Region 5 North Contest Day 1
From
Rich Owen@21:1/5 to
All on Tue Apr 19 20:23:56 2022
A Fun, Blue Day
After a few days of rain and low clouds, the weather finally cooperated. There was a lot more movement around the airfield this morning. Curtis, HW’s big hound dog was casually walking around Al’s hangar and Clementine, H7’s dog happened to run
into Bif Huss’ bad knee. It almost took him down to the ground. Of course, she came right up to me and put her nose right into my hand. She knows who really loves her.
The big wing ships of Open Class always go to the back of the grid, so us short wingers have to wait until 8:30am to move to the grid. It is always the first unofficial meeting of glider pilots in front of Al’s hangar. We all figure out who is
further back in the grid so we can line up and drop our ships right on the grid spot. It seems we get the ships all taken care of an hour and a half before the Pilot’s Meeting and we always have time for breakfast at The Little Bake Shoppe and Deli.
This is run by local Mennonite ladies that make some of the best pastries, breakfast items, and sandwiches you ever have had. One day this week I’m going to have one of their cheese danishes. They are wonderful!
We did not have a planned dinner for this evening so Rhonda called it an International Night with a few pizza places, Chinese and a Mexican restaurant that we could enjoy. During the meeting the weather was pretty but the temperature was cold. You
could tell who the Florida contingent were because they were all sitting in the sun. We got to meet all the tow pilots this morning. Of course we cannot go to a contest that does not have these fine ladies and gentlemen. Martin Hollatz is our Chief
Tow Pilot and he is very well known down at Seminole-Lake. Martin has worked with us since he was a kid, some would say he still is. You can always see Bo Michalowski taking pictures at many of the contests she attends with her husband Roman. That is
why she is the official Region 5 North staff photographer. When you read Facebook to get the morning report, that is because of Leigh Zimmerman, our social media expert.
For those who have been in soaring for awhile or ever competed in a contest, you may know the name of Ed Byars, contest ID Echo Delta. Ed passed away recently and Sam Giltner and a few of the Carolina pilots wanted to pay tribute to his memory. The “
Region V North Sportsmanship Award” honors Ed’s life work in the sport of soaring and in aviation in general. During his life he owned 59 different aircraft. When asked which aircraft he liked the best, he said the next one.
It was finally the weatherman’s turn to give his brief. We were looking for all blue conditions with 2-4 knot lift to 4,000ft. He was almost right, we got to 5,000ft but it was very difficult traversing the river lowlands. Marshall sent Sports Class
and FAI Combined Class (15 meter and Standard) on a 3 hour Turn Area Task from Start 3, Fogles, Dry Swamp, Allendale, Aiken, Dr Ross and Finish. The 18 Meter Class and Open Class left from Start 2, Allendale, Millen, Bamburg and Finish on a 3-hour TAT.
During the flights everyone had the same comments. If you got low, you were in trouble. I can personally vouch for that one. Seems like I spent an hour with my gear down. The river lowlands were hard to cross unless you were high. However, there was
a lot of very landable terrain and even though we had a couple of landouts, everyone returned to the gliderport safely.
For the results, in Sports Class Jason Arnold finish first with a raw speed of 45.88mph with Mamad Takallu and Glen Betzoldt finishing second and third. In FAI Combined was won by Ted Holloran with a raw speed of 49.69mph. Jared Granzow and Chris Ruff
were second and third. In 18 Meter Class, Sergei Morozov who came down from Canada, finished in first with a speed of 57.2mph. Doug Jacobs and Gary Itner finished second and third.
Dinner time was pretty funny when it seemed every glider pilot decided to go for Mexican. This was probably the busiest Tuesday night for the Mi Rancho Mexican Restaurant in Wagener, SC. The food was good, the service was great, and all the
conversations were about soaring. My dinner mates engaged a local family and talked about soaring and the contest. The little boy and girl were fascinated with the idea of coming by to see the ships.
Well, it is getting late and ZO will not be patient if I’m late tomorrow morning. So good night to all and give your pet a hug from all of us. I miss my Jack Russell, Skipper and Seminole really misses her Mom Mihaela back in Florida.
Rich Owen
ZO
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