US Standard Class Nationals--Day 3

[Retting]

Hey hey....looks like I have competition with Walt reporting on Day 3...
TSA put on a left over cookout with plenty of BBQ, Burgers, and Hot Dogs with all the sides to go around. Beer of course and Ice Tea.
Then I got side tracked with Rich Owens (999pts today) telling me about all the fighter planes he flew and and detail info that goes with it, time flew by.
Several crews are using new 3 bedrooms apt thru Airbnb 10 mins from TSA. Very nice setup. Rich, crew Steve Taylor who is on his way back to Florida from Nephi, and myself are sharing one.
Sorry for the late report....
A launch to the south with ballast on board with lift expecting to be 5-8. A TAT called with 5,20,5,10 mile turns in the SE quadrant. Kind of a box pattern over and down and back up across Waco to home with a line finish to the North (50', yep, 50' min.). The sky was a mix of blue and widely scattered white with climbs to mostly 7s', a little better than yesterday. Heavy sink encountered in the middle of the task surprise a few. The days have been dying quickly around 430 to 5 which I find puzzling as the sun is fairly hi.
As Walt noted, rest day tomorrow (forecast blue) to be followed by booming days, so I hear. Those wishing to shoot are to meet at the club house at 10am for a field trip to the range 10 mins away. Helllll yeh....Texas and Guns.
Mike Westbrook took the photo finish with Rich Owens looking at his ...

Operations perfect...
Tow pilots perfect...
Food was great....Burgers had bacon and halipinyo cheese mixed in so I put some Brisket and BBQ sauce on top of that with a most delicio coleslaw on top of that.....then I ate a perfectly burnt hotdog/coleslaw for deysert. I had a fruitcup for breakfast so ... give me a break.
Midnight plus,
good night!

R

[MNLou]

Curious as to why the CD is calling line finishes. Especially really low like today?

Thanks!

Lou

[Tango Eight]

On Friday, August 3, 2018 at 10:32:12 AM UTC-4, MNLou wrote:
> Curious as to why the CD is calling line finishes. Especially really low like today?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Lou

Because good fun in skilled hands.

50' isn't "really low".

True story: I got chewed out at a regional contest for finishing too high. We had a line finish, offset from the runway, no minimum altitude. The local commercial operation was flying rides while competitors were on course. It was official practice, so no reason to push real hard... and the last 10 miles of this particular final glide is totally unlandable (unless you consider trees or lakes landable), I finished at 500' and found myself head to head with a towplane on downwind. When I expressed concern about this at the safety meeting, I was told by the CD in no uncertain terms that I was the one that was out of line. Much has changed in 20 years.

T8

[Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot)]

A wise person once told me, "you can NEVER beat the record for low finishes, you can only tie!"

LOL............

Yes, much has changed.

I wish I had a copy of the video Charlie Minner did at Mifflin a long time ago. We had to finish west bound, but coming from the west. ASW-20C, some water, tons of speed, high G 180 to get through the gate. Rather bowed wings, sun off the wings, Charlie said it was one of his best videos.

I miss both "Charlie's". :-(

HR, thanks for posting info, we appreciate it.

[Retting]

Yes, well, CD Mark Keene is all about improving the fun level...safely. He did a thorough briefing on lower finishes, low energy vs high, rolling finish, informing others of low energy requiring some modification in the pattern. Plus, finish altitude is a pilot option, nothing is pressured.
Plus, there are three parallel runways and loads of real estate. The whole flight is precision flying and the finishes are over short trees, no people and simply a finale to the flight. Not a big deal.
The CD called a line finish because he is the boss who is paid very little to do a lot of work. Annnnddddd, people are walking around with smiles after landing forgetting about the sink hole they spent 30 mins in grinding around.
Tomorrow we fly......ooooohhhhaaaaaahhhhh!

R