OLC/ Open Distance meet Odessa Tx?

[Nick Kennedy[_3_]]

Hey all
I've always been intrigued by Wally Scott and Co and all the open distance flights they did.
Would pilots be interested in having a meet at Odessa or ? and have a OLC contest and then when the stars aligned go for it downwind?
What do you guys think?
I'd sure like to do 700-800+ miles.
Nick
T

[Jonathan St. Cloud]

On Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 12:39:04 PM UTC-7, Nick Kennedy wrote:
> Hey all
> I've always been intrigued by Wally Scott and Co and all the open distance flights they did.
> Would pilots be interested in having a meet at Odessa or ? and have a OLC contest and then when the stars aligned go for it downwind?
> What do you guys think?
> I'd sure like to do 700-800+ miles.
> Nick
> T

I would be into a meet at Marfa!!!

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Doing a camp out of Refugio TX second week June. A bunch of us 1-26ers are going after the straight line 1-26 distance record. Want to see if we can push it out to 800k. The world hang glider records have been set from there.
Dan

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Refugio TX would be a good place for anyone with a low performance machine to pursue their diamond distance. If interested in joining our camp call me and I will get you some details. Very reasonable tows provided bu the clib there.
Dan phone 702 498 4849

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I’m into it.

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They were set from Zapata TX

[Nick Kennedy[_3_]]

Jonathan
I think to max out long distance flights you need a couple of aspects; One is the ability to get away early in the day and two, landable terrain downwind in case you bomb out say 10-70 miles from your departure airport.
I don't think Marfa has these quality's, but I'm not sure.
A couple of days ago I was looking at a USA wind chart and there was a fetch of wind straight north to Canada from the Odessa area. It was very even and straight.
I'm interested in doing this and may try to get a meet together in 2021.
I think this time of year might be prime, There's still cold fronts sweeping down to create long south to north prefrontal days and the days are starting to get longer. Need to do more research thou on a optimum starting airport and best likely time of year for good downwind conditions. Kinda like a Dust Devil dash but in the middle of the USA.
Have a OLC camp too for something to do while waiting "For the Day"
I'd like some of the Texas crew chime in on this idea.
Nick
T

[Duster[_2_]]

Odessa, maybe, Marfa probably not (though the Dew Line can create some monster conversions). The biography on Wally Scott contains some suggested start-points. Uvalde might be ripe, but there is no towplane there that I know of.
South-central Texas has extremely reliable cu-streets that run forever; up to 2-3, or 3-5 days/week. The prevailing wind is from the southeast, so Refugio, San Antonio, Houston and Austin Clubs are all good possibilities. I suggest contacting Tony Condon for some advice as he nearly made it to the Gulf Coast from Kansas at least once. I think he will affirm that coming from the south provides greater chance of success as he had to wait several months (years?) before conditions were right to try from the north.

[Ramy[_2_]]

I may be up to it if there is a straight out camp later in June.
Is Refugio suitable giving how close to the coast it is?
The hang glider records were all set from Zapata which is further inland but I understand it lacks suitable landout options for the first 50 miles or so. This can be mitigated with an initial high tow followed by a long glide until hitting the boundary layer.

Ramy

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Ramy, the landout terrain of Refugio is one of the reasons we opted for a start from there. As you know, to get record distances from S TX running north requires taking advantage of the real early start and very weak low alt flying the first few hours. Refugio is much more land out friendly for that first hour running north with the wind.

The second factor is the availability of tow services provided by the Refugio soaring club. They have been very accommodating to us and have agreed to make their tow plane available to us for tows the entire week.
Dan

[Tony[_5_]]

Look up "600 Miles in a 604" about Sherman Griffith's flight from Refugio to Liberal, KS in the 70's.

Up through the 90's I know there was still some straight out flying out of there. Mark Keene won the Barringer Trophy in 1993-ish IN A 1-26 out of Refugio

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Tony, theres no excuse for not flying 600 miles in a 604 lol. As for mark’s flight, that was a nice one. My bird is one which he started a restoration on back in the day before he got burned out doing 1-26’s..
Dan

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On Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at 3:17:51 PM UTC-5, wrote:
> Tony, theres no excuse for not flying 600 miles in a 604 lol. As for mark’s flight, that was a nice one. My bird is one which he started a restoration on back in the day before he got burned out doing 1-26’s..
> Dan

The Soaring Club of Houston would gladly host you guys if you'd like an active club with several tow planes and pilots available. We have lots of good early downwind landout locations and a bunch of us who think it would be fun to make a long straight-out flight. If the weather supports it, let us know!

Chuck Werninger
Soaring Club of Houston
LS-4 VL

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On Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at 2:59:51 PM UTC-5, Tony wrote:
> Look up "600 Miles in a 604" about Sherman Griffith's flight from Refugio to Liberal, KS in the 70's.
>
> Up through the 90's I know there was still some straight out flying out of there. Mark Keene won the Barringer Trophy in 1993-ish IN A 1-26 out of Refugio

That was Marion Griffith, Sherman's father.

[Tony[_5_]]

Doh I knew that

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On Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 2:39:04 PM UTC-5, Nick Kennedy wrote:
> Hey all
> I've always been intrigued by Wally Scott and Co and all the open distance flights they did.
> Would pilots be interested in having a meet at Odessa or ? and have a OLC contest and then when the stars aligned go for it downwind?
> What do you guys think?
> I'd sure like to do 700-800+ miles.
> Nick
> T

Odessa Schlemeyer is under the Class C Midland airspace and no longer a viable glider port due to altitude restrictions. Stanton to the east or Monahans to the southwest would be better airports to start from (hold a x-c camp)

[Steve Leonard[_2_]]

On Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 4:53:10 AM UTC-5, wrote:
> On Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at 2:59:51 PM UTC-5, Tony wrote:
> > Look up "600 Miles in a 604" about Sherman Griffith's flight from Refugio to Liberal, KS in the 70's.
> >
>
> That was Marion Griffith, Sherman's father.

And I remember Marion sometimes introducing himself as "Sherman's Father". Such amazing and wonderful people!

645 miles in a 604. February 1982 SOARING magazine.

Steve Leonard
Wichita, KS

[Tony[_5_]]

Well at least I got the 604 right lol