Region 10 Soaring Contest - Llano, TX

Troy - that heat is wonderful! we've been getting some great lift. The last two days I've found 900 fpm climbs to over 9000 feet just south of Llano!

Today was a similar task to yesterday. First NW towards Brady, then east towards Lampasas, then South past Marble Falls then NW towards Mason and finally east back to Llano.

The first half of the task was in total blue conditions but I was still able to find good lift and made good time getting into the Lampasas circle. Turning south there I got low to the northeast of Buchanan Lake but was saved by a group of vultures who led me to a good thermal and then I connected with a street that allowed me to run for about 15 miles without turning between 7 and 8000 feet. Then it was a downwind run to a point 15 miles west of Llano where I was careful to stay very high to avoid a rerun of yesterdays landout. As it turned out the last 10 miles to the airport were in solid lift and I was running at 80 mph just to try to get down. I still finished at 2000 feet and had to force the glider to get down to pattern altitude!

The flight ended up being good enough to win the day, beating Frank Paynter (TA) by 14 points. I consider that a hell of an accomplishment as this is Frank's 11th contest of the season.

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=-547474619
 
Nice work, Tony... but it sounds like even losing would be fun.Enjoy it!!

I was stuck driving all over this area yesterday, and conditions were so perfect for soaring I could have cried.
 
Today the task was MAT (Modified Assigned Task) where the first and last turnpoint were specified but it was up to the individual pilot to fill in the blanks. Minimum time was once again 3:30. I made the first turn at Eagle Rock Ranch and then decided to run back southeast to get upwind-ish of Llano. I ran a triangle between Sunrise Beach, Spicewood, Moursund, and back to Sunrise Beach. By the time I got back to Sunrise I had about 50 minutes left so I went back to Llano, then the final turnpoint just west of Llano and back to Llano again for the finish. I came in about 15 minutes undertime but my speed was still good enough for second. I moved up to 5th overall! Tomorrow is the last day, it's been a great week of soaring.

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=-459916812
 
Tony - this is better than watching the super bowl!
 
I was thinkin' of Tony the other day when I caught some serious lift in the 182 coming back from Nebraska.

It was the inflow to a line of building thunderstorms and I was flanked on either side by little stuff that was just building, but the line itself was doing some "sucking" too.

Just for fun I wanted to see just how much lift it was. Pulled the power to idle and held 100 knots in level flight for 2.5 minutes. Well I also pulled the power to slow up a bit since I knew coming thru the big opening in that line to get into DEN would be a bit bumpy.

Tightened my seat belt too, but never got anything worse than a pothole or two. Been bumped off the ceiling enough times to know the belt gets pulled down good for that stuff, though. ;)

Wish I could have found stuff like that back when I was flying the Schweitzer at Boulder!!

I love reading Tony's reports. It's like being there. Have fun Tony! Makes me want to get back into soaring, but I'm time-limited too much to focus on it right now.
 
tonycondon said:
Troy - that heat is wonderful! we've been getting some great lift. The last two days I've found 900 fpm climbs to over 9000 feet just south of Llano!

Today was a similar task to yesterday. First NW towards Brady, then east towards Lampasas, then South past Marble Falls then NW towards Mason and finally east back to Llano.
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Marble Falls is a beautiful area, with the way the Colorado River flows through those canyons. It's sure built up over the last ten years--in 2000, it was a quiet and quaint town. Not so anymore.

tonycondon said:
The flight ended up being good enough to win the day, beating Frank Paynter (TA) by 14 points. I consider that a hell of an accomplishment as this is Frank's 11th contest of the season.
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AMEN! CONGRATULATIONS, that's AWESOME!!!
 
Today was a career best flight for me and the Cherokee. Downwind run towards San Saba then worked a street of clouds to the southeast towards the Fault Line Flyers home base near Briggs. Then another downwind-ish run to the west of Llano and a dive back to Llano to burn off the excess altitude. I never got below 5000 and ran that street for 25 miles without turning!!! I won the day by 5 mph (handicapped of course) and moved up to 3rd overall for the final standings. Amazing!

I came to Llano hoping to finish just one day. I figured I would be landing out all the time. Turns out that out of 7 days of soaring I landed out only one. Talk about a fine week of Soaring!

Todays flight: http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=-355613644
 
Troy - thanks!

There are two different things going on with the OLC. The pink lines are the 6 legs of the flight optimized for maximum distance. The purple is the largest FAI triangle that could be fit to the flight. FAI triangle has a shortest leg no shorter than 28% of the total length.

I did drive back on Sunday but came through Dallas about 10 AM so didn't bother contacting anyone about lunch. Also needed to get home to get Leah to the airport for her 6:30 PM flight, so didn't have a lot of extra time.

Here are a whole bunch of pictures from the contest: https://picasaweb.google.com/103712...ringContest2011?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite#
 
The first picture is Makato, flying the beautiful Diana 2. Lance Flynn wants one of those really bad. So does everyone else. He apparently has some sort of wrap to cover his face so he doesn't get sunburned. Outside of the glider he never wore it.

Second picture is Mike Brooks in his Genesis II. Very cool glider, designed in the USA. Its an almost flying wing, hence the short tail and very small elevator.
 
tonycondon said:
Second picture is Mike Brooks in his Genesis II. Very cool glider, designed in the USA. Its an almost flying wing, hence the short tail and very small elevator.
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My friend in Colorado says they have a Genesis at Kelly Airpark... "Ironically it has the biggest cockpit of all the high performance gliders and that's why our local member bought it (he's over 6 ft tall)."
 
Congrats Tony, a top 3 finish on your 1st contest is great, especially in the Cherokee.
Hopefully you are Contest Addict now:)

Brian
HP16T N16VP
 
brcase said:
Congrats Tony, a top 3 finish on your 1st contest is great, especially in the Cherokee.
Hopefully you are Contest Addict now:)

Brian
HP16T N16VP
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I'm going to get Tony a T-Shirt or Hat that says "Glad to be severely handicapped." :rofl:
 
brcase said:
Congrats Tony, a top 3 finish on your 1st contest is great, especially in the Cherokee.
Hopefully you are Contest Addict now:)

Brian
HP16T N16VP
Click to expand...

yes, firmly addicted.
 
Grrrr if only Region 7 would get their heads out of their butts and hold a contest around here....

Oh wait the WX sucks here in the upper midwest :-(
 
vontresc said:
Grrrr if only Region 7 would get their heads out of their butts and hold a contest around here....

Oh wait the WX sucks here in the upper midwest :-(
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Put anti-lift tape on the bottom of the wings and you can fly all day long.
 
Oh yeah, you're hooked. Great flying.
 
Frank, Gonzo, and I, the top 3


IMG_0316.JPG
 
tonycondon said:
Frank, Gonzo, and I, the top 3


IMG_0316.JPG
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Tones:

That sh*t-eating grin is fully-earned! Congratulations!

So, did you get on over to Cooper's at all? A long day of soaring in the sub calls for good meat, well-smoked.
 
yes we ate at coopers twice during the week. yum!
 
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