I might have missed some members who received badges, so I will list the last couple of weeks. Herb Weiss 5-6-2000 "B" Badge, Joe Schena III 5-7-2000 Bronze Badge, Bill Hecht Jr. 4-29-2000 "A" & "B" Badges and on 5-20-2000 "C" Badge, Steve Arndt on 5-20-2000 "A", "B", "C", and Bronze Badges, Mike Estrada 5-20-2000 "A", "B", and "C" Badges, Charles Savoie 5-20-2000 "C" Badge, Dave Cherkus 5-27-2000 "B" Badge and Arvin Cook 5-27-2000 "A" and "B" Badges. Last but not least, Bill Hecht, Jr. became a Private Pilot. Great work everyone.
Tom Matthews
I met the buyer of my LS-6B for his final briefing and first flight, up at Springfield VT. Tim Donovan is a well-known hang-glider pilot and accomplished power pilot as well, and he's been preparing by studying plus an in-depth review and bi-annual with Tom Knauff - so he was ready ! I took the ship for a last flight to make sure everything was AOK after the annual.
We waited until after lunch for the winds to abate, and I took a 2K tow. Searched about down to 1K, then found an honest 7.5 knot thermal to 6K (on the averager). Blasted over to Ascutney, where there was oddly no lift, and no hang-gliders on the launch as it was still too windy for them. Blasted back over to Hawk Mountain, the little ridge near Springfield airport, instant 5 knot thermal (plus ridge lift). Climbed back up, indulged in a couple loops and a reverse Cuban Eight, then blasted around the pattern. Nice 40 minute flight ! Couldn't hardly get down there was so much lift.
Tim had a great first flight, 1:30 with visits to his buddies launching their hang-gliders later off Ascutney, and over to Okemo. We saw an eagle fly over while he was up. He made a great landing, and we went over to Morningside to say hi to the hang-glider pilots (who had flown over from Ascutney) and celebrate. Tim's a happy guy!
Inexplicably the NESA pilots went home early in the afternoon, though it was a fabulous soaring day. They have a nice Pawnee and Ernie's old winch which they fire up on occasion. Its a really nice site to fly from.
Dave Nadler "YO"
Day 1 - A pure POST task, as we had a 1-26 in our midst. I had a bad first 50km so I decided to fly as long as possible to make up for lost time. I flew 417km that day and the strategy paid off, I got 1000 points for the day.
Day 2 - The 1-26 pilot had to drop out for personal reasons, so Bill
Bartell (our CD) called a MAT Turf-Aguila(~50miles)-I-10 Intersection
(~25 miles). The wind was very strong at 20 mph and Aguila was in the
shadow of the Harquahala range and situated in -10 sink! I couldn't get
high enough to get over the sink and had to shoot through several miles
of sink. This put me quite low over the desert in very inhospitable
terrain. The G102 was about 2000' feet above me, but wouldn't press
ahead. Every time I took off across the desert and found a new thermal
he would join me several minutes later. This is affectionately known as
"leeching". I found a thermal within 5 miles of the turnpoint and waited
until he was turning away from me before running off to the turnpoint. I
didn't "porpoise" as the flash of wings would have given my position
away
Day 3 - Another windy day with an upwind MAT. Spent 2 hours circling
around the gliderport before starting. I got a great thermal to 12,500
which got me to the first turnpoint and past the second one (total of 80
miles) but had to use "mere" 5 knot thermals for the rest of the flight.
The winner found a couple of thermals to 12500 and I placed 3rd again.
256KM that day.
Day 4 - Moist air from Mexico led us to hope for some clouds - blue
thermals can be tricky. Our MAT had no clouds, but the standard and 15m
classes went north towards Flagstaff. I hit a very good thermal on the
first leg that gave me enough altitude to complete the 1.5hour MAT and
it was almost enough, but not quite, placed 3rd again.
Day 5 - My Waterloo. I knew that the day was going to be very strong and
I had planned on starting very early and flying as far as possible even
though the MAT was only 1.5 hours long. I started 4 times and got shot
down each time, twice not even having glide back to the start gate!
Disappointed and tired, I had a 5th start at minimum speed and not at
the top of the gate. I had to work a number of mediocre 5 knot thermals
since I couldn't find anything better. As I'd stayed in the hills all
week without too much luck, I changed tactics and tried for the valley
where the others had had their successes. I found only sink and went
from a McReady 6 setting final glide to a limp 0-knot setting so that I
could make it home. I placed 4th that day. Only 169KM.
Day 6 - Less than 150 points from the leader, so I knew that I would
have to push the envelope. I started quite early, wanting to complete
the MAT mandatory turnpoints and then leech off the other 2 classes when
they passed. This worked out pretty well and I caught a great thermal
right out of the gate that took me to 10,500' and I bumped along for the
next 50 miles in relatively bumpy but buoyant air. I finished the 2
mandatory points in what turned out to be 15mph faster than my 2
competitors and turned towards the west at about 5000 feet AGL. I used
up these 5000 feet going about 80mph and didn't hit another thermal! I
barely limped to an old abandoned WW II glider training strip in the
desert and, at about 400agl, thought that I was saved: I saw single hawk
circling right over the field, a sure sign of a thermal! I turned into
the hawk's thermal which gave me a 1/2 turn of -4 knots; it turns out
that the bird was circling in sink and dive bombed a field mouse or
similar creature on the ground as I joined his turn. Needless to say I
was on the ground within a minute of that fiasco. I got an aero-retrieve
and released about 20 miles out of home, and it was a small consolation
that I beat the towplane back, and I got to do a contest finish that was
lower than 50 feet...
It turns out that I placed 4th because of the landout. Oh well...
Arnd.