Cordele, Georgia, Report Wednesday 16 May 07

Whoa Nelly, as many Americans have heard while watching
college football on tv. We had another great day of
soaring here in south Georgia. Cloud bases to 6,300,
plus or minus. Good lift when you needed it. Sink
when you didn't.

Let's see, winners on Tuesday:
18m: John Murray (ASG-29)
15m: Steve Newfield (LS6-b)
Standard: Andy Gough (LS8-18)
Sports: Larry Goddard (LS3)

Steve and Andy are both from Canada, two of the four
Canadians racing here. The other two are Ed Hollestelle
and Dave Sprinford.

For us LS drivers, Tuesday gave us a good day! (but
not me, personally, 'cause I suck.)

Ed Hollestelle is flying his 'franken-glider'. It's
a 'bitsa' type of thing. 'Bits of this, bits of that.'
I'll probably butcher this, but I think he said the
cockpit is from a Ventus A, the tail boom is his own
creation, and the empennage is from an SZD-55. The
wings, well, most of the wings, are from a Ventus B.
Since the wings of the A and B aren't really the same,
he had to create the fillets at the fuselage. He has
the 16.6m of the Ventus on it, except they are modified
with the winglets of the LS8-18. Workmanship on this
home-built is first rate! Why did he do it? Because
he could!

A little about Cordele: the airfield is the old style
American trainer base from the World War II in that
it has three runways forming a triangle. One runway
is closed, but could be used in emergencies. Gliders
are using 05-23 while 'regular' traffic usually uses
10-28. This airfield is HUGE! Lots of runways that
are 100' wide by, oh, 5,000' long and LOTS OF GRASS.
It is really ideal for a BIG glider operation and
with the Standard Nationals coming here in 2008 and
the 15m Nationals coming in 2009, the pilots will find
just a great place for the race.

There's limited RV camping at the field, so must of
us are staying in a motel that's only about a 3 mile
drive from the field. Getting from one to the other
means driving through two railroad crossings. Usually
no big deal, but here in Cordele, it must be a southern
version of Grand Central Station: Trains running ALL
THE TIME! I think there are both North-South lines
and East-West lines that must be main lines for CSX
and/or Norfork-Southern. We hear train whistles all
the time. I never knew there was so much train traffic.

Cordele is a small town, but the hospitality is quite
large. Tonight, we were invited to a big ol' barbecue,
sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce (I think). There
must have been a 100 people there and the pig was delicious.
Welcoming us was the 'Watermelon Queen', a young and
very pretty lady, with tiara and sashes. This part
of Georgia produces a lot of melons. Pecans, too.
Large pecan orchards are down here.

For more info, see the web page: http://www.regionv-south-soaring
org/

Ok, about today: Wow! No, I have no idea about the
scores. I won't see them till Thursday morning. But
I had fun. The bit of interesting and confusing part
was the task changing. Weather just wasn't matching
what Crusty Jedi Galloway had told us and the CD was
scrambling to get something to work. Several changes
in cylinder sizes and turnpoints ensued, but we finally
got it sorted out. Sure would be great to have that
type of info sent directly from the ground to our computers
on board so we don't have to fly and write and 'see
and avoid'. Oh yea, when the CD is trying to tell
us this, there's another pilot on tow trying to tell
the towplane to speed up. Everybody speaking at once.

For Sports Class, the task we finally flew was: Cordele-Fitzgeral
d (8 miles) - Tifton (10 miles) - Leesburg (10 miles)-Finish.
That put us in the southeast to southwest part of
the task area. Clouds were pretty good for us in that
part of the task area and I was able to motor along
at 75 to 80 knots between thermals, but then tended
to loose lots of speed when climbing. As mentioned
earlier in this brief, I suck. But I'm having fun!

Nick, the Blanik Driver Extraordinaire, made it around
the course again! He'll probably beat me, but I don't
care. This guy can really fly. Yesterday, he had
a bit of glide computer problems and missed the last
turnpoint by about a wingspan or so. Ouch.

And for y'all who think there should be some landouts:
YOU need to come and fly the Blanik! As Nick said,
that alone is enough incentive to not land out! If
he lands out, and it doesn't appear he will, we'll
need to round up about 5 hearty souls to help derig
and rerig back at the field.

Someone requested photos of Sam's LS1-f. What? My
LS1-d isn't good enough? Ok, I'll see what I can do.
I'll post the photos on the SSA web page under the
contest area, not under the general photo area.

Signing off from Cordele,

Ray Lovinggood