Holy Moley
When we go to a glider contest, it is always interesting to see the history of that location. Our safety talk pilot today was Louis McIntire and he remarked about a feeling of many spirits on the airfield. These spirits are from the young men who trained at Hobbs Army Airfield that went to war in Europe during WWII, many of which did not return.
On 18 December 1941, eleven days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Maj. John Armstrong, commander of Roswell Army Airfield, New Mexico, visited Hobbs to conduct a preliminary investigation of potential military sites and discuss the prospects with local political and business leaders. The first mission of Hobbs Army Airfield, was as a bombardier school for the United States Army Air Forces. On 7 September 1942, 80 cadets and 20 instructors began their training. This was to be the only class of bombardiers, and 69 of the original 80 cadets graduated from the program on 21 November 1942.
While the bombardiers were still training, the West Coast Training Command ordered that Hobbs Army Airfield would become a multi-engine pilot training school, making it one of three B-17 training bases in the U.S. The first B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft arrived at the base in mid-December 1942, along with the first class of 46 four-engine pilots. Hollywood actor and Air Force pilot Jimmy Stewart was among them. One hundred four-engine aircraft mechanics as well as pilot instructors arrived at the same time. The total number of cadets training as Officer Student Pilots peaked in early 1945 when there was a total of 162 B-17 aircraft at the base. In 1987 the Soaring Society of America located its headquarters at Hobbs Army Airfield, constructing a building near the old flight line and using the runway for launching gliders and holding national soaring competitions. This evening we were sitting on the ramp and I could not help thinking about all the pilots who were trained at this historic site.
The first contest day is always a nervous affair. Will the Zoom meeting with the weatherman and scorer work this morning, do we have enough kids to work the line, will the towplanes start and will the weather cooperate? The answer to all these questions was a resounding YES! Grid time was 11:30am and the first launch was started at 12:20pm. Open Class was sent on a 4-hour TAT from Start D to Portales, Vega, and Finish for a nominal distance of 586km. The 15 Meter Class went on a 4-hour TAT also from Start A, Portales, Tokio, Muleshoe and finish for a nominal distance of 553km.
At the start time of the Open Class, the gate was in the blue and the lift was difficult to find. The tag up altitude was 9,000ft MSL which required early launching gliders to descend below 9,000ft after the start gate was opened. This way late launchers had an equal chance of having a good start seeing that gliders were climbing to over 11,000ft. DB, SS, 98 and VJS were all together around the gate and found a good thermal just a kilometer away from the start line. It seemed like a good time to start based on expected weak weather around 5:30pm. The first leg was blue until reaching the cloud field around Lovinton. It was a nice smooth glide but we were rewarded with a good climb back up to cloudbase. Now, DB and 98 were in the lead but the ASG-32Mi is no Concordia. Dick left us and soon we were enjoying a pleasant flight cruising between 9,000 - 12,000ft and connected with the cloud base. Approaching Cannon AFB, near Clovis NM, we happened to see DB below us as we passed him at cloudbase. I cannot describe the elation in the cockpit of the thought of beating a fellow Auburn engineering alum. Meanwhile back at the start gate, the Jonkers Air Force of Jim Lee, Dan Mockler, David Mockler and Keith Bauth started later than our group and had a much better run to Portales. The run to Vega was fantastic as the clouds were working well and cloud bases were getting to over 13,000ft. Since the last turn area was 285km from Hobbs, figuring out what distance to turn for home was an issue. The forecast had the sky bluing out later in the day just north of Hobbs. There was also a 22mph headwind on the final leg. Team 98 was caught by Jim Lee and Keith Baugh on this leg but we were able to hold our own. Jim made it to the finish only .1km ahead of us and we beat Keith by a few minutes. When we landed, DB was not on the ground and we thought, for only a minute, that we had beaten the master. Dick had an extra 110km more at a faster speed so Team 98 went back to drinking a beer. In the end, Dan had great flight taking first place with a winning speed of 163kph over 656km. That was quite a flight, great job Dan!! In second place was Dick Butler and Jim Lee placed third.
In the 15 Meter Class, they had similar weather conditions at their start gate. The leg to Portales had a blue start and then the cloud field began. Once you made it to Lovington, climbs were in the 5-6kt range up to 11,000ft. Passing Portales the cloud base rose to 13,000ft and the lift increased to around 8kts. Some people went a little too far and got stuck. Final glide for the 15-meter folks was much weaker than the Open class ships. Clouds were few and far between and hard to stay connected with. The last guy airborne in the class, after a relight, was Jae Walker. He said that when he rolled to a stop two beautiful young women met him with a cold glass of water. It was Kathy Lee and Evelyn Tovar that saw him land and wanted to help get him airborne quickly. Well, it worked because Jae won the day with a speed of 139kph over 579km. In second place was Robin Clark (who says winning the practice day is bad luck), and third was taken by Erik Nelson.
This evening we had a live band and an ice cream social. Tomorrow, I will tell you a little more about the event. One of the nice things that happened after we put all the ships to bed, our ground crew young ladies stopped by to say hello. These kids are in 6-8th grade and are real hard workers. It was nice to talk with them about our ships, today’s flights and they even went up to Dan Mockler to congratulate him on his win. Dan spent yesterday’s practice launch working the line and help train the girls. They really appreciated his spending time with them.
Well, that is about all for now. Time to look at the flights and see what we could learn from the analysis. Until tomorrow, have a great day.
Best Regards,
Rich Owen
Team 98 Backseater