way. Today, this is a day for you guys to get your equipment in order and get up and get sorted out, no real pressure.
In general, I just wanted to introduce what we'll be doing today or in general. That is, everyday, we're going to have a pilot briefing. Nominally, it's going to be at 10:00. If there's any reason to change this, we'll let you know the night before. The contest administration will be meeting at 9:00 at the clubhouse. Folks are welcome to come by, but please stay quiet and let the contest administration do its business. We'll give opportunities for you guys to come by and raise concerns and things like that, but from 9:00 to 10:00 we're going to be working on putting everything together for you guys.
My job as contest director is to ensure that the contest will be run fair, fun, and safe. That's a real challenge because we have a lot of beginners, we have a huge crowd this year. It's really wonderful. This is the biggest 1-26 Championships in a long time. But we have a lot of new guys and Moriarty is a very exciting place to fly, but it's also somewhat technical. There's some tricky bits and we're going to try to guide the beginners away from the challenging areas. For the advanced guys, the guys going for the cruise, we're going to let them really go at it. Really go at these conditions and make some really nice flights out here.
With this broad introduction, this is what we'll be doing for the next 10 days. I want to now introduce Bob Hudson, who is going to go and tell us about the airport, and how we're going to do some of the logistics out here. Thank you, Bob, and thanks for your help.
Airport Manager Report, Bob Hudson
https://youtu.be/vuDpec7MvP0
Welcome back everyone, we're really happy to see you here. Just a couple of housekeeping items. We're the guests of a company called Sky, that's letting us use this mess hall area. They're a startup company and they're really moving fast to get their product going, they don't want us wandering the building. We're restricted to the cafeteria, the patio, and outdoor area. The bathrooms are behind that wall right there, because they do have heated toilet seats, don't be in there all day long. Please confine yourself to these areas so they continue to let us use the building.
I want to also introduce Marvin, in the back there. Marvin is my alternate. If you have any questions, you can't find me, grab Marvin. He can answer practically everything and he'll be around assisting.
Let's talk once again a little bit about this building, for those that weren't here before. We are right here. We do not want you to go beyond this part here, because is radiating back there with the radar. They're going to monitor you while you're flying. They're testing their equipment, they're going to be lighting you up. Don't worry, it's perfectly safe. But it's not safe back here. It's a death ring. Stay away from those areas and everything should be okay.
Now then, about the airport, some of you haven't been here since we put in the crosswind runway. That's for your use. We're not going to launch off the crosswind runway. If winds are such that we have to use the crosswind runway, that'll be a canceled day. But it's perfectly good to land on. If you choose to land on 18-36, make sure you make the radio call that that's your intention and make sure somebody acknowledges it. Because if you land and nobody knows, believe me, that is a long walk. Feel free to use it, it's perfectly safe. The wind does have a habit of sometimes changing later in the afternoon.
Now then, for normal operations. This is taxiway Delta, this is our normal launch area. When you're going down to launch, go down taxiway alpha to the east, make that a one-way street. Do not go west on taxiway alpha.
I'll put this on a slide for the formal briefing, Wednesday night. The rules for today, it's just a normal launch so we're not going to discuss. Gridding we'll discuss at tomorrow's briefing. Going to the launch area, travel east on taxiway alpha, and then going back, take the old taxiway going west. That way we won't be dealing with opposing traffic. Do not block alpha. When you get down there, either put your glider over in the tie down area or proceed to the launch area. When you cross the hold short line, be ready to fly. You can't take your airplane across the hold short line and then just wander around. We've had people put their plane in place, get in their car, and go back to their trailer. We can't have that.
Once you cross the hold short line, be ready to fly. Have your parachute on, ready to go. Stan will talk to you about hooking up and we'll have people to hook you up. There you go.
There is a restroom in Sundance Aviation, there's a restroom in my building, there's a restroom in the clubhouse, and there's nature.
All traffic patterns are left hand. Any other questions? We'll have a little bit more formal briefing when we get to the grid. Yes.
Radio frequency, in the local flying area, which is four to five nautical miles, is 122.9. Once you get outside of that circle, go to 123.3.
Contest Manager Report, Ridge Moreland
https://youtu.be/UfLGEkpnknM
I may not have an answer, but if I don't have an answer, I'll tell you I don't have an answer, and I'll get you an answer. I learned that from the military side. If you've got some compliments, give to him or give it to Wick back there, and I say that sincerely. We got probably a third more population still coming. Everybody's not here yet. They're still flowing in here, so it's going to get a little bit more crowded in here, but why is there a larger group here? I'm going to shout out ... Wick did, and he's going to decline this, but he was manning the phones in the last multiple months, calling a lot of people. That's why there's a lot more people here than we've had in recent years. That's for him. That's a no bull. We've seen the population decline a while. It's come a little bit now, and he's driving this, also. Keep it coming up.
I'll emphasize again, since Bob started out the discussion today and people have already glossed over all this here, do not disregard what he told you about this building. He could tell you what the real battle going on behind all this to get this space in here. We can't do this anyplace else. We can't for this many people or feed everybody. Pay attention to what he said. Park out there. Do not park next to this building. Do not park next to the building. It's an active working building. Park out there. It's only a handful of more feet to walk over here like that. That's the only way you come in and out is right there. Don't cut out of here any other direction. We have this room and the beautiful restrooms back there.
Especially for the ladies. You got the cleanest restrooms in the world right here. We don't own this building. Do not trash the building. Don't leave your debris. Don't leave your cups, whatever, like that. Don't abuse the incredible gift that we've got. Bob has driven this thing, and this is a one-time deal.
What he talked about on how you tow, where you go on this field, do not disregard that. Do not freelance on here. We got a room full of type A personalities. Don't go, "I'll just do whatever I want to." This isn't Tom's Private TSA or Steve's Caesar Creek. We don't own this airport here. Look at all the other aircraft that are out here. There are people towing other gliders out here, also, that live here. Don't abuse the situation here. Listen to what Bob said about where you taxi down, where you come back. Pay attention out here. There are people watching what we do right now. Don't screw it up, and we're going to tell you that every single day. You cannot screw this up, and that's easy to do because there's some people here ... This is an older ... I'm going to say this is an older crowd. Some people here just go, "I'm just going to go do whatever I want." It cannot happen, and I'm going to step on your toes, frankly.
Weather Report
https://youtu.be/G7Q0HWPMmHc
Chuck Lohre’s inflight report
https://youtu.be/RbDVfPitZLQ
Well, hello, Chuck Lohre here. We're flying at Moriarty, New Mexico. I'm here for the 1-26 Championships flying in Steve Statkus' 242. Been up about an hour so far, just checking out my instruments and navigation and just what it looks like flying in such a large, high altitude and high clouds. Trying to get a handle on the different turn points, and how to navigate to them.
It's a pretty exciting time. I'm really trying to practice navigation, see how you can find the clouds and work the clouds, and how they might be a little different than the clouds are in the Ohio Valley area. That's where I'm from, Cincinnati, Ohio. I'll keep checking it out.
Chuck Lohre
513-260-9025
chuck@lohre.com