ECC : June 2008

[mcelrah]

Arrived at Ridgely mid-afternoon in time for the thunderstorm(s), heavy rain, hail etc. Tents got douched out, pilots meeting was postponed till 0900 tomorrow since David Glover got caught in storm traffic. Full house with 50 pilots, 4 tugs. Adam is organizing catered breakfast and lunch with the Culinary Institute in Denton - woohoo! Lauren and Paul are here, along with the whole Quest crew (it's still limping along), pilots from Australia and Brazil. Lake Ridgely has appeared. Cheers - Hugh

[markc]

Thanks for the update Hugh. I can't participate this year, so being able to enjoy
things vicariously via an occasional forum post would be great. If you have time,
I'm sure we'd all like to know how things go this week.

Hoping to get out there after work on one of the better days. Perhaps
with a few... ah... sparklers in hand. Yeah, sparklers, that's the ticket!

Cheers,

MarkC

[mcelrah]

I was demotivated to set up a tent in the soggy conditions after the storms, so came home for one last night in the A/C. There is an ECC site where you should be able to find info, maybe pictures. I'll post the link here when I get back out there. - Hugh

[jimrooney]

The usual suspect bloggers in the comp circuit are here this year, so pics and such are most easily found with them.

Jamie Shelden
http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com

Jonny Durand Jr
http://jonnydurand.blogspot.com

Dustin
http://dustinhoflies.blogspot.com

The site Hugh's referring to is
http://gohanggliding.com/ecc
I'll just have links to Jamie, Jonny, and the like as I'm sure Davis will do on the Oz Report.

Jim

[mcelrah]

Somewhat strong post-frontal conditions made ground handling bit harder but tows were relatively uneventful and lift was sparse. Christian made the Rigid and Open class flexwing goal along with usual suspect Johnny Durand. Only 3 out of 12 Sport class pilots left the field (I placed 1st or 2nd with a single-thermal 6-mile lawn dart).

Day 2 was great for the majority: 9-14 mph wind from 300. It was a blue day, but 20 Open class pilots made goal (41 Miles near Salisbury) including Christian AGAIN. Three Sport class pilots (including Danny Brotto) made their goal (26 miles - the landowner had apparently not been asked and was not OK with gliders planning to fly to his field) I, on the other hand, suck, with another one thermal lawn dart performance of 6 miles. Randy Weber did maybe 16 miles.

- Hugh

[Paul Tjaden]

Thought I'd elaborate on the open class competition. Sunday was really difficult with very light lift, blue skies and a strong cross wind. I hooked up with Jonnie Durand and Sunny at the start but was a bit lower. The wind was so strong and cross that when we went on glide, it would be almost 90 degrees to our course line. I could never make up the altitude deficit and each thermal found me losing the lift sooner than Sunny and Jonnie above me. I probably should have gone off on my own sooner rather than following these guys from low and behind but with no clouds, I thought staying with company was a better idea. Eventually, I got scraped off 1.5 miles before the first turn point which was abot half way. I later found that Sunny had landed shortly after the first TP so didn't feel too bad. Jonnie and Dustin somehow managed to make goal which I found amazing. They are very good!!!! I ended up 9th and was not too displeased with that.

The second day was great fun with a fairly easy task called and good strong condittions it was a genuine race. Abot 12 of us gaggled up and started out at about 4100' at 2:15. Lift had been light in the start circle so we took it fairly slow across the Choptank River where we hit much better lift (around 500 to 600) and got to about 1 mile high from there we opened up a bit more with Dustin in the lead and Sunny and I pimping hard with lots more following us. It did get a bit spooky when we went for over 7 miles in smooth air with no climbs but then we found good lift and from there on it was duck soup and high speeds. As we all approached goal we hit a strong (700' per minute) thermal and climbed easily to final glide heighth. Several of us were too conservative and waited too long to go on glide. I could have easily left at least one 1,200' earlier and been in 3rd or 4th place instead of 6th but I was happy with my results. Next time I'll be braver. I am currently in 6th but only a couple of points behind Sunny and Tom Lanning so could move up quickly if I don't screw up. We are blown out today and probably tomorrow.

More later.

Paul T.

[mcelrah]

"Wet butt"

After two weather days, ECC day 3 was flown despite soggy conditions. Lake Ridgely is huge! I wore shorts and sandals in anticipation of landing in a muddy field. Was able to find and stay with a thermal over the field, but spent the entire time with my glove in my teeth, untieing the bowline knot I had so carefully used to attach the velcro zipper pull to the "zip down" side of my harness zip system - couldn't zip up because I mismeasured the string length. Once I got the knot out and zipped up, I lost the thermal and ended up coming in for a relight. Unzipped the old-fashioned way of bending down and using my hand, waterskiied in the 2 inches of standing water near the flightline and ended up on my butt.

Relight was purely to try to lawn dart far enough to get just a few points. Found no lift and started looking for the driest field about 3 miles downcourse. Saw a nice slick topless glider in the corner of a good field, arrived with 500 feet. The female pilot on the ground gave me wind direction signals. I came in hot and became concerned about a parked pickup truck and fence in front of me, so veered off to gain room. Pulled off a decent runout landing - wouldn't have wanted to whack in front of Linda Salamone. Felt better commiserating with a women's world team member. Earlier this week I had bought a nice t-shirt she was hawking to finance the trip to the worlds in Italy. I heard that one top pilot managed to get to within a couple kilometers of the 24 mile goal... - Hugh

P.S. Today and tomorrow promise better chances...