Lonestar PG Nationals Report (spoiler: 131km on a DHV 1/2!!)

[Brit_in_SoMD]

Howdy folks

Seems a long while since i met many of you at the Pulpit fly-in - hope y'all have been having fun flying since then.

Thought i'd give you a quick report on how I got on in the Lonestar PG nationals.

Got back last weekend and then it's been crazy here: first an earthquake (obviously, I had to be sitting on the john when it hit!) and then a hurricane. So this is the first time i've had the chance to set fingers to keyboard.

As a relatively low experience pilot, I had a great time at the comp - I learnt a lot, met some great people and had a lot of fun.

There seems to have been quite a bit of sniping at the organisers about pretty much everything (see PGForum)...but I think that everybody who was involved in organising and running the event should be thanked wholeheartedly for the huge amounts of time, energy, effort and sweat (man, it was seriously hot!) that they all put into it.

There were definitely logistics lessons learned from day to day and things definitely improved day by day. For the pure comp hounds, i can see some of the reasons why they're having a go at how it was run and scored but, in all honesty, for a first time attempt at a new PG comp format, i think that it was really good - tell me about another comp when you were retrieved by a hot young lady in a bikini, every day...!

And as for the conditions, they must have been good 'cos even me and my 1998 Firebird Ignition DHV-1/2 made it 131km to goal on day 6?! And that off a weak link break at 600ft AGL! Mind you, it did take me 5.5 hrs, almost two hours slower than the task winner! Oh, by the way, the conditions were better the week before the comp!

Prior to this event, my PB was about 26km and 2hrs, down in Florida in November 2008. That flight nearly sent me to jail (but that's another story...) so i was very relieved to have no landing out issues when flying even further from launch...

My results were:

day 1: cancelled for weather
day 2: 47km, 2.5hrs
day 3: 36km, 1.75 hrs
day 4: didn't get away
day 5: 5km and then 9km
day 6: 131km, 5.5 hrs
day 7: 22km, 1 hr

Unfortunately, i don't have time now to write any more but i am planning on writing an article for the US and UK mags about my big flight - yesterday, i discovered that I only flew 6km less than the latest UK declared straight-to-goal record!

One last thing: I need to thank Steve at Blue Sky for getting me tow-ready for the event. We spent three or four painful sessions together in late June and then July, getting me back in to towing, but when i got to Hearne, i was ready. Much more than a good proportion of the field - less than half the entrants confessed to getting any pre-meet tow practice...thanks, Steve.

[mingram]

That's awesome! 5 1/2 hour flight! Congratulations! I definitely want to hear more about it and see some pictures. It's really cool to hear Steve got you warmed up. Sounds like it paid off!

Matt

[pink_albatross]

Wow.
Jealous.
Thanks for the report!
-- ellis

[mingram]

Here's a good video from the comp. Texas looks like the place to be for summer flying! Two people apparently landed inside of a prison!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7YDjV_5 ... e=youtu.be

[Brit_in_SoMD]

Kinda...

Where they landed, there are about 5 or 6 prisons of varying security levels within an overall perimeter of tens of thousands of acres or more.

THey landed in open land within that much, much larger area, rather than inside an actual prison.

However, as they weren't expected, they were detained by the authorities and had to explain themselves, which was relatively easy and quick to do.

What wasn't quick to do was the other thing that had to happen before they'd release the pilots - every prisoner within every one of those prisons had to be counted in their cell, twice... i think there are between five and ten thousand prisoners total....so it took a while.

For those of you who know him, you won't be surprised to find that Dave Prentice, the comp organiser, just had to be one of those two pilots!