2010 ECC (Long)

[lbunner]

Hey all, just go back from the ECC. We finally had some excellent weather this year and managed to fly in relatively good conditions on 5 of the 7 days. It was alot of fun hooking up with old friends and meeting some new ones as well. CHGPA was well represented with John D, Hugh, Dan To, Carlos, Danny B, Ashley and Joe G representing the Sport class. Dave P and I were in the Open class with the Ridgely bunch Sunny, John, JD, Charlie and Bob F. John D won the Sport class after trashing his Litesport. His glider wasn't tied down after retrieve on day 1 and ended up pogoing (my exaggeration) down the highway. He borrowed a Sport 2 sitting in the hangar that was quickly nicknamed the "shit" glider due to its numerous markings on the upper surface. Well I can tell you that John flew the shit out of this "shit" glider, finishing 1st once and 2nd on two days which was just enough to scrape by Neil Caci from Massachusetts. Day 2 was an excellent day with 5 gliders in goal (57.4 km) and all were CHGPA pilots (John, Danny, Ashley, Hugh and Carlos in that order). I was ecstatic that Carlos made it in. When I talked to him he had a big grin on his face and all he could say was "I am very happy"! Day 4 was epic convergence for the center of the peninsula so we called a triangle task for the Sport Class. Six gliders made it around the course however one of the pilots missed the last turnpoint. Again the CHGPA rocked with Danny (1st), Ashley, Hugh, Joe and Dan (almost) into goal as well. Day 5 was a bit of a bust with strong south winds, small climbs and low ceiling. Some Sport Class pilots chose not to fly. The pilots didn't get very far. Overall results were super with John, Ashley, Danny and Hugh in the top 5. Nice job guys.
The Open Class also had a blast! Day one was a 52 mile task to Bunting a small grass strip near Ocean City. Nine pilots made goal with John S and me in 3rd and 4th respectively and Dave in 8th. Times were in the 1:20 to 1:40 range. It was a fun day that we actually got to race a bit. Rich Cizauskas from Madison, WI won the day.
Day 2 we set a course around the eastern edge of Salisbury as the airspace to the west was hot. It was an epic day with many happy pilots. Six made the 70 mile task and 3 were just short. Five of us took the first start clock at 1:30 and worked well together to the first turnpoint just south of Georgetown. We headed back crosswind trying to get lined up for the trek south to Liberty. It was a long glide before we hit any lift. Several gliders went down. Sunny and John found a strong thermal that got them high enough to pass over the forest on course line. I wasn't as fortunate and groveled for 37 minutes averaging 40 fpm before finally getting the nads to leave and try some different air. Of course a mile to the SW the lift was much better. I eventually climbed out to 7800' and could have gone higher however I had the numbers to get the last turnpoint and goal without the need for another climb. Average speed on the way in was ~60 mph as there was plenty of altitude to burn. I ended up 5th for the day and 4th overall. Many pilots were looking for the Campbell Airfield coordinates in the air so they could continue on. The day was that good.
Day 2 was so good that we expected Day 3 would be as well. The Delmarva is exceptionally dry for this time of year. The grass at the airport is brown and even though a couple storms rolled through, the ground is quite dry. The forecast was for strong west wind however I pushed hard to have a more challenging task. I wanted to get us closer to 3 hours on course line. The task was to fly east then south then east and finally southeast to Ocean City Airport. Unfortunately the wind picked up even more from the west and some high cirrus moved in. There was a small window where a group of about 7 pilots had a nice fat cu form overhead. We all got to cloudbase and hung out for the first time clock. I headed out first with Davis behind me and glided all the way to the first turnpoint. Down to 2000’, I was in trouble even though I found a climb right over the airfield. The wind pushed me 7 miles off course line to the east and even though one thermal took me to 4500’ I didn’t make much progress and landed 5 miles off course. Davis won the day with Mitch Shipley in 2nd and me in 3rd. Several of the leaders bombed on the task and in particular Rich C finished last. This allowed me to move into first place.
Day 4 was another missed call. Winds were to be light out of the north going to L&V later. A convergence was to set up over the eastern part of the peninsula so we picked a 54 mile triangle with a long leg to the east. The task committee (John, Tom and me) and the weather guru (Davis) noted the strong NE flow over the Atlantic but didn’t discuss its impact on the convergence. Davis, Mitch and I took the first start at cloudbase (5100’) and great looking clouds in front. We had two nice high climbs and one long glide to the edge of the clouds where it was obvious that the sea breeze had kicked in. I did not want to go into the blue without getting high again so searched in vain at the edge of the clouds for the elusive lift. We were 5 miles from the turnpoint, slowly sinking and drifting back west. Eventually more gliders showed up including Sunny and John who were over 4000’. They continued on into the blue and struggled for an hour to fly the remaining 5 miles to the turnpoint and beyond. Davis eventually left as well and went down short of the turnpoint. Mitch and I and others groveled for an hour trying to get back up. I had it in my mind that if we could continue to drift back to the west in the pronounced east sea breeze that we would eventually get back under the convergence where a good climb and would allow us to start the task over again. I found a climb to 3000’ which put me within a glide of two nice looking cu’s to the west. I went to them and figured if there wasn’t any lift I’d just fly back to the airport as it was now only 4 miles away. A 300 fpm climb took me to 5600’ which was well above the inversion to the east and over 1000’ higher than two cu’s that were forming a couple miles east of me. I started the task over and headed toward the first turnpoint. The sink was minimal along the way however there was no lift to be found and I landed in the same field as JD Guillemette an hour after him. Sunny won the day with John in second, Rich in third and me in sixth. I maintained my overall position however the gap between 1st and 5th was tight.
Day 5 conditions were south at 10-15 mph with slow climbs and a low top of the lift predicted to be around 3000’. We used the North – South runway which worked out really well. The only problem was that there was little lift. Many pilots relit once and some multiple times. Bobby Bailey towed me into a good thermal and we spun it up over 2000’. I got off and did a few turns before I saw Christian beaming up to the south. I went to him and connected with Tom, Hugh and Steve. We drifted north of the airport barely climbing and saw Rich turning a half mile to the north. The thermals merged and now there were 5. We went on glide from 2500’ knowing that Dave was out in front of us with Mitch. Hugh got in a bad line and missed the next climb. We topped out at 2300’ and saw Dave, Mitch and Daniel Spier still turning in the distance. Tom got to them first and hit 800 fpm for a couple turns. I hit the good stuff too and thought we were going to bust through the inversion however it stopped at 2800’ and we slowly climbed from there to 3000’. We all spread out and headed north. I could see Rich turning behind us and mentioned it to Tom but we continued on. Tom went down first then Dave and me. Steve was just north of me. Rich did manage to gain a few feet and flew overhead for another 6 miles making it just beyond the turnpoint. Rich won his third day of the competition. Impressive flying! It was a stressful afternoon wondering how far he went. In this competition the pilots do their own downloads. The scores are updated real time so it’s kind of cool to see the scores shuffling around as the downloads come in. Finally Rich pinned in and I ended up the winner!
A couple lessons learned: Ridgely typically isn’t conducive to racing although there are occasions where we can put the hammer down. Two long delays on days 3 and 4 were the keys for me. I could have given up and settled for less however I changed my strategy when the conditions got dicey and just concentrated on flying as if it wasn’t a comp day. This suppressed the urge to get going. Another key for me were the starts. All five days I left the start circle at or near cloudbase right as the start clock ticked over. This is somewhat meaningless when you don’t make goal however is something I will concentrate on in the upcoming meets.
It was only two years ago that I finished dead last at the ECC. It is very gratifying to have come from the worst to first!
Ciao

[mcelrah]

Thanks for this excellent write-up. Congratulations and good luck at Ager (Spain)! We look forward to your posts!! - Hugh

[Dan T]

I had the good fortune to get to know Larry B. at breakfast at Batter Up in Ridgely several of the days. A nicer guy you will never meet.

I asked him what he was doing recently to pull off the big miles that he wasn't doing before. His answer was "flying a lot."

If you read his post carefully you will notice that he won the open class without ever winning a day. He elected to fly very patiently, choosing to make decisions that would keep him in the air rather than make the best time on course towards goal. We all learned that it is possible to hang out in 50' down to 50' up for a very long time that with patience will often eventually drift you into a good one that will take you back to the clouds. I think nearly all the pilots would agree that patience and persistence can yield big dividends on the Eastern Shore.