First Soaring Contest

vontresc

vontresc

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vonSegelGoober
I'm getting excited. I'm going to fly my very first soaring contest this weekend. Sky Soaring in Huntley, IL (55L NW of Chicago) is putting on this mini regional contest over the Memorial Day weekend. The weather is looking good, and we are west enough to be out of the Obama TFR. Come and visit at the field if you're curious about soaring and/or contests.
 
Great, I think contests are a lot of fun.
I opted to skip our Memorial Day mini contest in order to have the funds to fly our Region 8 contest over the 4th of July.
Let us know how you do.

Brian
 
I expect hourly reports.
 
Sounds like fun... enjoy it, and remember: "it's not a contest..."
Oh, wait, it is a contest... "take no prisoners!"

:D
 
wby0nder said:
I expect hourly reports.
Click to expand...
Are you sure?

12:00 Off to a good start
13:00 Scratching for lift
13:20 Landed out
14:00 Waiting for crew
15:00 Waiting for crew
16:00 Waiting for crew. They say I gave them a bad location
17:00 Waiting for crew.
18:00 Crew arrived. They forgot the dolly - headed back to the airport
19:00 Waiting for crew...:goofy:
 
I didn't know you were a cross country glider pilot!

Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Are you sure?

12:00 Off to a good start
13:00 Scratching for lift
13:20 Landed out
14:00 Waiting for crew
15:00 Waiting for crew
16:00 Waiting for crew. They say I gave them a bad location
17:00 Waiting for crew.
18:00 Crew arrived. They forgot the dolly - headed back to the airport
19:00 Waiting for crew...:goofy:
Click to expand...
 
I liked our version….

12:00 launch
13:00 Start Gate open
13:05 Leaving the start gate
13:30 scratching for lift
14:00 Landing out
15:00 Waiting for crew
16:00 Crew Arrives
16:05 Open glider trail, surprised to find glider already in the trailer
16:10 Crew leaves to go get the correct trailer….
 
Or my version…

12:00 Launch
13:00 Leaving start Gate
13:45 turning 1st turn point
14:30 30 miles from 2nd turn point observing 2nd turnpoint has a Thunder Storm parked over it.
14:15 Climbed as high as possible, all overcast from here to 2nd turn point
15:50 gliding in formation with a contest leader. Air is perfectly smooth
15:55 No chance of turning the next turn point, just gliding for maximum distance. Crew Notified retrieve will be required, they are on their way.
16:00 Over flying a crop duster strip behind my in laws house where I am staying for the contest.
16:05 turning back to land at the crop duster strip. Contest leader continues on course.
16:15 Landed at crop duster strip
16:20 In laws show up. Rain starts pouring down.
16:40 Crew Shows up
16:55 Glider loaded
17:00 Leave Glider at in laws house
17:15 Stop to help another glider pilot that landed in a field about 5 miles short of the duster strip.
17:20 Lost shoes in mud from the field, field was dry when he landed, now it is 8 inches of Mud.
17:30 What’s that smell?, The farmer had just “naturally fertilized” the field the week before, Now it is wet cow manure.
17:35 Glider pilot is offering to sell the glider as is, where is.
17:45 Mud/manure covered crew, pilot, glider and vehicles are loaded and back on the road to the airport.
18:30 No one seems pleased to see us return and kindly point us toward the showers.
19:00 Showered, people seem more friendly now however they keeping their distance from the glider trailer.
19:15 Check scoring results have out scored the Contest Leader by landing at an airport for 25 bonus points, The leader landed a field a few miles from the duster strip. I have won the day for having the most points. Still way behind overall though.
Next Day: Glider pilot is washing the glider, everyone still keeping their distance.
Rest of the Season: Glider pilot always complaining about smell every time he opens the nose vent…
Next Season: Glider Pilot has a new glider…

Brian
 
Wow what fun!

Morning pilot briefing was skeptical about the weather, and predicted an inversion at 4800' with blue conditions. Thankfully by the time we gridded the Cu's were popping. We called two tasks, a beginnner and an advanced task. I flew the beginner task of around 60 miles from Sky Soaring to Poplar Grove to De Kalb, and back to Sky Soaring.

We launched quickly behind a 180 horse 152 and a stol 172 to 2000'. I hooked up with good lift to 5500' but had to burn off 1000' to make the start window when the task opened.

The first leg went pretty smoothly, although I cycled when I got to the first turnpoint, and I ended up scratching around at 1500' agl until I got back up. the rest of the flight went without too much trouble, and I topped out at about 5500' agl on the way home.

I flew very conservatively, and as a result wasn't very fast, but flying a task, and gaggling with others on the way was a blast. I will have to come back and do this again next year.

Here's my flight trace http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=-436954005

Grid Getting Ready to fly
IMG_0280.JPG


Screaming home at 87 knots!
IMG_0281.JPG
 
Day 2:

Today was way more challenging than yesterday. We called a 2 hour TAT with an 8 mile radius around Poplar Grove, and a 20 mile radius around Rochelle. The weather looked great at the start, but I made the mistake of getting off of tow way too low. so I spent some quality time scratching for altitude around glider port. I finally connected with a decent thermal, but I broke through the top of the start cylinder 2 minutes before the task opened. Doh! I decided to run upwind, and try to find the thermal again for my start, but to no avail. So I spent another 35 minutes of quality time in the start cylinder, and finally left it at 3600' to go to a good looking cloud.

The first leg was spent mainly farting around down low, until I finally connected with some good thermals to take me up above 4000' where the good lift was to be found. The second leg was much more fun, and I ran upwind as far as I could until it was time to come home.

The Eta on the computer gave me 2hours 5 minutes when I turned around, and pointed the nose towards the glider port for my final glide. After consulting my handy "Prayer wheel" (Circular glide slope slide rule) I pushed the nose over to 70 Kts, and took the chance for a "nature break".

After a short but fun flight in the yellow arc I called my finish at 2:02. Perfect timing for a TAT of 2 hours. My XC speed came out to 30mph, which hopefully will give me a respectable score.

Here's the OLC trace if you're curious.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=-347882005
 
That does sound like fun... except for the scratching. :D
Seems like you had a pretty good first-time experience, overall.
 
Well unfortunately we didn't get to fly today. The front rolled in, and shut us down. At least I wasn't the only one to be rained out. Turns out the Obama Memorial Day event in Elwood, IL got rained out as well. We jokingly commented that we should have relocated the third day to Ames or Cedar Rapids, and we would ave had a great day :)

I had a blast and will have to do it again next year.

Well here's the final score sheet after two days of flying

Sky Soaring
Sky Soaring
Sunday, May 30, 2010

Preliminary
Sports Class Day 2

Task: Turn Area
ID Name Distance (Miles) Radius
3 Sky Soaring 0.00 2.0
68 Poplar Grove 18.30 8.0
74 Rochelle 50.48 20.0
3 Sky Soaring 83.72 1.0

Minimum Time 02:00

Cumulative Day Speed Distance Remarks
Rank Points ID Name Glider Rank Points Hndcp Actual Hndcp Actual Code Penalty Points
---- ----- -- ---- ------ ---- ------ ----- ------ ----- ------ ---- ------- ------
1 1634 MK Kraus, Mike DG-303 3 762 37.62 40.02 74.62 79.38 MT , SSA
2 1629 E7 Zibinski, Jacek PIK-20B 2 817 40.31 42.44 80.18 84.40 MT , SSA
3 1555 24 Dziedzic, Jan ASW-24 5 705 34.82 37.04 80.53 85.67 SSA
4 1552 614 von Tresckow, Peter Ka-6CR 4 746 36.85 28.79 75.34 58.86 SSA
5 1000 GE Kamis, John PW-5 Smyk 1 1000 49.37 41.84 99.81 84.59 SSA
5 1000 N Nemec, Joe SGS 1-34R 6 0 0.0 SSA, F
7 911 ES Silverman, Art SGS 1-34 6 0 0.0 SSA, F
8 704 PW5 Weck, Logan PW-5 Smyk 6 0 0.0 SSA, F
9 316 PD Pandit, Devesh DG-101G 6 0 0.0 SSA, F

Codes:
MT Flight time less than minimum time.
SSA No SSA number on file for this pilot.
F No flight log.

Preliminary
Advanced Class Day 2

Task: Turn Area
ID Name Distance (Miles) Radius
3 Sky Soaring 0.00 2.0
68 Poplar Grove 18.30 8.0
36 GrndpsFrmMnd 75.69 20.0
1 CHICGGLDRCLB 121.94 20.0
3 Sky Soaring 172.66 1.0

Minimum Time 03:00

Cumulative Day Speed Distance Remarks
Rank Points ID Name Glider Rank Points Hndcp Actual Hndcp Actual Code Penalty Points
---- ----- -- ---- ------ ---- ------ ----- ------ ----- ------ ---- ------- ------
1 1995 J7 Kilian, Herb LS-8-15 2 995 53.40 57.73 159.01 171.90 MT , SSA
2 1898 MT Ridenour, Ron ASW-27 1 1000 53.68 61.00 160.81 182.73 MT , SSA
3 1637 F Palmer, Greg DG-300 5 823 44.17 46.50 151.07 159.02 SSA
4 1631 M7 Molidor, Gerry LS-3A 7 794 42.61 45.33 133.04 141.53 SSA
5 1625 TZ Russell, Jeff Ventus 2b 3 904 48.50 54.87 145.33 164.40 MT , SSA
6 1615 3H Wajda, Marian Jantar Std 4 841 45.15 45.60 142.09 143.53 SSA
7 1598 SH Shakman , Mike ASG-29-18 6 816 43.80 51.22 135.57 158.57 SSA
8 1484 67 DeRosa, John DG-101G 8 688 36.95 37.33 110.66 111.78 MT , SSA

Codes:
MT Flight time less than minimum time.
SSA No SSA number on file for this pilot.


Created on Monday May 31, 2010 - 07:12 by Winscore Rev 2, http://www.gfbyars.com/winscore
 
Great report. I know you had fun. I still remember my first contest (we thermaled with terradactyls back then).
There were a couple of guys from my old club (Chicago Glider Club) in the results.
Keep it up. NOTHING improves soaring skills like contest flying! (and nothing else leads to better land out stories.)
 
Wow...that looks cool. Note to self: Gotta try soaring...
 
bill there are plenty of opportunities in arizona. good soaring conditions there. the club in Tuscon has been kicking ass on the OLC this year and they just hosted a Regional contest that was very successful.

check out www.ssa.org and click the "Where to Fly" link on the right side.
 
Thanks, Tony. A close friend of mine has introduced me to a longtime friend of his, Jason, who runs Estrella Sailport (http://azsoaring.com/). He's offered a ride in a Grob 103 Acro (and to allow me to land my 182 there), but I just haven't done it yet. Jason competes in Acro, I think, so the flight could be very interesting...

I wish I had more time....
 
yea ive visited with Jason several times at SSA Conventions. He's one of the 2 or 3 guys who seriously competes to represent the USA at the World Air Games in sailplane aerobatics. I think he is at least a 3 time national champ but got 2nd last year.
 
That's what I hear about him; acro champ. In any case, he seems like a really nice guy...and I need to take him up on that offer with my buddy!
 
Yeah Jason is a really nice guy, and a great pilot. When you have the time go out there and take a ride. You won't regret it.
 
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