Pete writes:

What follows below are my own log book entries for the just
concluded Mid West Championship held at Twin Oaks airport in Whitewater, a
pretty little college town in southern Wisconsin. If you'd like to see more
detail of who did what in the comp, I commend to you the Air Tribune site where
you can see individual as well as collective results. You can download any igc
files you desire, and also play back the various flights in 2D and 3D,

https://airtribune.com/midwest-2017/results

Pat Halfhill and I stayed together in his trailer, and we both had an entirely
worthwhile, fun time flying there. Pat was most pleased by his longest ever
flight when he made his first Open Class goal of 90+ miles. We were no threats
to the leaders, but we flew well and had a great time.

2017 Mid-West Championship Flight Log

June 4: Day 1 Palmyra Airport :15* & :11*

The first day was a combination of personal chaos and miserable conditions. I’d
arrived very late the night before and thus spent the early part of the day
sorting out my gear and the T2 which I had not flown in nine months. The main
problem was that I had no base tube, having in my rush to leave home forgotten
to grab it out of my Sport 2’s bag. Fortunately, Davis Straub had a replacement
which he loaned me for the comp, and I was ready to fly in good time.

Due to a forecast strongish westerly wind we moved from the planned contest site
to nearby Palmyra airport. Ironically, the wind was not the forecast westerly,
but closer to a true north. This resulted in our towing with a nasty cross wind.
The other difficulty was that there was at first no lift at all in the blue and
quite windy conditions. The earliest launchers all plummeted back to the field.

Feeling a bit nervous on the unfamiliar T2, I took two flights, once gaining all
of seventy feet. My landings were good, but I was just as happy to break down at
the airport and wait for a better day. Launches had been a bit sporty, with the
nasty right cross nearly eating a couple of pilots. Pat and I broke down
together, but several people had gotten well out on course so the day was
actually quite valid.

June 6 Twin Oaks Airport Day 2: A fine, long task 3:01 7,147 msl 92.8 * mile
goal

After an off day due to high winds, we were presented with a fine day of cumulus
clouds and a solid tailwind on the way to a long goal to the southwest. To avoid
Janesville and Rockford airspaces we were assigned a couple of turn points which
were easily attained in the excellent conditions. But the last third of the
course became increasingly, and ultimately, completely blue. I had fallen behind
as, soon after the second turn point, the harness’ hang strap haul back line had
broken, making it very hard for me to rock the harness down to the horizontal
position. This made both climbing and gliding quite uncomfortable.

Flying inefficiently, I was soon left to fly utterly alone across the late-day
blue countryside. After one low scare at the end of a horribly sinky glide I
found a decent climb and easily made goal. Our entire team of Pat Halfhill, John
Maloney, Roger Irby and I made goal, and our fine driver Rox had a happy bunch
for the long ride home. Happiest of all was Pat Halfhill for whom this was both
his longest flight and most distant goal. It was also his first Open Class goal.

June 7 Twin Oaks Airport Day 3: A misbegotten triangle attempt 3:59 o, 7,248 msl;
51.7 holc miles

We began a 64.7 triangle under forecast blue skies. The forecast was soon proven
wrong by the presence of considerable cumulus development between launch and the
first turn point. There things became difficult as our leading team pilot, Roger
Irby, decked it due to ferocious sink soon after rounding the turn point. His
fate led me to a bold and ultimately foolish tactical decision to fly due south
away from the lake near the turn point. In so doing I was flying far off course,
but I thought that it was the smartest way to find lift after the turn point
next to a large lake. I was wrong.

The rest of the field embarked on the proper course line to the southeast while
I headed south alone, getting ever lower. I finally did get back up, however I
had twice been really low (850 and 650 agl) at the edge of Janesville’s airspace
before climbing out over the city. It had cost forty-five minutes to again get
high before proceeding on course.

Being as much as seven miles off course, I was then understandably all alone as
I began the upwind slog towards the second turn point. After making slow
progress I finally hooked up with another glider five miles short of the turn
point. It was Pat Halfhill. We then flew to the turn point together, but soon
parted with me again heading far off course in a desperate attempt to get an
evening climb off a big fire.

It was not to be, and Pat and I both landed near six o’clock about nine miles
short of goal, on a day when the vast bulk of the field made it. I had really
screwed my chances of doing well in the comp by committing that awful tactical
error early in the flight. Still, Pat and I had four hour flights, and it really
was a fun day’s flying. I’m rather proud of the save at Janesville.

June 8 Twin Oaks Airport Day 4: A big dog-leg, and very little lift :08* and
2:08-, 6602 msl; 38.7 holc miles T

The task was a 48.6 mile dog-leg task, with the first leg to the northeast. The
conditions at launch were extremely weak, with me and many other pilots having
to return for re-lights. Complicating matters was the approach of a frontal
boundary that was accompanied by bands of high cirrus that shaded the ground
much of the time. Nonetheless, the majority of the field finally got up and went
on course, myself and Pat included. I had left on my own, and after an
agonizingly slow, half-hour series of small climbs had gotten to over 6,000 msl
and left. Thereafter I never really got low, but I was always worried as the
lift I found was extremely weak, and the frontal clouds were becoming ever
thicker.

Luckily, I managed to often stay in or reach bands of sunlit country on my way
to the turn point where I found the day’s best climb. Linda Salamone and I got
to 6,600 msl shortly before the turn point, and just as the overcast became
solid. From there it was a thirteen-mile long sled ride to the ground during
which I was once spit upon by rain. I was still well short of goal, but had
scored quite well for the day (only one pilot attained goal). Pat, Roger and
John all landed short of, but reasonably close to the turn point. For an utterly
unpromising forecast and gloomy sky, things had turned out quite well. The only
bad part was my whacked landing in a remarkably turbulent field. I was
completely taken aback by the conditions.

June 9 Twin Oaks Airport Day 5: A Zig-Zag to a Sea Breeze 2:38*, 5,675 msl, 51.6
miles

A zig-zag route eastward towards Lake Michigan began with promising looking
clouds, but rather weak lift beneath them. After going on course I once again
let myself drift somewhat downwind of course line before having to head into a
largely blue hole on the way to the first turn point at Lake Geneva. After
fairly easily tagging the turn point I got a bit low on the way to the nearby
second one. I was, however, helped in finding a good climb by a couple of other
gliders.

After climbing through them I had an easy time, getting high enough to tag the
second and third turn points. I then had a technical problem getting the Flytec
6030 to register my attaining the turn point. The difficulty was my ineptitude
with the instrument. I had it set it up in such a way (“optimized route”) that
it was ludicrously difficult to hit the small 400-meter radius final turn point.
I finally became frustrated, figuring I had gotten it, and left on final glide
to goal.

Goal was located only nine miles west of the very large Lake Michigan, and the
interaction between lake and land mass was producing an onshore wind. That is,
our task was flying us eastwards towards a lake, but as we approached the lake a
strong onshore (ie. Easterly) head wind was blowing inland. Fortunately, I had
gotten high enough at the last line of convergence clouds near the final turn
point and could easily glide into goal before hitting the headwind near the
ground.

I had a good landing into a 10-15 mph east wind despite nearly botching the
landing because I’d forgotten to release the vg cord. It was only later that
night that I learned that I had, in fact, missed the damn turn point by two
meters; six feet. Fortunately, in the rules there’s a ten-meter margin of error,
so the turn point was allowed, and my flight validated. Pat had been quite a way
behind me, and he landed near the second turn point with a tailwind. The sea
breeze had by then migrated far inland, and Pat hadn’t recognized its arrival in
his landing field before experiencing a scary (but ultimately harmless) downwind
whack.

Conclusion

With that, the comp came to an end. Other than the sketchy first day we had
experienced solid, and sometimes excellent, flying conditions. The contest was
well run, low key and flown over pretty country with abundant landing fields. In
addition, we had enough tugs to ensure that everyone had a fair chance to launch
into the good conditions. Finally, the airport facilities were entirely adequate
for the large crowd, and the nearby town of Whitewater is a small-town
Middle-American jewel. It was a fine comp.

Trip Totals 7 flights, 12:20; 234.8 miles