Come on out if you can - there won't be many more days to choose from
this year .
ZA.
Keep a "headsup " for any e-mailings . I'll try to make it happen.
Ron (ZA).
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Don
October 13 allowed one more contest day, although participation was at
the bare minimum: three pilots. As usual Ron won the day, but Todd
Rutledge had a nice flight too, and was able to improve his standing
in the scoresheet by supplanting one of his low scores with a higher
one. Terry "fell" upon bad luck on his final leg home and had to
settle for a landout 24 miles from home. At least we have unlimited
landing fields now that the crops have been harvested. Average lift
was in the 200 fpm range and all three pilots climbed to over 5500
feet during the day. But it wasn't all smooth soaring. Todd bottomed
out about 600 feet above the ground just northwest of Richmond before
making a great save. Ron got down to 1300 feet south of Muncie.
Given that some regular contestants decided not to tempt fate and flew
locally, it is a credit to the three that did go out and make the best
of it. As I write this on a gloomy late October Saturday, I have to
wonder if the scoresheet might be final. But tomorrow has potential
and a few weekdays before the end of the month look possible based on
the long range forecast, so maybe the fat lady has not sung.
Hi Darren, I'm making it official. We will not fly today due to the
high winds out of the south. Could you please put this information on
our blog. I've already contacted my crew about the weather and no
flying. Thanks, Terry
You made a good decision if you did not come out to fly this
afternoon , or maybe you studied the weather forecast more carefully
than I did.
Firstly thank you very much Larry for towing, without your help we
would not have been able to learn the lesson !
We launched at around 1pm - Pete in the 102 and Todd Herrli and I in
the 103. Cu's were forming in the South and so that's where we asked
Larry to tow us. By release at 2000 agl we still had not reached the
Cu's so we kept on pressing South . By the time we contacted lift we
were about 4 miles from the field but upwind . Lift was marginal to
about 2000 agl (maybe 2400) and the cu's looked raggged .
We drifted back over the field and scratched back to release altitude
but then made the mistake of heading SW to a wisp - which didn't work
. Ask Todd , I'm sure he'll tell you we were OK , but I only kept
trying for lift as I knew there were many good places to land in
harvested fields below. We eventually gave up after 40 minutes below
2000agl.
The lesson - The weather that was moving in was a WARM FRONT and the
lift was broken and unreliable to only a low cloudbase . It clouded
out completely 30 minutes after we landed. Remember it's COLD FRONTS
that bring the good stuff !
Now I see that the weather this weekend is post cold front so it
definitely should be better - come on out and see .
ZA.
With the soaring days becoming less and less frequent I happened to
notice that tomorrow ( Wed ) looks like a good soaring day this week .
Please advise if any of you are interested as Larry has kindly
offfered to tow if we decide to !
ZA.
I've made the decision to sell my Grob 102 Standard. I haven't flown
in much the last 2 years and really can't justify keeping it right
now. I'd like to give someone in the club a chance at it before I put
it out on W&W.
Ken
For those who flew Sunday, it will be a day we'll still be talking
about over beers this winter. Cloud bases to 6,700 feet, thermals of
500 fpm and some long distances flown. Many times I'd be startled by
flying into corn leaves at 5000 feet. Swept up off the harvested
fields, they were marking thermals for us instead of hawks! I bet not
anyone in the whole world knows there could be corn leaves at 5000
feet except glider pilots. Cool. Ron had a great flight of 231 miles
at 56 mph to win the day (It was the 5th longest flight in the world
based on OLC reports for Sunday!) Your scorer also had a good
high-speed flight, although not as long, at 50 mph, thanks to staying
high and one nice long glide on course. Simpson had a good flight
that would have been a great flight if he hadn't encountered a gravity
storm over Converse. Once away though, he managed a remarkable 32
mile straight glide before crossing the finish line. Terry Wools had
a tough time for the first half of his task, but came on stronger with
two long glides in the second half.
The overall standings changed slightly. With Taylor finally getting
his fourth flight on the board, he moved up to 4th place overall and
put Team 8UP into 3rd place. There are three weekends left in the
contest, so who knows where this will end up. See you at the field.
This October may go down in the history books as the best soaring
weather ever in an Indiana October , and it's not over yet .
The past several days have been outstanding with many, many cross
country miles flown. You only need to check the OLC or the club
contest to verify . Cloudbases on Sunday were 6700msl and lift
averaged around 4 knots. New member Josh Daisey was seen up north
around Converse in his RS 15. Terry Wools, Jerry Simpson and Don
Taylor all flew between 100 and 200 miles .Mario went for broke , but
kept flying into a shower which had him land at the Tregessar airstrip
near Tipton. He was able to promote soaring to the locals who showed
up to help until Chris Murawski rescued him by tow plane..
Nyal and Larry took students on 1 hour flights and Nyal instructed for
nearly 5 hours yesterday.
ZA flew good long tasks which took nearly 5 hours each twice in the
past 3 days and yesterday he landed , de rigged and was leaving the
field at around 6:30 when Josh decided to come on down from 6000 at
that time. My guess is you could have flown to 7pm if you played it
right.
Even if the weather cools off , the ground is so dry all we need is a
cool night followed by a sunny day and someone could easily go get
"The Trophy" back from Caesar Creek as they took it home last
Saturday.
ZA
If you are wanting to go "cross country " this may be the time of the
year you have been waiting for .
Early October can be an excellent time to break out of the regular
"around the field " flight in the glider for several reasons .
Firstly soaring conditions are frequently very good after the passage
of a cold front this time of year . Lift is often 4 knots + and
cloudbases will go to 6000msl .
Secondly the crops are being harvested rapidly and already there are
many good bean fields that offer solace if you need an "off field"
landing site- almost better than the airfield.
The scenery is spectacular with Fall colors in abundance. Watch out
for corn stalks as the thermals sweep them up from newly harvested
fields ! - and if you are a bird lover you'll love flying with the
migrating hawks and maybe even an eagle.
Don't miss the excellent soaring conditions the next few weeks - it
does start to go downhill after that.
ZA.
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