rlovinggood
May 16th 09, 12:07 AM
The Inaugural Club Class race in America is now in the books and it
has been FUN! I want to thank the 15m National folks for allowing us
to be a part of their contest and to fly with them at Cordele,
Georgia, USA. If you don't know Cordele, I can tell you it is a
fantastic place to fly. There are three runways at the airport, one
which is marked as closed, but can be used for landing. One is the
primary runway for the powered aircraft. And one is reserved for the
contest. There are no glider operations at the airport except during
a contest and we get runway 05/23 all for ourselves. It's a monster
of a runway: At least 100' wide by, oh, maybe 5,000 feet long. I'm
not sure. Plus, there are no runway lights on this runway. Easy to
turn off and clear the runway after landing. On the grid, there's
room for two columns of gliders. And there are MANY acres of land
suitable for a lot of glider trailers. Out on course, there's the
flat land of Georgia with lots and lots of cotton and peanut fields.
Very flat and very big. It's a WONDERFUL place to fly gliders. Just
wonderful.
Okay, so the race is over. Who won? I do know, but I'll leave that
to the SSA web page to announce. I can divulge the following: I
didn't win! Okay, so I came in fourth overall. Would've/Could've/
Should've...
I haven't heard one word of complaint from the pilots flying club
class. A real testament to the hosting by the Mid Georgia Soaring
Association and to Sam Giltner for the superb Contest Direction that
he gave, to Leo Buckley for scoring, for his wife Pat Buckley for
running the retrieve office that was very VERY busy for a few days, to
the tow pilots for there tireless work, the ground crew for launching
us. Wow, were they GOOD and fast! Pat and Hartley Falbuam worked
their butts off to accommodate the unruly glider pilots with organized
dinners, gifts to the daily winners, snacks at the end of the day and
countless other things. Just a well run contest! Great
organization. Great competitors. I hope they will let me call them
"friends" now.
From the Cordele motel room,
Ray Lovinggood
has been FUN! I want to thank the 15m National folks for allowing us
to be a part of their contest and to fly with them at Cordele,
Georgia, USA. If you don't know Cordele, I can tell you it is a
fantastic place to fly. There are three runways at the airport, one
which is marked as closed, but can be used for landing. One is the
primary runway for the powered aircraft. And one is reserved for the
contest. There are no glider operations at the airport except during
a contest and we get runway 05/23 all for ourselves. It's a monster
of a runway: At least 100' wide by, oh, maybe 5,000 feet long. I'm
not sure. Plus, there are no runway lights on this runway. Easy to
turn off and clear the runway after landing. On the grid, there's
room for two columns of gliders. And there are MANY acres of land
suitable for a lot of glider trailers. Out on course, there's the
flat land of Georgia with lots and lots of cotton and peanut fields.
Very flat and very big. It's a WONDERFUL place to fly gliders. Just
wonderful.
Okay, so the race is over. Who won? I do know, but I'll leave that
to the SSA web page to announce. I can divulge the following: I
didn't win! Okay, so I came in fourth overall. Would've/Could've/
Should've...
I haven't heard one word of complaint from the pilots flying club
class. A real testament to the hosting by the Mid Georgia Soaring
Association and to Sam Giltner for the superb Contest Direction that
he gave, to Leo Buckley for scoring, for his wife Pat Buckley for
running the retrieve office that was very VERY busy for a few days, to
the tow pilots for there tireless work, the ground crew for launching
us. Wow, were they GOOD and fast! Pat and Hartley Falbuam worked
their butts off to accommodate the unruly glider pilots with organized
dinners, gifts to the daily winners, snacks at the end of the day and
countless other things. Just a well run contest! Great
organization. Great competitors. I hope they will let me call them
"friends" now.
From the Cordele motel room,
Ray Lovinggood