Race Day - April 14th

[Ginny Farnsworth]

Fri Am and it looks like we will race - lots of thought went into the planning here!

We will have a simple BBQ on Sat night for any and all who would like to participate.
Hamburgers, brats, beans and salad.
Contribution of $10.00 for food includes a beer or other beverage.

[Peter Kelly]

Friday morning update.
Wx still looks good for tomorrow, but not real good, more about that in a minute.

JJ, no problem on the task committee issue. I have someone else so I won't be on my own.

As for future races, this would be a good time to remind everyone that we have very few regular races this year.

We only have three other regular race days scheduled after this weekend: 4/28, 5/19 and 10/13.

All of the other days are designated as participation days, and the races are not scored for speed, only for completion. The other points awarded on those participation days are peer points for: encouragement, helpfulness, safe decision making and improvement. See Race Page for more detail.

Here is the registration score sheet we will be using, but for tomorrow we do not use either the completion points column or the columns in blue...



As for flying conditions for tomorrow - it sure doesn't look any where as good as last week when Luke had his great flight.

I see an inversion at about 5,000 and somewhat stable air above that.
The atmosphere will stabilize quickly tomorrow.
Total cloud cover is high, but total sun is high also.
CAPE is low and probability of T storms and big showers are low at this point.
Cu bases will probably be low, but it should be very flyable.

It is looking more like Jim W said earlier, probably everyone will be taking single tows only a short distance.
The launch sequence should go very quickly. We have three tow planes. But we will probably have only one runway, since the ground is so wet. We are expected to have a light north wind, so we might be able to stage three ships at a time for the first takeoff of race planes - one right behind the other and then the next three ready to go immediately after that. We could have everyone in the air in a very short time - just like a "real" race.

We will have a five mile cylinder for the start, with a max altitude designated (well below cloud base), with a short interval for the gate open time so that everyone is racing on the same task at the same time.

I don't think we will have too big of a crowd that is actually racing, so we can be somewhat flexible on our methodology and operational coordination. We probably will not be using winscore since Ben is presently out of town.

Pilot meeting may be as early as 10 am and as late as noon. Task will be declared at the meeting. Launch time about 30 minutes after the pilot meeting is concluded.

As CD, I intend to be the last racer to launch, so if you are racing, be ready to start your takeoff when the tow plane is available. If you are not ready, then remain clear of the runway and you will be removed from the list of racers. I will ask the task committee to launch first. That way we have our start gate decision clearly made:

• max altitude allowed for the start will be established in the air by the task committee
• the time the gate will be opened will be established by me, which will be 15 minutes after I start my takeoff, and
• the time when the gate will be closed will be established.

A role call will be conducted to insure that each racer knows the above three details.

I'm looking forward to a good clean race.

Ginny has made plans for the best kind of Saturday night meal Burgers on the BBQ.
Thanks Ginny for organizing all of that. It certainly round out the day.

Tomorrow then, and the fun begins.

[Sergio Colacevich]

Fri Am and it looks like we will race - lots of thought went into the planning here!

We will have a simple BBQ on Sat night for any and all who would like to participate.
Hamburgers, brats, beans and salad.
Contribution of $10.00 for food includes a beer or other beverage.

Sergio will be flying Saturday and will stay for dinner

[Peter Kelly]

Friday night update - at 9:50 PM

RASP and BLIP both look very promising.
It might be an early start.
It might be a long day.
We might fly very far.

I recommend, based upon what I am seeing on the RASP, that people show up extra early to assemble and prepare for the day, in order to be ready to fly early - it is quite promising.

[Peter Kelly]

Quite a fabulous day.
Nearly everyone showed up early and ready to race.
Unfortunately, the weather was a challenge - (what's new?)

Rex rigged most all of the ships with FLARMs.

We had the good fortune to have Ray-7V to offer advice and contest guidance to me.
As CD I was bent on launching as soon as conditions permitted completion of a task.
RASP and BLIP both said it was a good day. According to the models it was good NOW! (at 11 AM),
Cu were forming and (then disappearing) over three sisters - the first ridge.

I held off on starting the pilot meeting until Ray took off to test the sky.
Rex opened the meeting, Ginny organized the dinner, Stelian agreed to do the scoring and I laid out the
task, that Jim and I had devised.
Gate was going to be open and closed in a 30 minute period.
Gate to be opened at 12 and closed at 12:30.
Everyone racing the same course at the same time.
Jim D was the Task Committee and between the two of us we decided to call a 106.2 mile task of...

-------------
3 sisters
walker
crazy creek
bessa dam
3 sisters
-------------

before the pilot meeting was over, Noelle came in with a Pilot report (PIREP) from Ray.
Lift was not good.
Terrible with a capital T
More sink than lift
Wind was strong.

I announced new gate times of open at 12:30 and close at 1:00

Ray landed
we all waited

Scott Doctor launched in the ASW-27 - JH

New gate time announced of 1:00 to 1:30

Scott stayed up ok.

New gate time announced of 1:30 to 2:00
Tow pilots were all ready...
And yet another new gate time announced of 2:00 to 2:30 as the takeoffs began with...

C2 - Sergio
SD - Luke
1B - Jim D

Then...
OJ - Jim W
me in PK
Ginny in G3
P1 - Marianne
DDS - Guy
YE - Larry
JJ - JJ
and finally 43 - Martin

Ray once again advised me that it would be difficult for 43 to get a good start, since it it was past 2:00
and 43 was just taking off, so I extended the start window to close at 2:45, to accomodate Martin and JJ in
case he needed it - since they were the last to launch.
As it turned out, the three of us started within a minute or so of each other me, 43 and JJ,at about 2:20 ish,
and we promptly found ourselves struggling on the east side of Walker ridge trying to fight the wind and
get back up above 4,500 ft.

DDS - Guy landed at Antelope and
OJ - Jim W had to go home early due to scheduling conflict,
P1 - Marianne took a relight, and
YE - Larry started a conversation with Jim at Crazy Creek and seemed to be lured to the pattern and
eventualy landed there.

The remaining racers were totally disheartened when SD- Luke called a good finish when the rest of us were
barely half way around the course.

Then 10 minutes later Luke asks the question...
was the task to go to bessa Towers or Bessa Dam?
Ah hah!
Luke had not gone to the Dam.
Damn - he replied.

so Luke did not complete the task.

That left only the six of us on the task....
me, Peter - PK
Martin - 43
JJ - JJ
C2 - Sergio
1B - Jim
G3 - Ginny

We all completed the course but it was a struggle. With the wind as strong as it was, the heavier ship had
the advantage of penetration into the wind from the north.
Everyone reported having a good flight and Martin was especially pleased with his performance.
The final placement was in the order listed above, with the handicapped speeds averaging about 50 MPH. A
good show by all. Stelian used both See You and Winscore - both for the first time, and remarkably seemed
to master both in only a few hours. Thank you to Stelle from providing that expertise.

The dinner was a huge success - with Jim W. manning the BBQ grill and Nina, Cora, Noelle, Ginny, Marinne all
organizing snacks, salad, beans and other food(somehow it is a a gender related thing).

Nice day and a big success my all measures.

Big thank yous are in order to all who contributed to the success of the day - which includes everyone on the field.
Management, all of the staff, and I do mean all - everyone made a contribution.
And of course every pilot and all the crew that showed up as well.
Another great gliding adventure to add to the history of WSC and the VSA
.

[John Sinclair]

Just after turning south from Crazy Creek, my computer showed a north wind at 26 knots!!!! I headed for a ragged Q and wasn't sure i wanted to go 30 miles down wind.............After working 2 knot lift for a while, I discovered I had drifted to a point 10 miles north of Pope Valley and no longer had the altitude to even think about return to WSC. Challanging day, but rewarding! Good call Peter.
JJ

[drietz]

Thanks to all, while I wasn't racing as I am getting back up to speed I had a 3 hr flight between 3 sisters and rumsy gap. Found strong lift throughout the day (launched at 13:15) and also found wave at the top of the thermals and made it to 7600, very interesting flight.

It was great to listen and learn from the racing day. Special thanks to Scott Dockter for the mentoring, thanks Scott!

[Peter Kelly]

I find it easier to post graphics on the VSA Blog Pages, and besides, the info then becomes an article that is easier to locate over the next year or tow, and more readily to be read by other pilots around the world.

See the story of this race day at .....

http://www.valleysoaring.net/?p=1289