We missed one day because we didn't believe. It got good between two thirty and
three PM on that day, when we thought it was going to rain. I looked at the satellite photo on Monday night
(last day of the Memorial Day weekend) for 12:30 PM and sure
enough there were cu's over Luling.
Texas is undoubtedly the best place to fly competitions in the northern
hemisphere summer as it has the most consistent conditions, has wide open areas
for flatland flying, has friendly thermals, high cloud bases, consistent cumulus
development, can be flown in high wind conditions easily and safely (and
aerotowed in such conditions), is open in all directions, has plenty of open
airspace, millions of friendly and safe landing areas, and fine Bar-B-Que when you get home. The thermal resources
there are being way under utilized. There is nothing in the world that compares
to Texas when it comes to hang gliding.
I very much appreciate the good work and strong vision that Joel Froehlich
showed as the meet organizer and local instructor. I look forward to big things
coming from him. It was great to see Steve Burns down there having a great time
flying the Dragonfly. Rodger from Lookout Mountain also. Thanks to all the Texas
pilots (even Ris, who was out at Luling helping and towing and flying his hang
glider) for their support of this competition.
Luling got a nice economic hit from the pilots, but we've got to get the City Market to
serve us dinner. This fabulous Bar-B-Que place closes at 6 PM
(takeout?). The local HEB had cherries and grapes for me. The town is full of
fruit stands which are fantastic and there are melons galore. We brought one out
to the field one day and everyone got to have a nice chunk of it.
For the most part the farmers and ranchers were nice to us when we landed out.
We had some spectacular flying, flying over 1,400 km on single surface gliders.
I didn't feel a bit handicapped by the "lower performance" gliders. One day I
was able to complete a task at 22.3 mph, which is in the range of topless gliders.
Here is a different view of the Carter Memorial Airfield and the surrounding
countryside.
I was lucky enough to make the fewest mistakes during the competition and
because I was having such a great time and enjoying the air conditions so much I
just didn't want to come down until I had gone as far as possible as fast as
possible. I had a great time team flying with Ben Dunn and Joe Evens and they
really helped out, especially the second to last day.
I got quite fortunate to have good positions in the start circle and benefitted
greatly from having a superior glider.
Thanks to Kamron Blevins, the owner and designer at Northwing (see the ad) for
the use of his glider in trade for the ad. Kamron wants to make the highest
performance single surface glider and it would appear that he does indeed do
that. I assume that other manufacturers say why not just take the next step and
make an easy to launch, land and fly double surface glider like the Wills Wing
Sport 2. No wonder Kamron sponsored a single surface competition where you can't
fly your Sport 2.
I hope that this idea of single surface (and Sport Class) competitions (and
portions of competitions) really catches on because it is great fun and reduces
the barriers to entry (new pilots can get in on the fun without years of
training). Competition is the key to the health of the hang gliding community
because it builds community and skills and is so much darn fun.
The Texas Single Surface Shootout is featured here.
One innovation (the sailplane pilots have been doing this for years) that worked
out quite well at the competition is getting pilots to download their
instruments and have the software (GPSDump or FlyChart) create their IGC files
for them. They then emailed me their IGC files. This was a great hit with the
pilots because it meant that they didn't have to come in to "pin in." They
called in so that Joel knew that they were safe and retrieved, but they could
send in their file at their leisure from their location and not have to be
someplace at some time. Most got their files in by 10 PM.
We will be going to this system for all the upcoming hang gliding competitions
in the US. I will be teaching pilots how to do it (bring you laptops, netbooks,
cables, and software) at all the competitions until everyone is up to speed. We
will be further automating the scoring and internet reporting system as soon as
we can get pilots doing everything correctly.
So tell me, why are pilots going to World Class competitions in areas where the
weather usually sucks?
