Friday 6-10-2005 and Saturday 6-11-2005: Drive to Parowan
Phil, Dave, and Pedja
After determining we had ample supply of external catethers, large and
small, we set off to Parowan Friday afternoon. Phil made us stop
early at Green River and sleep over there. Next day, we safely
arrived to Parowan. Inspite of the heavy rain, this year we averaged
63 mph, a 20% increase since the last year! We are looking forward to
the next year.
Since it was not flyable, we engaged in the the ancient male bonding
ritual of preparing sectional charts.
Through scientific investigation and experimentation, we now know how
*not* to open a bottle of wine with a pair of scissors. Details not
to be disclosed. Good night.
|
|
|
Sunday 6-12-2005: Practice Day 1
Phil and Dave
Today was the first practice day. Colin joined us for breakfast. He
professed to be the same person as before. Phil loaned Colin his hat,
when the hat got back it was 4 sizes larger.
We had a pilots meeting. It was run very well. We saw some big names.
The weather forecast looked pretty good for today.
After the meeting we rigged and than rigged some more. We used the
Ecklund method in the end, it was somewhat like a tackle. We also
discovered we needed to have one captain in charge every day. Thanks
to some creative on-site part manufacturing we managed to got water
ballast (12 liters) in the tail.
After four hours of rigging and lunch, the SSB team sprang into action
and got onto the grid unencumbered by other gliders and towplanes.
The flight was a practice MAT with one turnpoint to 74-Pintura, for
min distance around 90 miles. Phil and Dave flew today. Takeoff was
in slight quartering tailwind. Flying with the tail ballast made KK
much more pitch sensitive (in a good way).
It was a struggle to get to a cloud base, and then it was a struggle
to stay at the cloud base. We flew some ridge lift on course, cruised
and climbed. We got close to the turnpoint (about 4mi), then turned
back because temperature was getting below 0C. On the way back, we
were 2000 ft above glide, but there was high terrain in the way. We
had to land on the taxiway, which made it far more exciting.
Lessons learned:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Monday 6-13-2005: Practice Day 2
Phil and Pedja
Today, we were out early. We were at the field before 8am. We were
2nd in line for weighting. We cleaned the glider. We were second on
the grid. We were the last to launch. Go figure.
Sniffer had hard time climbing out, so the launch got postponed. The
task got changed to 2:30 TAT with turnpoints 48-Junction and
79-HornetPt with 25 mile radius both, and min distance 36 miles,
maximum 234 miles.
This was first time Phil and I flew together, and we are still
speaking to each other. We actually enjoyed flying together. We flew
with Karl Striedieck for quite a bit. We leached on him, and than he
leached on us.
It was blue and thermals were not going higher than 10.5 Kft. We
leisurely made it around, a lot of the time we were below ridge line.
Since it was a practice day, all decisions took that into account.
All the systems worked fine.
In the evening there was a dinner followed by the pilots mandatory
safety briefing.
Lessons learned:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 (Eagle) |
 |
 |
 |
Tuesday 6-14-2005: Contest Day 1
Phil and Pedja
Dave had to leave today, but he will come back for the weekend. So,
now I am enjoying Phil's and Bob's hospitality (i.e., washing dishes).
Tail tow bar is a problem, it does not work. It is hard to put on,
one person needs to lift the tail. Sitting on the ground it is easy
to tip over and hit a glider.
The wx forecast looked promising for a big task, with strong lift and
potential climbs to 17 Kft and strong lift. Task A was called, a TAT
to 78-HurricanMs (15mi) then 96-JacobLk (25mi) then 69-BryceCnyn
(20mi) then 64-BrianHead (10mi) then 49-Marysvale (25mi), with 4 hrs
min time. The task allowed going to Grand Canyon and potentially
seeing California Condors.
Sightseeing was gorgeous. Early on, we never found anything strong,
but we were never in doubt. Since we were flying over some tiger
country, the emphasis staying on the upper of the height band.
Minumum altitude where we were taking any lift was 12 Kft. We
essentially just nicked all the cylinders, so we did not get close
enough to Grand Canyon. There were some fires around #96. The
strongest lift that we saw was latter in the day, at ~10 Kts. We made
a few tactical mistakes that cost us speed.
Our final glide was 27 miles out, an it did not quite work out as
planned. We came 100ft below the finish cylinder, so we did a rolling
finish with a pattern. Overall, we flew 260 miles at 61 mph.
Lots of people had trouble around Bryce Canyon and there were 8
landouts.
Somehow all Boulder people got clumped together on the scoresheet,
separated by about 30 pts.
A great dinner and a day debrief was at Julie and Bill Kaewert and
Alfonso's condo.
Lessons learned:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Wednesday 6-15-2005: Contest Day 2
Phil and Pedja
Our handicap was set to .885 at flying weight of 1453#, compared to
.894 for KS Duo. The published SSA handicap for 505/20m is .894 at
1385#, that is same as Duo. We protested our handicap. As a result,
our handicap got revised down, worse for us. We will try again
tomorrow, maybe we get it back to what we started from...
Weather forecast looked good so a big task was called. The forecast
also called for a dry airmass to come from the south mid afternoon,
which would then kill the lift.
The task was MAT with the first turnpoint to 32-KanshCnyn or
36-MonroePk, minimum time 4hr and restriction that any turnpoint can
be used only once.
The weather forecast was a factor in our decision to start early.
Early on we were slow, feeling out the weather. Highest altitude that
we reached was 16.5 Kft, at the cloud base. It was still pretty warm
in the cockpit. As the day developed, cloud streets got better and
better. The 505 seems to outclimb most gliders in thermals. However,
Duo Discuses beat us on the runs.
We finished with 3Kft extra as we could not find strong enough lift to
take an additional turnpoint. We completed 284 miles at 71 mph.
Wills and Newfield flying Duo Discus 2TB were the day winners. Gavin
Wills is the maker of movie Windborn where he teaches his daughter
Lucy to fly, and where later they are flying over the New Zealand
Alps. Theo Newfield was the New Zealand champion several times. They
are flying as guests.
After the dinner, we were treated to an impressive falconry
presentation by Martin Tyner of South West Utah Rehab Center.
Lessons learned:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Thursday 6-16-2005: Contest Day 3
Pedja and Steve
The handicap issue got settled for now. Phil talked to the head of
the handicap comitee, Dave Cole. Dave conveniently needed a ride back
to the grid, and Phil took the opportunity to present the case. So
now we are back up to .882, about what we started with.
Phil took a day off today. I flew with Steve Zimmerman as guest
co-pilot.
Weather forecast called for good lift to the North. However, the
cirrus layer got far thicker than predicted. The launch got
postponed, and in the end task D was declared, a 2 hour MAT with no
assigned turnpoints.
Winds were from the ~ South at 15-20 at sfc and altitude. Given that
the weather looked bleak, our strategy was to be conservative, to stay
heigh and close to the field, and to follow the clouds. We started to
the North, went to 46-BurntPk. We got some good climbs and good
tailwind. As there was a street back South, we decided to go to
BrianHead. We barely made the turnpoint in the stiff headwind, but
found a good thermal immediately after we made the turn. The rest of
the day was less exciting.
Both GPS-NAV and PDA malfunctioned so that some turnpoints
mysteriously disappeared from the database while in flight.
Importantly, turnpoint 65-BearValley that we decided to go to
disappeared.
The whole flight we were within easy glide back to Parowan. We
finished 3 min under time, ~600ft too high. We completed 124 miles at
61 mph. Our average climb was at 3.6 kts, and we spent 29% of time
climbing. John Good did an excellent job in getting the racing day
in, inspite of the bleak weather.
Phil did a great job as our crew today. While we were flying he fixed
the tail dolly wheel and put the contest ID on the trailer.
Kathy and Joe Brack arrived today, and we all went to dinner together
with Tom Knauff and Lee Kuhlke (DDT), and Bob Carl.
Lessons learned:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Friday 6-17-2005: Contest Day 4
No fly day
The plan was for Phil and Joe to fly today. The day was cancelled
because of the predicted high sfc winds. I did a ride for the contest
staff.
Bob will cook tonight. It is supposed to be good.
Day report
 |
 |
Saturday 6-18-2005: Contest Day 4
Phil and Joe
Yesterday's ride included 42 kt wind from the South at 3,000 AGL and
rotor-like turbulence, with -1 to +3.5 Gs. The wingrunner that I took
for a ride enjoyed all 1 hr and 5 min of it! The weather forecast
called for high winds for today again, and from the ground, the day
looked much like yesterday. It looked like it could be cancelled
again.
The SSB team got kudos during the pilot's meeting for sending a flower
bouquet to the retrieve office staff (thanks Phil).
Since we were #1 on the grid, we were the last to push out. Now, it
is customary for pilots to get a kiss before a flight. Kathy was
there for Joe. And there was an anonymous volunteer kisser for Phil.
It was reported that after wiping all that lipstick Phil flew really well.
John Good stuck to task A, a 3hr min TAT to 49-Marysvale (20ml), then
64-BrianHead (25ml), then 31-Sulferdale (25ml), with nominal distance
of 225 miles. The weather proved to be challenging, but not as bad as
yesterday. There were three relights and a few landouts. W3 who was
in the first place overall landed out ~20 minutes in the flight.
The SSB team started fairly early. There was no lift until Beaver.
PW-5 spotted the first thermal. Once under the line of clouds, that
took the pressure off. The team went into the turn area cylinders
only a mile or so. Max altitude reached was 15.5 Kft. The team
finished under time some 15min. It was very gusty on final and on
runway, about 15kts of gust.
The task speed 54mph. Since the SSB team was the first to land and
first to submit the flight, the team was the first on the score sheet,
with the highest score for the day and in the overall lead, for
shortwhile at least. That was well documented.
All equipment worked perfectly.
Mark and Nick arrived today. I left for Boulder tonight, a 14 hr bus
trip, which is turning into an interesting experience itself.
Lessons learned:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
###
Comments? soar@tiptop.com
Click here to go up.