Open
Sport
Hey at least the Santa Ana's stayed away.
Seriously the day looked pretty marginal but a lot of pilots showed up anyway. Most of the activities went pretty smooth.
A big thanks to everyone that helped. To those of you that completely managed the thankless job of measuring the spot landing to the assistance at the comp check-in. Not sure it could have gone any better. I know I was done in record time thanks in large part to the assistance I was getting from many that took it upon themselves to pitch in.
Weather-wise we were holding the short stick as altitudes were held very low to the strong inversion, the graphic is from the next day (Sep 14th) but the 13th looked similar.
With the less than spectacular weather forecast the task comittee (Phill Bloom and Ken Andrews) decided on a primary task and alternate task.
The open class would attempt to start at WestTwrs, cross the gap to BigT and then run to the 1500, back to Lances and then finish at locals.
The sport class was set to start at the 1500, then to Lances, and finish at Locals.
Typically this would be a no-brainer task on a typical day for each of the respected classes. But this was no typical day. When the pilots arrived on launch I think most of them agreed that the day was to be difficult to complete.
At this point the commitee decided on the alternate task that was setup ahead of time. The open class would now start at WestTwrs on to Lances, back to WestTwrs, on to East Trash, and finishing at Locals (a task of 28Km). The sport class would basically begin at launch with an exit start to the 1500, then to East Trash and then back to Locals for a task of about 11km.
The results would eventually speak for themselves as top pilots in the open class elected to save their altitudes for a more assured trip home rather than risk a land out near the hospital. Reports of pilots leaving the 1500 gliding to the start cylindar (1km away from WestTwrs) with less than 3600' seemed to be the norm, since it was rare to be above 3750'. But several pilots made it to the start and the 1st TP (turnpoint).
The opening drama of just getting started proved to be too much for some and they landed after that first attempt proving that the day was truely difficult (this was true of all classes). Those that made the 1st TP had little problem making the 2nd TP at Lances. However the return trip to WestTwrs was equally harrowing, and proved once again to seperate the top pilots from their sanity once again going low to WestTwrs (oh the drama).
In the end the difference was measured by mere meters on those that "nicked" the 3rd TP in front of the WestTwrs TP. What should have been Andy Pryciak's win was handed over to Rob Burgis, who against all odds "barely" nicked the 3rd TP.
In the notable notes, two pilots from Elsinore came up and both performed well Bill Soderquist in the open class took 2nd and Mike Harper in the sport class took 1st place. Also the pilots around the LZ banded together to donate over $500 dollars to the new LZ cause being funded OUT OF POCKET by EveryDay Mike in Elsinore. Bill "briefly" described the on going politics over the LZ legal actions and let us know of the successes and potential setbacks in the months to come.
All in all a good day and sad day without our recently deceased brothers in the sky. I believe we should from this point forward make the annual chili-cookoff dedicated to Richard "CabbageHead" Seymour.
Possibly an annual XC trip to Garlock or some other XC site would be fitting as a memorial to Jeff Craig.
