made a valiant attempt at silver distance/altitude today. managed to
wrangle a towpilot and got a launch about 2 PM. altitude and the 50
km (w/1% rule factored) were the goal. I had done the math and knew
that from a 2000 foot tow at Ames a flight to Grinnel Regional Airport
would be sufficient for the badge. So I alerted the crew that I would
set out that way. The flight was pretty uneventful. I never really
got below 4000 AGL until I got to the airport and worked some nice
lift in the 5-700 fpm range. didnt quite make cloudbase at my highest
altitude of around 7000 msl. I made sure to fly conservatively and
keep the altitude up, as this was one of my last chances to get the
silver badge out of the way so I could fly the Region 7 Sports contest
at the end of the month. After a nice landing in Grinnel I pulled the
barograph out to look at it and it was messed up. GRRrRRRrrRRR.
another silver flight dashed by the stupid barograph. I swear this
badge is more about having either a) the bling to buy a datalogger or
b) the patience to deal with a barograph. so long story short the
trace was worthless. seems the paper rubbed and stopped the drum from
turning and thats all she wrote. to add insult to injury, Paul Remde
called me 10 minutes after landing to notify me I was off the waiting
list and in the contest. I said OK but ive still got to finish
Silver, will let you know by the end of the week. So the BLIPMAPs
look good for tomorrow as well. I think im going to try to head
north, and im taking no fewer than 2 barographs to make sure that one
of them works. Will report back...