2020 Senior Soaring Championship

Too bad Dave, glad to see/hear about you back in the saddle! Hope to see you out west this year

CH

Off to the Cloud Street Races!

Day 3
After a very nice St Patrick’s Day, with the exception of the Florida Governor closing all bars at 5:00pm, it was a very successful rest day. The ladies even had a book club meeting that was a first for the Seniors! Everyone had a nice time and I think we should make this a regular event. We had another beautiful day in Florida with a low of 64 in the morning and a high of 88 degrees in the afternoon. This is our dry season, so the soaring has been great. John Good decided to send us on a tour of Northern Florida today. We set out from Start B, north to Grass Roots, west to Chinsegut (we can’t pronounce it either), northeast to Norton, south to Gore and then to Green Swamp and the Finish. That worked out to a TAT (Turn Area Task) of 178 miles nominal distance with a minimum time of 2:45. Our superb groundcrew led by Dewey Clawson and Don Grillo did another fine job getting everyone airborne in an expeditious, safe manner. We had a towplane that had to abort a takeoff early in the run. Martin Holtz (tow pilot) and Bob Fletcher (90) did a great job of deconflicting their path on the runway. In short order we had Bob in the air and the Husky had the day off. The Pawnees’ picked up the slack and we were soon on task. Cloud bases were around 4,500ft around the gliderport rising to almost 6,000ft later in the day. Lift averaged 4.5kts on average with some topping out at 8kts. Biggest blast of the flight was a clound street that went almost 70 miles from Norton to Gore. How you handled this leg was the difference between the leaders and the rest of the field. As you approached the southern section of the task area, the clouds were disappearing in some of the area around Winter Haven. However, there was a small line of clouds you could work towards the lake. The trip to Green Swamp was very short and most pilots did not go very far into that circle. Final glides were pretty tame due to some nice cu on the way home. Karl Striedieck and Sarah Arnold took the day running away from the field in an Arcus. Their 216 miles was covered at a blazing 77 miles an hour. Phil Gaisford finished second with a raw speed of 68.32 mph in a Discus 2b with Rich Owen finishing third in a trusty LS-8 at 68.09 mph. The score sheet is really tight right now with the top 10 pilots separated by about 200 points. Overall, Phil Gaisford is in first with Karl and Sarah in second with Rich Owen in third. Ken Sorenson, Tom Holloran, Fernando Silva, Jake Alspaugh, Nico Bennet/Ryszard Krolikowski, Bob Fletcher, with John Seaborn rounding out the top 10. It is anyone’s race but Phil has a pretty good lead.
With two days left in the contest, we are still being very careful with social distancing, no pilots meeting, lots of hand washing and dinners being served with volunteers in gloves. It was a little awkward to do away with the pilots meeting but now everyone is getting used to it. Information is delivered electronically but a paper task sheet is available with Rick Sheppe outfitted in blue dish gloves. I need to get Bo to get a picture for the magazine article. We talked to the banquet vendor and they decided to cancel our event. That was great because we really wanted to do it in the hangar and limit outside handling of food service. So, we are doing a Mexican dinner with margaritas for the awards banquet! Just an early Cinco de Mayo party.
Well, the ships are put away, hangar is cleaned up and everyone is digesting the Prime Rib dinner with leftover cake from the US Team night. That’s all for tonight, stay turned to Day 4 tomorrow!

Day 4
As the sun came up over the evergreens, everyone seemed to up early today. The dogs were walking their masters and the runners were out in force. Bo, our contest photographer, was making plans to take the official contest picture. The Seniors Rules Committee, headed by Ron Clarke, had a meeting to discus possible changes to the contest format. As 10:15 am approached, we did not know how many of the pilots and crews would attend the photo op. We had made attendance optional, but to our surprise, many of the folks came out. Of course, we had a good amount of space between each individual, so mush so that Bo needed a wide-angle lens for her camera. Everyone came with their Hawaiian shirts which is a tradition at the Seniors. You can tell who the rookies are, they’re the ones not wearing a colorful shirt.
The grid was shifted to the north end of the runway which usually causes problems. It is a little tighter, three gliders in each row, you need a wing stand, the tow planes land in the overrun and taxi between the sailplanes on the grid. This year we were lucky since Dewey ran Operations and Catherine was there with extra flags. We had a good number of visitors from town today so I guess we were the only show in town. The launch finished in an hour and soon the start gate was open. Today John sent us on a tour of the central spine of Florida. The 3 hour Turn Area Task took us from Start A, Green Swamp, Streamsong, CFI Plant, Osborn, Inverness, Leesburg, and Finish. With those last two turnpoints we must have made the CD mad last night.. They are some of the wettest and least hospitable places in the task area. The only worse place is Umatilla, where many venture and few return! The weather had cloud bases starting at 3,000 feet at launch to right at 4,400 feet when the gate opened. Lift varied between 3 knots to right at 6.5 knots in the task area. Rich Owen finished in first place with a 64.19 mph raw speed over a course of 194 miles. Phil Gaisford finished in second by a narrow margin, flying 196 miles at 64.07. Fernando Silva finished in third. Rich had a pretty good following today in the start circle and was asked if all his darting around the start was trying to shake some of these ships free. Simple answer, no, he was just trying to find a climb when the day cycled right at the start.
The score sheet is still very close. Tomorrow, it could be anybody’s race. We are all looking forward to the banquet with Mexican food from Groveland’s Coyote Rojo. Mihaela is making margaritas and it is sure to be a great time. For those of you who have never been to a Seniors, you should put it on your bucket list. Just talk to anyone who has attended. Just look at Don Wasness who has been at all 30 Senior Soaring Championships and even won the first one. Talk to you all tomorrow.