Updates and Wichita Vintage Rally!

Well I've had a few conversations lately that deserve an update here. We had a good time in Uvalde although stayed busy enough that I didn't get time to write much up. Seeing the Concordia up close and personal as well as all the other new racing gliders was quite a sight. I'm not sure how I'll deal with seeing the short span of YYY the next time its out of the trailer after spending the week with Open Class gliders.

Al Clark sent me the following picture of N4937C. He saw this glider in the hangar at Eagleville, TN when he first started flying gliders and eventually went on to own N4182 with John Chapman.

I also received an email from someone who is trying to sell a Cherokee II project. Their Dad has had it for several years, hanging in his garage, and come to the conclusion that they won't have time or energy to finish it. I'm still working on getting details but if you are interested let me know and I'll get you in touch. It is located in Wisconsin.

Finally I checked in with Greg Pelfrey and they are still working on restoring N3393, an RM in West Virginia. As often happens, some other projects have gotten in the way but hopefully this winter they can get the glider finished up and back in the air for the spring.

Finally, the Vintage Sailplane Association's annual rally here in Wichita is coming up at the end of September. Please contact me at abcondon@gmail.com if you are interested in attending. Bring your glider or if you don't have one just bring yourself. We'd like to see as many people there as possible! I'll definitely have YYY and the NG-1 there, and probably Kate the Std. Cirrus. As we did last year I think Leah and I will have a cookout at our house on the Thursday night before the rally for any early arrivals, then you can see how slow the progress has been on 4653T. Speaking of, Matt is nearly finished with his Std. Austria, the fabric is back on the wings and tail surfaces and painting will probably begin next week. It has now cooled off to the point where it is bearable to work outside so we should be back to work on 53T once that project is finished.

Uvalde Day 1

Well this isn't exactly Cherokee II related but I'm in Uvalde, TX this week for the World Championships. Matt & I arrived yesterday evening and we both had a great time watching the first day of competition. The gliders here are amazing and on top of that I've enjoyed just one days worth of visiting with new and old friends that I've seen so far.  I did get a chance to have a good visit with George Applebay, who built one Cherokee II, with Mickey Jensen, in Wichita back in the late 50's. I believe that one was N7616B. Of course George went on to bigger and better things, notably designing the Zuni 15 meter racing glider. He also built a modified Cherokee II with a 15 meter wingspan. He told me that it is now hanging in a school south of Albuquerque.

Also saw Ritz who is doing the contest reporting for Soaring Cafe as well as Bill Elliot (WE) who is flying his 18 meter JS-1 for the US Team. He hooked me up with a Soaring Cafe bucket hat to replace my old one which was nice of him. It started off the day nice and white but with all the blowing dust here by the end of the day it was a light tan. By the end of the week I'm sure it will be completely brown.

After the launch we met up with club-mate Steve Leonard who is crewing for his brother Dave (ZL) in the 15 meter class. With him we ended up back down by the US Team trailers which was a great vantage point to watch the action once gliders started coming back. The weather on course was tough with some rain build ups in the task area and the sea breeze all influencing to shut the day down early. This did not help the US Team any as 4 of the 6 pilots were scored as landouts. Ron Tabery (SS) was able to use his motor to still make it home but everyone else ended up at airports I believe. Dick Butler (DB) was aero towed home in the Concordia and we all were happy to help his crew get it tucked in for the night. What a glider!

Finishers were Bill Elliot and Dave Leonard. Dave said he spent about an hour trying to make it the last 10 miles to the finish. But, he finished!!

More tomorrow if I get time.

13.5 Meter Super Regionals Day 7

Well the contest finished off with a great day of soaring. CD Jim was faced with a dilemma this morning as there is always pressure to make sure everyone gets home for the closing banquet but the top spots in both the 13.5 Meter and 1-26 contest were pretty tight. He set us up with a 2.5 hr TAT that went down to the south with a big circle and then back up to the east of TSA, a steering point at Maypearl, and home. We gridded early, at 11:30, with hopes that we could get started early. The forecast was showing that the skies would blue out later. This would also allow any landouts to get back in time for the festivities. Unfortunately the sniffer report wasn't too great and we ended up launching just a little before our normal time. It went well though and the task opened quickly. Luckily we were towards the back of the grid so it was a short wait before the start and I found a few good climbs. I started good and high out the side of the circle and was on my way.

Out on course there were once again several mini-streets that made working into the wind relatively easy. Just south of the start circle I picked up a thermal with Glenn in 508 and Jacob in 430. We worked together a bit and Glenn and I headed out together towards Hillsboro. I had fun flying with him as we both tried different lines and more or less kept up with each other. However as we approached Hillsboro we both found a distinct lack of good thermals, or our standards were too high and we both ended up low east of town. I remembered my days of flying with the Silent Knights in Ames, IA and headed for the Wal-Mart parking lot where I found about 1 knot up. 1 knot was OK for the moment. I saw Glenn up around the north side of town circling and cheered him on, hoping he would be able to dig out too. At 2000 feet, for some reason, I decided to either be a hero or a zero and pressed upwind another mile or so for a nice dirt field that was getting a lot of sunlight. Luckily it was putting out about a 3 knot thermal and I dug out without too much trouble.

Back up high I managed to generally stay that way as I got to about the middle of the first circle. I wanted to go as far as possible into the first circle so that I wouldn't have to make up any more distance in the 2nd one and put myself downwind of TSA. I was doing good, I found a great climb over Hillsboro on my way back and couldn't help but notice that Glenn had landed out in the field I had picked out! He and 508 were just fine and this was his first honest to goodness land out in a real field. He had 'landed out' the rest of the week at airports, often getting an aero retrieve home. He did a good job but it was a bummer that he didn't make it around the task.

Somewhere after Hillsboro I managed top out at 6000 feet and was starting to get on the edge of a final glide. I just needed one more good thermal. I kept finding lift that would get me a little bit closer but never anything that would positively put me over the edge, and my max altitudes were starting to trend down. I nicked the 2nd circle and headed for Maypearl, still about 400 or so feet under final glide. I worked some weak lift and got that up to 100 under for a little while. I nicked Maypearl and turned downwind for TSA. Things were looking a bit grim for a while but I found some weak lift around 1000 feet and was able to drift a little closer to the airport while climbing slightly and made a good finish and had a comfortable pattern and landing. We de-rigged quickly and headed for the hotel to clean up for the banquet

YYY just landed with 428 on short final

The PW-5 guys dominated, with Francois winning the contest and Bill Snead in 2nd and Pat Tuckey in 3rd. 1-26 scores aren't final yet so we'll find out at the morning breakfast who the top 3 were. We enjoyed the banquet and the company. I presented Francois with the James LeSueur Trophy for his win. It is presented every year to the top finisher at the Region 10 contest, and the 13.5 Meter Super Regionals were the only contest this year in Region 10.

The Podium, (L to R), Bill (2nd), Francois (1st), Pat (3rd)

Francois receives the LeSueur Trophy

Tomorrow morning we have the 1-26 breakfast and awards, then we'll get two new tires for YYY's trailer and head for Wichita. It's been a great contest but I think we'll all be happy to be back home. I'm not sure what my plans are for YYY the rest of the season. The NG-1 needs some attention and "Kate" the Standard Cirrus needs to be flown too. I'll certainly have it out for the Vintage Rally at the end of September if not before.

13.5 Meter Super Regionals Day 6

Team YYY is back to full force now since Amy has returned from her weekend in Austin. We got to the airport early and had YYY ready to fly in record time. 

Today Daniel's weather report indicated much improved conditions. We all were hopeful that he was right. Bill Snead told us how he beat us all on Day 5.  He thought the cloud line I saw was a dew line, which is a common Texas phenomenon. I'm embarrassed that I didn't recognize it, as there was significantly lower cloudbases to the East. I should've known to stay on the high side of the line. Oh well. Tom McKnight in PW-5 "67" made the same mistake and we had nearly identical flights. I think we landed within 2 miles of each other.

The good news was that the weather today was looking good and we were given a 3 hr TAT. I was excited for a longer task as it would give us a good chance to rack up some more miles and have more time to recover from mistakes! I was on the front row of the grid but the launch with smooth with only 2 relights I think and I started off soon after the gate opened with a pretty good start.  The run upwind to the first circle generally went well. The only problem I had was that teenager Daniel Sazhin was running away from me in 1-26 #428. I couldn't stand to watch it anymore so I turned down a slightly different land and followed Tom for a bit in 67.  We found a good line of clouds and I decided to go deep into the circle so that I could avoid needing to build up distance in the last one.  Before the start the clouds to the west had looked pretty lousy and I didn't want to have to count on it still working there at the end of the day.

I got down to nearly Hubbard when I found a good climb back up to cloudbase which was a great opportunity to head back north, downwind. I was aiming for Ennis or so which was in the middle of the circle. I found a few more good lines and with the wind at my back didn't really have too many problems going north. I got to the south side of the lake by Ennis and turned back crosswind for the last circle. 

The only real lousy low point in the flight occurred about half way to the last circle as I got below 2000 AGL near Italy. I noticed that 215 was sitting in a field east of Italy as I was dropping down around 1500 feet. I found a weak thermal that averaged .8 knots and I climbed in that back up to around 2000. Then, thankfully, I saw a bird just to the west. A short run of maybe a mile and I was in a 5 knot thermal that took me to cloudbase! Whew! Of course I lost a lot of time with this little excursion. While I was there 215's crew showed up and I heard Jacob in 430 land out south of Italy right next to I-35E. I was really happy to be in the air and from there just did everything I could to stay high. I generally stayed above 3000 MSL for the rest of the flight and tried my best to stay above 4000.

I got to the last circle and sure enough it was blueing out to the west. Thankfully I could stay on the east edge of it and run to the town of Hillsboro to get my distance. From there it was somewhat blue back to TSA but there were a few clouds just north of the Hillsboro airport. I saw Mel in 97 in the last circle and was excited to see him make it that far. I also saw Tom in 67 again, as I had many times during the flight. With the climb north of Hillsboro I made final glide according to the Oudie. I needed 19:1 to make TSA at 500 ft and had about a 15 mph tailwind.  I managed to do better than that and had it down to 14:1 and finished about 800 feet, 6 or 7 minutes over time. Perfect!

Most people made it back, i think 215 and 430 were the only landouts. A few did come back early but most people made it around the entire task. We were happy to see Glenn Fisher make another finish in 508. He is having a great first contest. Daniel Sazhin the Condor Wunderkid won the day. This is his 2nd day win for the 1-26 contest and his first day win in the 13.5 meter contest. He enjoyed not only finishing the task but also landing back at TSA after the finish!

Tomorrow is the last day of the contest and then we will drive back home on Thursday. We'll need to get some new tires for the trailer as it is running on the spare at the moment. My Day 3 (I think) landout in the pasture managed to wreck the left tire on the trailer. Not a huge deal though since those tires are well past their expected life, they've got a lot of good miles on them.

The banquet tomorrow is at 6 PM and i hope to get a report up after that but before bedtime. Talk to you then!

13.5 Meter Super Regionals Day 5

Leah and I were out to the field early to rig after a very relaxing rest day.  We did attend a dinner at the airport and the following 1-26 Association annual meeting last night. Other than that we didn't do a darn thing and it was great. The area was hit with heavy rain about 4 PM and by it all cleared around 6 they had gotten 1.9 inches of rain at TSA.

There was still a lot of mud on the field and I don't think anyone was really optimistic about getting a flying day in. We knew it was a bad sign when the PW-5 pilots were hooking up their trailers before takeoff, not just the 1-26'ers and us.

Task for the day was a 2hr open ended MAT, with just a final steering point. There was plenty of preflight discussion about general strategy, rules, etc. Grid time was set for 1 PM.

The launch actually went surprisingly well, with only one relight. The task opened and I headed east because the clouds looked good that way. I headed initially for the Waxahachie Dam but then continued on to Ennis as it appeared there was a line of building clouds out that way headed to the southwest. I intended to turn along that line and make great time down to perhaps Italy or another turnpoint in that area. I was making great time on the way to Ennis and it was on the edge of a shadow but I felt confident that I could get back to the sunlight with plenty of altitude to find some lift.  Famous last words!

Initially after Ennis I turned into the wind and started dropping like a stone until I crossed the lake and was over the Flying O airport which happened to be a turnpoint. From there I headed more or less due west towards Shank airport and into the sunlight. I was getting lower and lower but headed towards a huge open cut wheat field which seemed to me like it should be a great thermal generator. Unfortunately it was not but it did make a good landing site. It was right next to a paved road with no fence or gate or anything. The ground was soft but not too soft and we were able to get the trailer in.  We were back to the airport in plenty of time for supper.

So after todays lawn dart I am down to 7th overall. There were several 1-26's who were either well under time or just got distance points so the day was devalued at least. Tom McKnight in PW-5 "67" also landed out.

Last I saw the blipmaps were looking great for Tue and Wed so hopefully we can finish off the contest with some awesome flights!

13.5 Meter Super Regionals Day 4

This morning we awoke to blue skies.  Since YYY had spent the night assembled we slept in a little and enjoyed breakfast next door with Pete Vredenburg who flies 483 "Bulldog". Pete and I spent a lot of time flying Condor together this winter online and it has been really nice to meet him in person. We once again gridded at noon for an immediate launch. The task today was shortened to 2:15 with circles first east to Ennis (10 miles) then down to West (20 miles) and then Itasca (5 miles) and Maypearl (2 miles) and back to TSA. I think we all were happy to see that the wind was lighter than any of the previous days once we got going. YYY was at the back of the grid today so that was nice.

I had trouble finding any truly good lift in the start circle, doing some gaggling with several 1-26's, PW-5, and with local Tim McAllister in EY. I still wasn't able to get much above 4000 but the gate was open so I worked my way East. Right at the edge of the circle I think I finally got my first climb better than 2 knots and headed out to the north of Waxahachie.  I went to the Northwest edge of the first circle, as close as I wanted to get to the Class B and then turned downwind for the 2nd circle. The lift, and speed, was increasing although I had one real low point as I passed south of Waxahachie.  I dug out though and found a good 6 knot thermal up a little higher that helped make up for the weak lift I had to take down low.  After that I managed to generally stay above 3500 and usually 4000. Max altitudes were around 5500.

I ran into the 2nd circle until I was south of Hillsboro. The Oudie was figuring me 5 minutes over time and I had never been able to make up time into the wind all week and didn't expect to this time either. Of course as I started back I kept encountering stronger lift than expected and the time started going away.  I maxed out my distance in the Itasca circle and was back to about even. Then I managed to find a line of lift which allowed me to run for 13.6 miles straight into the wind at 69:1!!  Then a quick thermal and I had final glide and was definitely going to be under time, even with going to the back of the Maypearl circle. Oh well nothing I can do about it so I bombed away at 70-80 mph with about a 15:1 angle required to make the finish at 500 ft. I got a little worried for a few seconds on the way from Maypearl but caught a patch of lift and was back above glideslope.

I heard Jim Lamb finish in JL and could see another 1-26 out in front of me which I was pretty sure was Daniel Sazhin in 428. There was at least a K-21 in or near the pattern and perhaps another. It was difficult to hear the radio clearly with all the noise in the pattern. Anyway I heard one of the gliders on downwind comment that they had the glider on final in sight. I replied that there were 3 gliders on final as it appeared to me that the 1-26 was landing straight in and so was I. Jim was on short final. About that time the 1-26 stopped moving! Daniel had landed in the field just short of the airport! Heartbreak! I lined up to land as a 1-26 turned base and we ended up landing side by side while an ASK-21 landed behind us.  Exciting times at the airport.

Daniel had a blazing fast flight and did at least get a good finish for the 1-26 Championships, which has no minimum finish height. Later we heard Glenn in 508 call 4 miles and he coasted home for his 2nd finish of the contest. Milt Moos (578) and Len  Root (215 Team) were the only other landouts.

Our Scorer Terry was the sniffer today and he ended up landing out in his ASW-27B so he was late getting back to the clubhouse. He did get several of us finishers files but the scoresheet was still a mess when I left for supper, so we'll just have to watch the website or wait until Monday to know how our flights compare.

Tomorrow will be a rest day, our only plans at the moment are to sleep in. YYY is tucked away in its trailer and ready to get back to racing on Monday!

13.5 Meter Super Regionals Day 3

Well we awoke this morning to a thick blanket of fog in the area. Some of my best soaring days have happened on foggy mornings so I was optimistic.  Amy is gone now so Leah and I were back to our old ways of rigging with the two of us, which still went quickly and we were finished before it got too hot. No one mentioned at the pilots meeting that it was Friday the 13th. but we did hear form Francois and Kevin about how they won the day on Day 2. Daniel showed that the forecast was pretty optimistic but he was not quite as optimistic.

Hank Claybourn on the grid providing good luck

We gridded at noon again and started the launch by 12:30, it was our turn at the front of the grid so we were in the first wave. Thankfully the gate was opened a lot earlier today, at 1:20 I think, and I was off shortly after that, but not without some trouble. I got low enough down by Maypearl before the start that I couldn't make it back to TSA, this was about the time the gate opened I think, but thankfully I managed to find a thermal and climb back up to a semi-respectable altitude and with some gaggling help from Glenn in 508 I was on my way.

On the Grid

I decided that I did not want to go west of a line down the center of Lake Whitney. That caused nothing but trouble yesterday so I went to the Southeast edge of the first circle and then headed NW towards the east edge of the second circle.  I had no real problems with only one semi-low point near Hillsboro and had black vultures marking most of the cores. I was generally able to find pretty good climbs.  As I got to the second circle the computer was showing me about 5 minutes under time but based on the last few days experience I figured I would be OK.  I saw John Barr in 215 in a thermal and we worked one together as I drifted a little more into the circle and got good and high before the run into the wind to the finish.

What happened on this leg made me feel like a real 1-26'er. After leaving the thermal with 215 I stumbled upon Glenn again in 508.  He marked a thermal ahead for me and we climbed together and then we both ran for the next one and worked it together.  I was really encouraged to see Glenn on the final leg home since he's had a few short flights, landing out at nearby airports on his way out on the first leg.  I left our second thermal with best wishes for the rest of his flight. Then lo and behold I see Tom Barkow ahead in 264 marking the next thermal. We climbed together and I stuck in the thermal a little longer than Tom who left above me.  By the next thermal I was now above him and he was once again marking it for me. Thanks Tom! We climbed up once again.  Our route was taking us out of the way of the direct course line for Maypearl but it was the only way to stay under clouds. After leaving Tom I couldn't believe it but there I see yet another 1-26 ahead marking a thermal for me again. This time it was Bill Vickland in 238. I got to the first thermal just as he was leaving and climbed up, only needing a few thousand more for a nice steep final glide.  He again marked the next one which gave him and eventually  me final glide. He finished a few minutes ahead of me.  It was really unbelievable to have a 30 mile run with a 1-26 marking each thermal along the way! Thanks guys!

I started final glide with only needing to make a 14:1 angle to get to the finish. I spent most of it running at least 70 mph and sometimes 80 or a bit faster just to get down. At one point I had been running 75-80 and hitting so much lift that I was doing 19:1 over the ground!!!  I got to the Maypearl circle and extended just a bit to burn off a little more altitude and get a little more distance, then turned for TSA. I finished at about 800 feet and continued to hit lift as I entered the pattern to land.  It was a great flight!

At that time just Bill and I had finished and we knew that Cathy had landed out in 97.  Kevin in 192 had once again gotten a really late start and I was worried about him considering the huge blue hole I had seen on course. I was keeping an eye out for 264, 508, and 215 since I had seen them working their way home.  215 landed a little after I did and pretty soon we heard from Tom in 264 too. He made it back but had to skip the Maypearl turnpoint so just got distance points.  Daniel was waiting for Ron to finish in 428 and just a few moments after Leah and I informed the retrieve desk that we would be happy to crew for Glenn in 508 if necessary we heard him call 4 miles! We all ran out to watch him come in and land and greeted him at the runway with congratulations on his first career contest finish.

Daniel with Glenn (508) after his finish

Eventually Ron, Bob Hurni (190), Pat Tuckey (4K), and Bill Snead (6W) finished, Bill being the last one in. We heard that Kevin had landed out and Tami headed out to get him.  After the last few days, only having 2 landouts was quite a success! Hopefully we can continue the trend for the rest of the contest. Here is todays flight: http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=2551731

YYY tied down and ready for another day of racing