Friday - Contest day 2
Daily Report Friday, September 24, 2021
After yesterday’s good soaring day, the contestants were all smiles and full of energy at the morning pilots meeting. At New Castle, the meeting begins with a shooting of the Frantz cannon. It is a scale replica of a Napoleonic cannon and always brings a smile to the crowd. I’m pretty sure that New Castle is the only Gliderport in the world that starts meeting with a firing of a cannon.
The weather looks to be good for today and after hearing about the under call for yesterday’s task the task committee was naturally more aggressive. With a high pressure in control and a boundary layer of about 5,000 – 6,000 ft the conditions were expected to be good. The only real negative was that the day would probably be blue. There could be some cu if the boundary layer got to the maximum, but any cu would probably be few and far between. Wind would not be factor with NNW winds at less than 10 kts.
The task/radius called was Start A, Blacksburg/15, Ingalls 15, Union WV/10, Eagle Rock/10, FinishCylin/1 with a minimum time of 3 hrs. The nominal distance is 192 miles, minimum 95 miles and maximum 290 miles.
Unlike yesterday, today’s task was definitely not an under call and reports and pilots were heard saying it was the most changing flight they have ever had here and we did have a couple of land outs and motor starts. And the speeds showed it. Where yesterday the speeds were well into the 80’s an 90’s todays speeds were a more pedestrian mid 40’s. The 18 meter winner was again, Jake Alspaugh (W7), with a speed of 46.64 mph and a distance of 152.18 and he maintains first overall. In the 15 meter handicapped class it was Evan Ludeman (T8) with an actual speed of 45.53 mph and a distance of 152.73 miles (handicapped 39.88 mph and 134.10 miles). This flight placed Evan first overall but only 91 points ahead of second place.
Tonight’s events include a Halloween party during the social hour and pork BBQ for dinner.
The weather will be good tomorrow, but we don’t look for any real improvement in soaring conditions due the persistent high that dominates out area.
Jim Cole, Contest Manager