Congratulations to the Soaring Club of Houston

It was down to the last weekend of the OLC season. On Saturday, September 20, the Albuquerque Soaring Club, flying from Moriarty, NM was in the lead with about 1,200 points over second place, the Soaring Club of Houston.

However, over the weekend and the last Monday of the OLC, the Houston pilots rallied with an exceptional effort, scoring over 20 flights. The Moriarty pilots were subjected to gnashing their teeth as the rains fell and gliders rested peacefully inside trailers and hangars.

Final score was the SCOH in first place for the US with 145,831.92 points. Albuquerque had 142,622.82 points for second place.

Albuquerque Soaring salutes the Soaring Club of Houston for their achievement, and would like to warn them that there is always next year.

Great flying, you guys!!!

Thanks to the Albuquerque club for the kind words.

We do admit to being just a wee bit competitive. On Saturday the 21st, with 13 SCOH gliders about half way through a day of XC soaring, we got a radio call from one of our compadres stuck on the ground running the operations for the day, "I just checked the sailplane tracker, and there are no Albuquerque gliders in the air!" Smiles all around.

We have to acknowledge the Albuquerque club for being a great "adversary," and for pushing us to raise our game. The OLC race (OLC plus - total distance) has been a rallying cry to encourage more XC flight within our club. Nothing like competition to get the juices flowing.

For clubs looking for an extra spark, the friendly OLC competition, whether within the club, between a few regional clubs, or nation-wide, can be a focal point and help with esprit de corps. We give out a number of awards at our annual banquet based on OLC results.

Happy flying to all in 2015.
- Frank Allen, V1, Soaring Club of Houston

PS - and we accept the challenge for the coming year!

What is the technology behind the Sailplane Tracker?

I have looked at the SSA website and see a nice map with no activity
(given that it's early in the day yet). Do pilots need special
equipment, e.g., Spot or Flarm to have their tracks monitored?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Dan Marotta

On 9/26/2014 7:38 AM, V1 wrote:
Thanks to the Albuquerque club for the kind words.

We do admit to being just a wee bit competitive. On Saturday the 21st, with 13 SCOH gliders about half way through a day of XC soaring, we got a radio call from one of our compadres stuck on the ground running the operations for the day, "I just checked the sailplane tracker, and there are no Albuquerque gliders in the air!" Smiles all around.

We have to acknowledge the Albuquerque club for being a great "adversary," and for pushing us to raise our game. The OLC race (OLC plus - total distance) has been a rallying cry to encourage more XC flight within our club. Nothing like competition to get the juices flowing.

For clubs looking for an extra spark, the friendly OLC competition, whether within the club, between a few regional clubs, or nation-wide, can be a focal point and help with esprit de corps. We give out a number of awards at our annual banquet based on OLC results.

Happy flying to all in 2015.
- Frank Allen, V1, Soaring Club of Houston

PS - and we accept the challenge for the coming year!

Dan,

I think you need a Spot or a DeLorme Inreach to get tracked. Both are satellite-based systems that don't need cell phone access.

Mike

On Friday, September 26, 2014 7:55:05 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:

What is the technology behind the Sailplane Tracker?

It uses Spot, InReach or the iPhone/Android Glide Track App which works surprisingly well by buffering your track until it gets a mobile data connection and bursts it to the server for a much more granular and detailed track than the satellite trackers - particularly Spot, which seems downright primitive in comparison.

Pedja has done a fantastic job putting this together. I look forward to some of the future features like real-time contest scoring so people on the ground can see "who's in the lead" over the course of a race.

Click around at glideport.aero for details.

http://glideport.aero/blog

9B

Who hijacked this thread?

I thought this post was to sing the praises of the swamp fliers...SCOH.
Does this now rate Houston as the premier soaring site in the USA?

I suspect it does....

David
C2

On Friday, September 26, 2014 11:00:05 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Friday, September 26, 2014 7:55:05 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:



What is the technology behind the Sailplane Tracker?



It uses Spot, InReach or the iPhone/Android Glide Track App which works surprisingly well by buffering your track until it gets a mobile data connection and bursts it to the server for a much more granular and detailed track than the satellite trackers - particularly Spot, which seems downright primitive in comparison.



Pedja has done a fantastic job putting this together. I look forward to some of the future features like real-time contest scoring so people on the ground can see "who's in the lead" over the course of a race.



Click around at glideport.aero for details.



http://glideport.aero/blog



9B

The discussion about SCOH vs Moriarty is so last year. :-) Well done by ALL clubs participating. I chuckle at this because we have had a wonderful start to the 2015 OLC season up here in Kansas. We won't be there for long, but which club is at the top right now? Go Kansas Soaring Association! When the season gets to rocking, look out, guys below us. We will be coming thru!

Steve Leonard
PN (so far in 2015)

Not a bad year...
SCOH and ABQ did great. But with 39 and 30 pilots respectively.
Hole In The Wall was amazing for 11 pilots.
And Jet Pilot got the highest scoring 6 flight total to date on OLC.

PN must be the H301. Easy to lose track of the fleet.
Nice wave flight out of Wichita on the 28th. Did you submit that to the Kansas State Record Keeper? I think he'll be skeptical...
Jim
(nothing so far this year)