I started the
day by turning on the TV and checking the weather. It looks like we'll have rain
showers until Wednesday. We arrived at the Ranch at 8:30 am. The task committee
was meeting at the breakfast tent. My glider was still wet from yesterday's
rain. Many pilots were towing up for tuning flights.
The pilots meeting started about 10:45. The task for the day was Coleman with
start times every 15 minutes beginning at 1:00 and ending at 1:30. An alternate
task was set up as the same goal, but flights ending at 3:00. That is, if you
don’t make goal by 3:00, you are given the distance to where you were at 3:00.
The start circle was the Ranch, with a 5 mile diameter for flexes' and 3 mile
for rigids. I guess since we rigid flyers have such a poor glide they decided
for safety to keep us closer to the Ranch in case we sink out ;-) The meeting
went very well with few questions. The tow area was designated in the new area
that Malcolm cleared last year. Davis gave the weather report which was for weak
lift, cloud bases a little above 2,000’ and rain later in the day.
As soon as the meeting was over there was a dash to get in line at the tow area.
All the tow carts were taken so I had to carry my glider there. I have never
carried my glider so far. The Wills Wing aero down tubes are fine for standing
on launch, but I’m sure I will have bruises from today. Everyone lined up in two
lines, odd numbers on the right and even numbers on the left with both flexes'
and rigids mixed together. At 11:35 some wind dummies were towed up. One
disappeared for a few moments due to whiteness, in full view of everyone. There
was obvious lift and they seemed to be staying up. Close to noon the tug pilots
were reporting rain showers and for safety reasons the day was called. Time to
carry my glider back. Thankfully the Ranch crew was bringing the carts back to
the tow line and I was able to wheel my glider back.
The Launch line
I screwed up my GPS getting ready for the task. One of the good suggestions
Davis had was to remove all your waypoints except for the ones needed for the
task (If you have a way to reload them, which I do). So I deleted all of them
except goal, then realized I needed the Ranch for the start circle and the one
with my pilot ID (the scoring program looks for it to know who’s gps it is
reading). My laptop is back in the car, and I am in line for the start. So now I
am furiously trying to re-program my gps by hand, using the waypoint from a
friend's gps. I got it all back ok, but it was a learning experience. I don’t
think I will do that again.
Malcolm had things very organized; there were lots of helpers going up and down
the tow lines asking if anyone needed anything. The cart with the water supplies
was a particularly nice sight for the eyes, but I failed to get a picture of it.
With the day called, I decided to head back to Home Depot and get some more wood
to repair my crate. When we got back to the Ranch, they were towing again. It
didn’t look like anyone was doing great. One thing that has impressed me here is
the number of great landings. In the last two days I have only seen one whack
(an Atos-C). I have read in the past that many of the comp pilots have bad
landings, but I have not found this to be true. Most of the pilots run out their
landings, which I don’t see as often in the West. It never did rain here today
(at 6:00 as I am typing).
The people in Florida have been very nice. I hear a lot of please and thank
you's, yes sir’s and the like. I have not spotted any alligators yet.
Vince
PS Rich got in a tuning flight today. Chris Arai is here as well.