Contest Day 1 Club Class Regionals USA

CLUB CLASS HAS ARRIVED TO THE UNITED STATES! There's no way I can
thank Sam Giltner enough for his perseverance in bringing Club Class
to the States. Finally, we get a class where we can fly assigned
tasks and also fly against a group of gliders that have a tighter
range of handicaps.

Today, the weather forecast was similar to yesterday, and as you
recall, no tasks were called for yesterday, a practice day for both
the Club Class and the 15m Nationals. Fortunately, the weather turned
out better today than yesterday, but in the morning, the CD had to
come up with a task suitable for the Club Class (it's still a practice
day for the 15m National guys.) Sam Giltner, the CD, came up with a
nice Turn Area Task. At first, it looked "almost" flyable. Then, as
we flew down the first leg, it looked like it would be an easy task.
Some found the second leg easy, too. Clouds kept filling in for the
third leg and I thought I would be under the three hour limit, BUT NOT
TO WORRY! I've got ways of screwing up a pretty good flight with lots
of time spent down in the "oxygen rich" flight levels... And so, on
the last leg as I attempted to add a few more miles and insure I
wouldn't come in early, I did just that: Added more useless miles and
surely didn't come in early. But, I finished.

We did have some landouts as I understand it. Both in Club Class and
in 15m task.

A LARGE dinner was hosted in the Ramada Inn, consisting of scruptious
barbecue chicken, ribs, and shredded barbecue pig. EXCELLENT! And,
topped off with banana pudding and/or pecan pie. I'm well ballasted
for the rest of the contest...

From the cool motel room in Cordele,
Ray Lovinggood