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