SCFR2013

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jdevorak
Posts: 273
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:37 am
Location: Kagel LZ

SCFR2013

Post by jdevorak »

Saturday. We made good speed getting to Casa Grande possibly because Phill did most of the driving. Ken set up to get in a practice tow (his second flight on his new glider). Ken and I got an outstanding room location, second floor by the steps. We don’t have to wait for the elevator.

Sunday. They called a short task for the first day. It was only a 50 mile triangle but we are in a blue hole with casper clouds on the horizon in all directions. On the ground it felt hotter than I remember. It was a numbered launch based on world points. All of my pilots were toward the back of the line. Tows went well for everybody. No weak link failures and no re-flights. Climbs were slow, only a hundred or two up. Greg and Ken hooked up early and were helping each other out. Phill hasn’t competed in a few years so his launch position was further back and he had to play catch up. Ken and Greg headed on course at 7 thousand on the last start gate. Phill used his patience trait (previously unknown to me) and stayed in his climb to 8,000 before heading on task. Shortly thereafter things seemingly went bad from my perspective. The boys were getting interfering mundane chatter on the frequency from truckers who couldn’t figure out how a hang glider could be using a ham radio. My pilots said they were going to turn off their radios. I drove the course and never saw a hang glider in the air until they came back on to say that they were on final glide to goal. I got back to Francisco Grande in time to see Ken and Greg land. Max altitudes for the three were about 10 or 11 thousand. Results from the day: Phill 16, Ken 19 and Greg 25. Thirty pilots out of 38 made goal. Average speed for the winner 40mph. About twice as fast as the winner of the Dahlsten cup.
eat right, exercise, die anyway!
jdevorak
Posts: 273
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:37 am
Location: Kagel LZ

Post by jdevorak »

Monday had similar conditions to the day before with predictions of a little stronger wind from the east and lift a little harder to find. With the east winds the pilots had to hike there gliders to the far edge of the field and take off toward the golf course (with trees). Temps were a couple of degrees hotter too. All 40 pilots got off well without any weak link failures. I only saw one pilot that came back for a re-flight. One pilot was added to our truck. Tyler, who is a buddy of Phill’s and the Canidian champion. He also has been hanging with us at day’s end. Phill had some bad luck from the get go. He could hear on the radio but could not transmit. A group of about 20 led the charge to the first turn point, my 4 pilots among them. Phill got a good climb there and had his second piece of bad luck. As he headed north with the lead gaggle of Tyler, Ken and Davis Straub, he noticed that he missed the actual cylinder and had to back track 2k to get it, thus losing his altitude advantage. He radioed down how much fun it was being with the lead gaggle. The second turn point was on the big Estrella mountains before heading back. Ken found 700 down most of the way back to the third waypoint. He worked it near TP3 for about 45 minutes to gain enough altitude to head for goal. Greg came into TP3 a little later and higher. They both headed for goal with close numbers. Phill had another piece of bad luck. He missed TP3 and even though he landed 2k short of goal, he only got credit for being 30k short. Greg beat Ken to goal but Ken pulled ahead in the overall score. Overall Tyler is 8, Ken is 14, Greg is 16 and Phill is 23. Other notables: Jonny Durrand is 4th, Bruce Barmakian from Chrestline is 5th Bill Soderquist from Ellsinore is 22nd and Matt Barker from Wills Wing is 19th. Stay tuned, 5 days to go.
eat right, exercise, die anyway!
jdevorak
Posts: 273
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:37 am
Location: Kagel LZ

Post by jdevorak »

http://soaringspot.net/2013scfr/
Monday side story. Sometimes they set up a task where they want to include an area of potential lift along the course. They do that by including a distant weigh point with a big cylinder around it. Such was the case Monday. The second turn point was Pierce with a 47 kilometer cylinder. That allowed the pilots to fly into the Estrella mountains and get as high as possible. The problem with the practice is that it introduces the possibility of pilots entering the task incorrectly. Ricker overlooked entering the big circle. He flew way past the mountain peak towards Pierce 25 miles away. He figured out his mistake in the air but had to go back across the mountains late in the day. He landed short of goal at the last turn point. When he showed up in the bar at 8:30 he was met with a loud razzing of cheers!

Because some pilots turned in their track logs late the results were revised which pushed Ken and Greg down a couple of places. Greg finished 17th and Ken at 20th. Their overall position drooped a couple of places too.
eat right, exercise, die anyway!
jdevorak
Posts: 273
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:37 am
Location: Kagel LZ

Post by jdevorak »

Tuesday. Another similar flying day except the wind was from the SSE. Top of lift was about 10k again. Cloud base was a little higher with climbs slowing closer to the clouds. Phill was so far back in line he opted to take the open launch. That is when they let eight pilots go before the top contestents. The disadvantage of going early is that you have to fly around for an hour waiting for the first start gate. Today that proved more difficult than other days as more than a dozen sank out and had to re-light. Phill made it work to his advantage and got a good high start. Ken took the second start clock. Greg wasn’t satisfied with his altitude and waited for the third clock. Ken and Greg met up the first set of low mountains 10 miles down course line to the south east and flew the rest of the course together. Tyler was with them but about a thousand lower. Mat Barker was with them also. The climbs were slow and the glides were long. It seems like you are flying alone until you start circling. Then others would come in from nowhere and climb with you. The task went south east following the interstate for about 25 miles to 4500 foot mountains, then a smallish triangle, then back north west along the interstate to finish at the Francisco Grande resort. Phill’s radio wasn’t working again so I didn’t hear much from him. He blazed and ended up racing Jonny Durand to goal. Phill beat him by seconds but Jonny won on time because he started on the second clock. Greg and Ken finished together but Greg won because of his later start. Tyler landed 10k short of goal. Brian Porter sat at our dinner table and entertained us with stories about flying the swift. He had one incident in Florida when he was flying in no lift and a cloud formed around him. When he finally flew out of it he was practically upside down. He had another story of flying a comp in when a woman in a swift flew through a cloud. On exiting the glider oscillated breaking the structure. He told her how to control the pitch with her flaps and moving her cg forward. He had her make directional changes using her rudder pedals and doing small banking turns. She wanted to finish the task like that but he had her land in the largest field she could find. Later they did some stress tests and found that it would break at 6 G’s. They re-designed the structure to be stronger.
eat right, exercise, die anyway!
jdevorak
Posts: 273
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:37 am
Location: Kagel LZ

Post by jdevorak »

Wednesday. Stronger winds today caused them to set up a dog leg task mostly downwind to the northeast with a dog leg back into the wind to goal. It was particularly hard because that last leg was across no man’s land with few retrieval roads. Ken and Greg made it. Phill fell short maybe 5 miles. We stopped for Mexican food on the way back to Francisco Grande Resort. Funny thing is that Ken found a set of battens that Chris Zimmerman left at goal. Chris has been winning most days. I suggested keeping the battens and see how well he does tomorrow. Nice guy that Ken is, he turned them in to Jammie. She plans to give them out as a special award at the pilots briefing tomorrow.
eat right, exercise, die anyway!
jdevorak
Posts: 273
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:37 am
Location: Kagel LZ

Post by jdevorak »

Wednesday addendum. Scores have been posted. Overall Ken, Greg and Phill are 17, 18 and 19 respectively. Ken, being a hard numbers guy, describes it as being middle of the pack. Me, being an emotional fellow, describe it as being in the top half. Jonny Durand landed more than 7 miles short. His VG broke which made the upwind leg very difficult. Kendall’s best has been making 4 goals in a comp. Now he and Ken have made 4 goals in a row! I am very proud of my boys.
eat right, exercise, die anyway!
jdevorak
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Post by jdevorak »

Well I might have jinxed them. Top of lift was only 7k and nobody made goal except for Brian Porter in the SWIFT. I found out the other night that it stands for (S)wept (W)ing (I)nboard (F)laps (T)hingie. Actually the T part came after two Margaritas and I don’t remember what it stood for. The clouds have gone away for the rest of the comp so it’s all blue flying. Ken was a couple miles from turn point 2. Phill was at turn 2. Greg had a good start with the top dogs but still only got 5 miles past Phill. Ken noticed that Linda Salamone listed her glider on the pilot list as broomstick ver 1.0. I was afraid it might be a dig at her New York personality so I was afraid to ask. I talked to Tim Helms, her driver and old Arizona buddy of mine. She complained to Mitch Shipley that her glider description did not say Lightspeed. He told her he could make it anything she wanted. She came up with the broomstick one.
eat right, exercise, die anyway!
jdevorak
Posts: 273
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:37 am
Location: Kagel LZ

Post by jdevorak »

http://www.santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/

SCFR website has Jamie’s goal pictures from day 4. A few of Greg landing there. Ken is one of the pilots under the big tree. There is a close-up of our Canadian friend Tyler standing behind his Remax glider. There is also a picture of our Mexican friend Rudy, who won the day. It was hard to find the goal using the truck GPS. It had me driving across that cotton field in the background. If you ever have a chance to land in a cotton field, don’t. The bushes are more than knee high (waist high if you are Lisa Wendt) and filled with thorns. There is little space in-between bushes and you just have to push through.
Pilots briefing is always a fun affair. Jonny had been handing out Molly Moyes cookies when a Moyes pilot wins the previous day. Today Joe Bostik came up with a big cookie for Bill Soderquist, who was the top scoring Moyes pilot. Then Joe had a cookie the size of a pie for Alfredo, the WW pilot who won the day. Day 6 is predicted to have a lower stronger inversion than yesterday with lighter winds. The task is 31 miles to the south east and return to Francisco Grande.
eat right, exercise, die anyway!
jdevorak
Posts: 273
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:37 am
Location: Kagel LZ

Post by jdevorak »

Day 6 did not go as planned. The open launchers (those 8 who go before the numbered launch starts at 1pm) sank out. The swifts sank out. The rigid sank out. The task committee got together and came up with plan B. Push start back to 3pm and shorten the task. New turn point for the out and back was 17 miles to the southeast. Still pilots were reluctant to go. Davis Straub pushed start. That means the guys in front had to go or move to the back of the line. It didn’t happen and launch order fell into chaos with pilots just going when the felt like it. Ken went on task at 3pm from 4,000 feet with three others. He was thinking that the day might shut off all of a sudden like in past years. Four thousand is about two thousand lower than what the gaggle usually likes. I told Ken just make goal and he will get lead points. Just about then the climbs started getting higher. Most went for the second start at 3:20. Kendall went then but reported that his altitude wasn’t very good. Phill bought a radio from Dusten but couldn’t get it to work so I didn’t hear from him. Ken was caught and passed on his way back from turn 1 by the fast movers. He made goal several minutes before Phill. Greg heard the happy music just before he flared. Several days earlier they changed the goal circle to 1k so pilots wouldn’t have to face the power lines and highway if they got in low. Good for Greg. I did not jinx my pilots. Ken and Greg have made goal every day except for the day that no one made goal.
eat right, exercise, die anyway!
jdevorak
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Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:37 am
Location: Kagel LZ

Post by jdevorak »

Breakfast day 7 I sat with Steve Morris and Brian Porter, designers of the SWIFT. The “T� stands for “trim� and not “thingie�. Brian tells a good story and can be a little loose with the technical facts to keep the story moving. Steve will interrupt if he disputes one of those facts. I enjoyed it. I told them one of my favorite flying pictures was of a SWIFT flying fast over the ground on final in the Owens Valley. It turns out Brian was flying and Steve made the picture. It was in the Worlds when held in the Owens. Steve talked about how they took the gliders up there to show the capabilities of the craft and they were kicking the hang glider ass. One day they made goal and the only other pilot to do it was Larry Tudor. Steve was still miffed that the meet director reported that only Larry made goal. Steve said it has been like that ever since. The SWIFTs don’t count. I am officially amending my report. There was no day in which nobody made goal at SCFR2013.
eat right, exercise, die anyway!
jdevorak
Posts: 273
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:37 am
Location: Kagel LZ

Post by jdevorak »

I made a mistake and tried to edit it out and I lost the whole thread. I had to repost it all. Sorry.

The last task was another triangle to the south finishing at Francisco Grande. It started out well but the lift got poor on the return leg. First Ken landed about 21 miles from Goal. Then Phill landed 5 miles up the road. Then Greg landed 6 miles up the road and 12 miles from goal. Maybe that’s why comps are 7 days long. Nobody can be lucky every day. think only 5 or 6 pilots did make goal. Final results will be announced at the awards banquet here at the motel. It is likely Zippy won because he was a couple hundred points in the lead. Only way for him to lose is if he made a big mistake. He made goal instead.
eat right, exercise, die anyway!
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JD
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Post by JD »

jdevorak wrote:I made a mistake and tried to edit it out and I lost the whole thread. I had to repost it all.....
Thanks for all the reports Jay.

If you delete a post the thread does not show up on the topic list for a day or so but it is actually still there. You can use your browser history to find the url and continue on your merry way. So it seems to be gone but is simply not listed for about a day. By now you can see there are two threads about the SCFR. Have a safe trip back! Jonathan
jdevorak
Posts: 273
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:37 am
Location: Kagel LZ

Post by jdevorak »

Awards are over. Only 4 pilots made goal. Greg ended the day in 10th place and 12th over all. Zippy won and gave credit to Greg for leading him around the course. Phill’s overall position was 19th and Ken dropped a little to 22nd. They gave Ken and award for being most improved pilot. All of the pilots are assigned to teams and people make bets on which team will win. The prize is split between those making the bets and a local charity. Greg was one of the winners of that as well. He knows the competition well because he has won in past too.
eat right, exercise, die anyway!
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Don
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It's the GLIDER!

Post by Don »

I saw Ken Howells yesterday. He mentioned he saw Ken Andrews name on the results list after just taking delivery of the T2C. I mentioned that Ken was doing better than past years - on a LiteSpeed S. Ken H said "It has to be the Glider"!
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