Sessa Breaks Century Mark at Big Spring

[lbunner]

Greg Sessa flew over 100 miles today on a tough task. The first leg was 45 miles in a crossing tail wind followed by 55 miles downwind to the town of Spur east of Lubbock. Hopefully he will provide some details as it was interesting terrain that he flew over. Congratulations Greg, awesome job!!

[jimsmess]

That is a great achievement, Greg has been really working hard on his xc skills the past few years and it looks like the hard work is paying off. Great job!!!!
Jim M

[Lostgriz]

AWESOME!!! NICE WORK GREG!!! Looking forward to hearing a flight report.

Matt

[silverwings]

That is SUPER! Quite an accomplishment.

[lbunner]

Not only did he make goal, he won the day finishing the task in 3 hrs 9 minutes!! The best thing is that he went from bombing out on the previous task to first on this day; a real stud!!!

[krryerson]

Greg,
Fantastic! That is really good!
Congrats!!!
Knut

[g.sessa]

It has been a fun week at Big Spring! Despite several days of storms that had the tasks cancelled, we still had several days of great flying for the competition (and a good practice day as well). I managed to reach goal on Day 1 on a 74 km task. Day 2 was tough as I struggled to get started. I found no lift on my first tow, and decided to land back at the airport. I realized launch was closing as I took my second tow and knew I needed to push out on course. Unfortunately I was dropped off in the same location as my first tow and again found no lift. I drifted and found some light lift just north of the airport, but I was already low and could not recover. The 3rd task, however, resulted in a much better flight! I found lift at the airport and proceeded on course pretty quickly. It was a bit of a slow start, but then I found that lift was abundant on course, and certain climbs were very strong. I found climbs reaching 1,000 ft/min, both smooth and sustainable. My objective was to fly to building clouds along course and trying to avoid blue space as much as possible. I was a bit nervous though as I reached a sea of blue on the the way to the first turn point and noticed a glider down in the middle of the space. Having no other better option I pushed on and actually found a good climb just past the glider in the blue space that helped me reach the next set of clouds. I reached the first turn point on a rather challenging slightly cross wind leg, and was ready to fly with a good tail wind. Clouds were lining up and I adopted the mindset to get high and stay high. I topped off at almost every cloud I was under and pushed forward on course. The scenery was amazing! There were beautiful red canyons that created a spider like appearance from the air, and lots of open rustic land. I even thermaled with a beautiful hawk that seemed to hang around for a bit out of curiosity with my presence in the sky. As I was nearing goal, I found a good climb and decided to climb out before going on final glide. I wanted to ensure enough altitude to make goal, but I also really wanted to push past goal to reach 100 miles for the day. I left when my vario said I would reach goal with over 3,000 ft AGL. I reached goal and pushed on to reach 100 miles just past the town of Spur. Overall, it was a great flight! I came to Big Spring with a goal of setting a personal best and hoping to have at least a 100 km flight. I will be leaving now stoked to have flown so much further and practically doubling my previous personal best (85 km). I also reached over 7,800 ft AGL which is another personal best accomplished this week. Although we did not get to fly everyday, I am still glad to have made the trip to Big Spring!

[John Dullahan]

Greg,

Congratulations on your epic 100 miler, winning the day, and your excellent description of the flight and the rugged terrain you flew over. Despite getting only a few points on the day you had to land due to no lift, your 4th place finish overall was quite an accomplishment.

Larry Bunner also had a very respectable 5th place open class finish among some very stiff competition, behind Davis Straub, who was just behind Kevin Carter, who used to fly locally (Included in his record flights: Woodstock to Harrisonburg AND all the way back again).

Among some world class pilots, our own Tom McG. also had a respectable showing. On task III, despite a 60 point penalty for an early start circle crossing, he outdistanced Davis Straub by 50 km for 184 points against 80.

Well done guys!

[mcgowantk]

Despite only flying on four good days, I enjoyed the trip. Greg and Larry did well. Greg made goal on two tasks. Larry would have scored higher but on one day he circled the turn point but did not do into the cylinder. Despite flying farther than required, the scoring program showed him not hitting the turn point. I made goal one day and landed at goal on the long 119 mile open task. On that flight, I missed the turn point as I was low but eventually climbed back up and went on to goal. However, the scoring system, correctly, did not score my flight very high. The practice day also was very good, so I flew for a couple of hours, getting to base a number of times.

It would be great to have more local pilots out there. We had less than 20 pilots this year. The flying in Big Spring is very good, even on a poor year. Lift is good but not scary good and there are LZs everywhere. Plus, the town provides a great deal of support for the meet. I would be happy to share more info to anyone interested.

Tom McGowan

[krryerson]

Thanks for the write up Greg and Tom. Love reading it. You guys did great and wish I could have been there too.
Spent my week biking the C&O and GAP, on my annual trip (5th) with friends, which was good; but , rather would have been flying in Big Spring.
Sounds like a fantastic place to fly in August and hope to get to Big Spring next year.
Knut