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2006 Region 8 Contest - Day 1
2006 Region 8 Soaring Championships
Ephrata, Washington June 26, 2006 - Day 1 Greetings from sunny Ephrata where the sun is shining, the thermals are booming and the pilots are guardedly celebrating a fantastic day of soaring. I say guardedly because as I type this, the scores have not yet been posted for the day. Our contest this year started out with some pretty typical difficulties (at least for around here) in that we did not know what classes we would have flying until yesterday, our practice day. We intended to fly Sports, 15 Meter and Open classes but due to some cancellations we wound up with only 3 gliders registered in Open and 5 gliders registered in the 15 Meter class and the remaining 12 gliders registered in Sport class. After attempting some creative shuffling with limited success, our 15 Meter pilots agreed to fly Open class so our contest this year consists of 20 gliders - 12 in Sport class and 8 flying Open class. In order to facilitate the move from 15 Meter to Open class there was some discussion by the 15 Meter pilots about rigging the spoilers on Nelson Funston's (2005 National Open Class Champion) Nimbus 4M to a 1" open position. Nelson managed to dodge that bullet when he pointed out that we would have to file paperwork with the FAA to change the rigging. Our pilots meeting was held at 10:00 and Steve Northcraft (Region 8 Director) provided a weather briefing. Temperature was forecast to be about 102º F and the estimate for thermal tops was 9,000 - 10,000 feet. Wind was from the north so our grid was placed at the south end of the glider ramp. Grid time was set at 12:15 with a projected launch at 12:45. The task for Sports class was a 3 hour TAT with the first turnpoint at Waterville (#43) with a 10 mile circle and the second turnpoint at Creston (#13) with a 20 mile circle. Open class also had a 3 hour TAT. First turnpoint was Mansfield (#26) with a 5 mile circle. The second turn was at Waterville (#43) with a 10 mile circle and the final turn was at Davenport (#14) with at 15 mile circle. The launch commenced at 12:51. While most aspects of the launch were normal, things were livened up a bit by a stowaway that attempted to fly with several of the gliders. A mouse ran across the ramp and in an effort to get his feet off the hot asphalt (it was about 101º at that point, he ran up into the wheel well of Greg Mecklenburg's glider. After being chased out, he ran around a bit and then managed to get past our intrepid mouse hunters and ran back into Greg's wheel well. Once again chased from his shady spot he tried for Steve Northcraft's glider and foiled there, he went for Stuart Larimore's wheel well where he was again thwarted by our now more experienced and courageous mouse hunters. The mouse was last seen hotfooting it across the ramp towards one of the hangars on the field. Our Sport class task opened at 1:29 pm and the Open class task opened at 2:00 pm. The pilots reported strong lift over most of the task area and they covered the area a bit faster than we expected. Unfortunately for a few of the pilots, there was a bit of confusion as to what a TAT was and they flew additional turnpoints expecting that it would help their score. With the scores now posted I will list the top 3 in each class. The complete score sheet and flight logs will be posted on the SSA site tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. Sports class 1st place - 1000 points - Dick VanGrunsven flying a Ventus 2CM. Handicapped speed was 60.32 mph and a distance of 183.48 miles was posted 2nd place - 963 points - Dave Burgess flying an ASW-19. Handicapped speed was 58.08 mph with a distance of 174.15 miles. 3rd place - 911 points - Alex Kain flying a Grob G103A Twin II. Handicapped speed was 59.96 mph with a distance of 164.8 miles. Open class 1st place - 1000 points - Nelson Funston flying a Nimbus 4M. Speed was 72.16 mph with a distance of 222.6 miles 2nd place - 969 points - Greg Mecklenburg flying a Ventus A. Speed was 69.95 mph with a distance of 209.28 miles. 3rd place - 967 points - Mike Thompson flying a Ventus 2B. Speed was 69.75 mph with a distance of 209.13 miles. From Ephrata, where the temperature has now dropped to 90º at 8:30 pm - that's all for now. Jay Todd CM, CD, Ops, Flunkey, and whatever else needs doing |
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