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The Oz Report Volume 5, Number 145 US
Nationals – 126 miles to goal The first day of the US Nationals and with winds predicted to be 19 knots out of the south-southwest, the task committee called a goal at Canton, 126 miles at 20 degrees to the NE, just over interstate 20. The upper level forecast was for lighter winds, but cloud base wouldn't rise that high until a bit later in the afternoon. As on previous days the morning started with thick low level cumulus streets that broke up before noon into more widely spaced convective cells. Given that this is a meet, we are not going to be going early in the morning, so we are looking for the weather forecast for the second half of the day. The launch window opens at 12:30 PM. The pilot's meeting gets going a bit late so there is a squeeze on to get launched. The rigid wing pilots (22 of them, compared with five here last year) have their own line (the flex wing pilots – 65 of them, have two lines). Our start gates at 1, 1:15 and 1:30 PM. With the pilot's meeting out at 12:30, we have little time to drag our glider half way across the air field and get ourselves in the air. Some rigid wing pilots don't seem to realize that they have got to launch right now to get set up in time to make the 1:30 PM start window – the last start gate. At least half the field is blowing it by not getting ready in a great big hurry. The flex wing pilot's start gate times are 1:45, 2, and 2:15 PM. They have time to draw a breath or two. Mark Poustinchian is off early, he knows the drill. Russell Brown, myself, and Johann Posch all get going. Robin Hamilton, flying a fully faired Swift, gets the rope by accident at 400 feet, wipes that baby around and puts it back down right at the head of the staging line. He wants back in right away. Porter gets pulled up, but half the field is still on the ground as Brian, Johan, Russell, and I drift toward the circumference of the rigid wing start circle – 7 miles out. There have been trikes waiting to get these guys in the air, so I can't believe how lame the bottom half of the field is. Haven't they competed before? Don't they know the absolute imperative of getting in the air with plenty of time to be ready to race? This is pathetic! As this is the last start gate time, I know that it is going to be a race as no one has taken an earlier start gate. I can see Mark Poustinchian off to our left and Johann is drifting off to the right following highway 79 as we get to the edge of the circle just as the clock strikes 1:30 and the race is on. With a couple of minutes it is just Brian Porter and I. There is no one else out there, as far as I can see. My devious mind is wondering just what Brian will do. I know that there is no need to race as fast as possible, because we are in the lead and most of the field is on the ground. Brian is over me and goes out ahead. I'm thinking cool, let him go out on his own. Then he stops in some lift and soon he is just over me again. Oh, no., I'm not going to let this happen. He's not going to hang with me if I can help it. I make a strong course correction and head off to the right off the course line to a set of clouds way to the right. I want to run away from him as far as possible. There should be lift under the clouds, and maybe he will not want to come with me but rather find lift on the course line under some reasonable clouds there. It works and I never see Brian again. Back behind the few rigid wing pilots who've actually gone out on course in a timely fashion, the flex wing pilots are towing up and getting ready to go. They can take an early start gate and have plenty of rigid wing pilots in front of them as they rigid wing pilots near them are a bunch of stragglers. If they wait, the rigid wing pilots will be out further on course and give the flex wing pilots more thermal markers further out. A bunch of Florida pilots – Paris, Carlos Bessa, Sugarman, Curt Warren, will fly off together at 2 PM, chancing it that the flex wing pilots that start at 2:15 PM won't be able to catch them. Meanwhile, up ahead, the lift is scratchy, broken, and not very strong. I'm working lines off to the right of the course line, and trying to get to some better clouds ahead. As I finally get close enough to race to a good cloud I see Mark Poustinchian coming in with me and a bit over me. Looks like I'll have someone to fly with. We are back near the course line and flying in stronger lift with darker clouds. The two of us together push each other into a higher racing mode and we've got a good line. After a few minutes it becomes clear that my ATOS with the WW control frame is gliding a lot better than Mark's ATOS. I catch him on the next thermal, then pass him, then continually get higher on the next couple of thermals until I lose him. I'll fly the rest of the task by myself. Out to my right, out of sight, Johann Posch in his new ATOS with the competition control frame from Felix is reading his GPS arrow wrong (it is tilted in his instrument pod) and heading at about 40 degrees instead of 20 degrees, right up highway 79 to Buffalo. You can see it on the map below. This map shows the course line and my track log. Heading off course will slow him down quite a bit. With him is Robin Hamilton in his Swift. He'll stay well right of the course line getting under better clouds and making up in better lift for a longer flight. Apparently Brian Porter will be off by himself going toward the wrong goal, the secondary and shorter goal. Behind us the flex wing pilots are now out on course and racing from rigid wing to rigid wing as they motor along the course line. To the north it is apparent for 70 miles out (only 56 miles into the task), that there is over development and cu nimbs. It seems like they are to the north of goal, but from this far out it is difficult to tell. I keep moving to the right to get under better clouds and bits and pieces of cloud street. Our course takes us over four lakes. I'll end up going over two of them. The fields are wide open down below and we don't go near any towns. I'm not looking at the ground as I've got to keep my eye out for any signs of streeting. Forty miles out from goal I cross the southeast end of a large lake and head for the cloud street that goes off to the east of goal. There are few clouds directly on the course line, so it makes a lot of sense to get under the good clouds, no matter that they are off a few miles. The lift is good under them and I go for twenty miles before deciding to head back in the direction of goal through a large blue hole. I figure that I can glider 20 miles and make it to goal. Turns out that there is plenty of lift out in the blue hole, the strongest lift of the day, and I get so high, that I can't fly fast enough to get down as much as I would have liked to at goal. Still as I'm the second one in after Robin in the Swift, it is no big deal for the goal keepers to record me coming over goal. There won't be another pilot in for about half an hour. Mark comes in next and then Johann. Brian is lost, but has figured out that there is no one at the other goal so that he'd better get to the primary goal. He'll make it in after a while. Forty five minutes later the flex wing pilots from the half hour later start come in as a gaggle. Things get interesting. Where is Gerolf? The time passes. Still no Gerolf. Then we hear that he is landing 5 kilometers away from goal. Then a few minutes later there he is swooping into goal, but very late. Flex wing and rigid wing pilots continue to dribble into goal and are still arriving as the wind turns north from the cu-nimbs just to our north at 6:30 PM. The cu-nimb has sent out tentacles over the course line and pilots are dropping off to the south as goal closes at 7 PM. I hope to have real results tomorrow. The meet is using Check In as the GPS verification program. So far, so good.
To view the Oz Report on the web go to http://www.davisstraub.com/OZ/. To view this issue of the Oz Report on the web go to http://www.davisstraub.com/OZ/Ozv5n145.htm. Davis Straub | |
