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.

Hey Rich,
We're all waiting patiently for the final installment of this story.

Sorry Everyone,

I will be posting the final day of the Seniors tonight. We lost a very wonderful line crew leader Thursday night in a tragic car accident. I’ll explain all then. Catherine was loved by everyone in soaring. It has been hard for all the pilots at SLG. But tonight, I’ll tell the story.

Sincerely,
Rich

Day 5
When then day started, we found out that a member of our ground crew was tragically injured in a car accident while driving home from the gliderport. Catherine Eaglin has worked on the Seniors for 7 years. She worked the line and became the Operations Chief for the Seniors and 18 Meter Nationals which was held at Seminole-Lake in 2018. Catherine also worked the Region 5 South contest in Cordele GA. Last year she traveled to Canada to assist the ground crew at the Pan American Championship. Catherine was loved by everyone in the soaring community and we all celebrated with her when she graduated college and got hired as a dispatcher with an airline at Sanford airport. It has been over a week since the accident but we still cannot come to grips with her loss. The ground crew and tow pilots wanted to honor her legacy by continuing working for the last day of the Seniors. They all did a great job; Catherine would be proud.
On the last day, the top 5 pilots were separated by fewer than 200 points. The weather was forecasted to be excellent and it certainly was. The task had a nominal distance of 200 miles commencing from Start A, to Wines (10mi), Streamsong (18mi), Burntwood (5mi), Inverness (24mi), Osborn (4mi), and Finish (2mi). The day started good and was expected to stay good until after 5:30pm. This was no banquet task! The top 21 pilots all completed flights over 300K. The leg to Wines was really good with climbs in the 4-5kt range to 5,000 ft. Highway 27 is always the route south along the east side of the state. The leg to Streamsong was a little weaker but still had good cu. The best of the day was the trip north. Bruntwood was just a steering point to help pilots avoid the Tampa Class B airspace. Everyone knows the area around Inverness is very wet and usually a dead zone for sailplanes.. Today the cu was very honest and there was a line all the way deep into the Inverness zone. If you shaded to the west of Inverness, it was a nice ride out and back. From there it was an easy trip home. However, if you chose to go more to the center of the state, you were met with blue skies with very little lift.
Due to the Coronavirus, we had cancelled our off-site banquet in favor of another hangar dinner. Mexican food was on the menu with cold beer and margaritas to celebrate the conclusion of a fine contest. We normally kept the scores under lock and key until the awards ceremony, but they were released early. Rich Owen finished in third for the day with John Seaborn in second and Phil Gaisford in first. The difference between these three was less than .5 mph over a 200 mile task. The contest results were announced after the day winners. Team Lima, composed of Karl Striedieck, Sarah Arnold, Larry (the owner of Lima), and Lee Lauderbach (owner of Stallion 51), finished in third overall. In second place, Rich Owen, who could only gain one point on Phil during the entire contest. Phil Gaisford flew a near perfect contest, only losing 37 points during the 5 contest days.
The Seniors is in the record books for another year and Seminole-Lake Gliderport is returning to normal. After the contest, the local pilots and a few die hards from up north, have been flying every day. We would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge the support of our staff and volunteers. Our ground crew complement spanned from teenagers to young adults, Americans and Japanese flight students. Some have been with us for a long time. Others transitioned from line crew to tow pilots. Without them, we would not get off the ground. Enrique Mertins laid out the RV parking plan and took care of all our visitors during their stay. Ted Haller and Anne Mongiovi did a great job in the Retrieve Office. Anne’s husband Gene Franklin is always a person we can plug into any slot that opens up. Anne and Gene have been with us for years and are a valuable resource. Dewey Clawson and Don Grillo ran Operations and kept the launch/recoveries efficient yet safe. Bill Foster, a fellow Delta retiree, was our Safety Officer and kept everyone on their toes. Ray Smith handled the Chief Tow Pilot duties with skill and kept Izumi, Franklin, Zack and Martin in line and flying straight! Fernando Silva provided us outstanding weather briefings, while Rick Sheppe kept us all honest with our scores. Our Contest Director, John Good, provided us with interesting tasks that challenged the pilots and made each day fun. We also had two wonderful ladies that made most of the magic happen. Mihaela kept the office running, dinners handled, and bills paid while Chris ran registration during a time of social distancing. She also ran the entire contest after flying began even though she needed a golf cart to get around due to foot surgery. These two ladies deserve our undying gratitude for the hard work they put in during this contest.
We hope the pilots, crews and volunteers all enjoyed their stay at Seminole-Lake and we expect to see you next year on March 12th, 2021 for the 31st edition of the Senior Soaring Championship.

Sincerely,
Rich Owen
Vice President
Seminole Flying and Soaring