mifflin sports class day 5

Day 5 is in, and the contest is official.

We have blue thermals, light NW winds, and some scattered cirrus. The
call is a 4 hour TAT. The first leg takes us east out across the river.
Thermals are 2-3 knots and not very high. Gagle city. The second leg
takes us upwind across the same valley to nisbet with a 15 mile radius.
Again, it's weak flatland blue thermaling (just like home for me!). The
third leg takes us back to mifflintown. Here is where it got tough. It
was remarkably hard to get up on the high ground. Those who did found
fantastic thermals. Most did not, leading to a number of landouts and
low save stories. Then upwind to tall pines and back. Again, few very
strong thermals over the high ground. By now all the gaggles had
disappeared, so it took courage to recover, go on and wait for the few
good thermals. I and a few others found the best thermal of the day on
final glide of course. It leads to regrets, but in the end it's not all
that bad to thermal up to final glide at 7 knots.

Looks dicey today

This contest as usual at mifflin was superbly run and organized. Great
social and meal events, excellent task calling, superb ground
operations and friendly people make it all a pleasure. Alas we again
had two gliders damaged. One was a groundloop on an off field landing.
The second hit trees on the ridge, sustained substantial damage, but
continued the flight.

John Cochrane BB

BB wrote:
The second hit trees on the ridge, sustained substantial damage, but
continued the flight.

That one just begs for more detail. Among other things, does "continued
the flight" mean "immediately found a spot for a successful emergency
landing", or "completed the task with parts of their glider missing"??

From the SSA web page, Charlie's report starts of with:


(Begin quote from SSA web page)

Charlies 5/23 Report

Hi race fans, 5/23/06
Before I tell you about today I should tell you that
we had two ships damaged yesterday. Harvey Howell had
the most frightening experience going down a ridge
and hitting enough sink to take him into the trees.
Amazingly Harvey went into the trees with strikes both
on the wings and tail surfaces then managed to pull
up enough to escape the grasp of the trees and fly
on to the next turnpoint where he landed. Harvey withdrew
from the contest.

Heinz Weissenbuehler was coming back to Mifflin when
he realized he could not make it over the last ridge
in his Nimbus 4. Heinz turned back and found a huge
hay field to land in. As he touched down a gust caught
him and the wing tip went in. The ship spun around
and the fuselage broke in half. Heinz has taken the
ship back to Elmira and will return tomorrow with his
Ventus and fly as a guest.

(End of quote from SSA web page)

For the rest of Charlie's report, visit the SSA web
page. But I agree with Marc: This story needs much
more detail.

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA




At 15:24 25 May 2006, Marc Ramsey wrote:
BB wrote:
The second hit trees on the ridge, sustained substantial
damage, but
continued the flight.

That one just begs for more detail. Among other things,
does 'continued
the flight' mean 'immediately found a spot for a successful
emergency
landing', or 'completed the task with parts of their
glider missing'??