All,
Last years comp on the Delmarva Peninsula was epic, many records set, and most flew to the beach. More info here: https://sites.google.com/view/hc2022/pi ... authuser=0, there's also a write up in USHPA magazine as well. Its on again for this year. Given the small number of people there's only an Open class and anyone interested needs to be proficient in aero towing / XC etc. If you're interested please let me know asap.
Dates:
Practice Day: Friday June, 2
Comp Flying Starts: Saturday, June 3
Comp Flying Ends: Saturday, June 10 (8 comp days)
Location: Bens
Max Pilots: 8
Charles
Mini 8 day R2G Comp on Eastern Shore
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
Re: Mini 8 day R2G Comp on Eastern Shore
Hi all,
Last year's comp on the Delmarva Peninsula, Maryland/Delaware, was epic; many records were set, and most flew to the beach.
This year our Practice Day was Friday, June, 2
Comp Flying Started Saturday, June 3 and will end Saturday, June 10 (8 comp days)
Location:
This year we are staying at https://maps.app.goo.gl/TawbwRLp2hiczsK86?g_st=ic
So fare we have had 4 good days, including practice days and smoky days.
Today we are planning to do a task up to Masse and back.
If interested, here are the latest link.
https://sites.google.com/view/hc2023/scores/day-5
To get some perspective of our XC FLYINGS, here is Peter Lehmanns write up, with permission from him:
Quote;
Date: Thursday, June 8, 2023
Charlie Comp Days 3 and 4
======================
“Day 3 was a wash, or more precisely a windy, turbulent, smokey mess. People experienced rough tows and no lift after releasing before rowdy landings. They then called it a day.
I had left for the 3.5-hour drive to Steve Wendt's Blue Sky operation in southern Virginia in order to have him repair my ripped sail. That he accomplished yesterday with an expert laying-on of the hands, so I will be again able to fly today. Hallelujah
In the meantime, yesterday, Day 4, the crew had another excellent day. The task took them roughly 43 miles towards the ESE towards the ferry town of Lewes, DE. All but Greg made goal, with Larry, Knut, Ric, and Charlie arriving in time to go and have dinner on a dock. The distinguishing thing about the day was the presence of the extraordinarily thick Canadian smoke. Nonetheless, the thermals were decent, if not particularly strong, and everyone was getting at least 6K above the ground, with Larry having by far the highest flight at 7,500. Everyone needed roughly two hours to get there.
In my absence, Ric honored me by following my precedent and getting down to 1,000 agl off of tow, while Knut truly followed in my footsteps by going down to 590 feet later in the flight before climbing out to get to goal.
Today looks to be a similar sort of a day, with the smoke being as heavy as ever”
Last year's comp on the Delmarva Peninsula, Maryland/Delaware, was epic; many records were set, and most flew to the beach.
This year our Practice Day was Friday, June, 2
Comp Flying Started Saturday, June 3 and will end Saturday, June 10 (8 comp days)
Location:
This year we are staying at https://maps.app.goo.gl/TawbwRLp2hiczsK86?g_st=ic
So fare we have had 4 good days, including practice days and smoky days.
Today we are planning to do a task up to Masse and back.
If interested, here are the latest link.
https://sites.google.com/view/hc2023/scores/day-5
To get some perspective of our XC FLYINGS, here is Peter Lehmanns write up, with permission from him:
Quote;
Date: Thursday, June 8, 2023
Charlie Comp Days 3 and 4
======================
“Day 3 was a wash, or more precisely a windy, turbulent, smokey mess. People experienced rough tows and no lift after releasing before rowdy landings. They then called it a day.
I had left for the 3.5-hour drive to Steve Wendt's Blue Sky operation in southern Virginia in order to have him repair my ripped sail. That he accomplished yesterday with an expert laying-on of the hands, so I will be again able to fly today. Hallelujah
In the meantime, yesterday, Day 4, the crew had another excellent day. The task took them roughly 43 miles towards the ESE towards the ferry town of Lewes, DE. All but Greg made goal, with Larry, Knut, Ric, and Charlie arriving in time to go and have dinner on a dock. The distinguishing thing about the day was the presence of the extraordinarily thick Canadian smoke. Nonetheless, the thermals were decent, if not particularly strong, and everyone was getting at least 6K above the ground, with Larry having by far the highest flight at 7,500. Everyone needed roughly two hours to get there.
In my absence, Ric honored me by following my precedent and getting down to 1,000 agl off of tow, while Knut truly followed in my footsteps by going down to 590 feet later in the flight before climbing out to get to goal.
Today looks to be a similar sort of a day, with the smoke being as heavy as ever”
Re: Mini 8-day R2G Comp on Eastern Shore
We had 6 great days out of 9 days. Even Wednesday was great, despite the smoke.
It seems like the first week of June always works here.
Plenty of landings, flat, low crops.
The unbelievable flight today with low savers, birds helping me get back up, then sea breeze, cruising down on a conversion for xx km with minimum sink, and finally my best thermal over highway 9 right before Rehoboth beach, arriving 1500 feet over the Indian beach. Landing at the beach
Awesome comp and more to come.
Same time, same place next year.
Knut
It seems like the first week of June always works here.
Plenty of landings, flat, low crops.
The unbelievable flight today with low savers, birds helping me get back up, then sea breeze, cruising down on a conversion for xx km with minimum sink, and finally my best thermal over highway 9 right before Rehoboth beach, arriving 1500 feet over the Indian beach. Landing at the beach
Awesome comp and more to come.
Same time, same place next year.
Knut
Re: Mini 8 day R2G Comp on Eastern Shore
Quote/write-up Pete L:
Charlie Comp Day 5:
A day at the beach, and Admiral Ric goes to sea...slightly
Yesterday, Charlie gave us the Rehoboth beach task (actually Indian Beach, just south of town) on a day of wildly divergent weather forecasts that ranged from no clouds, to thunderstorms by early afternoon. In the end there were heaps of clouds, indeed for the later launchers there were perhaps too many clouds shading the ground and making for very difficult conditions. The result was that the two earliest pilots on course, Larry and me, had a relatively easy time of it, while Ric, Charlie, and Jim struggled mightily to make it to the beach. Admiral Ric was even briefly at sea over Delaware Bay as he worked towards goal.
The actual 49.4-mile contest goal was set five miles inland from Indian Beach. That allowed pilots to score for the contest without having to cross the next five miles of built-up land and water to land on the Atlantic coast 54 miles from launch. Larry continued his exceptionally good flying on the performance-challenged Sport 2 and was first to make goal. He also had by far the highest gain to 5,800 feet. However he arrived at goal too low to continue on to the beach, landing at the goal. I was just behind him and had managed to stay high along the clouds marking the sea-breeze convergence line to easily arrive 3,000 feet over the beach. That gave me plenty of time to figure out the wind direction before landing in front of the amazed lifeguard and spectators. It's truly stupid fun to arrive out of nowhere at the beach after setting up over the Atlantic.
Jim, Ric, and Charlie all eventually made it to the beach flying a route that had them fairly far north of course line, and with Jim having been in the air longest at 3:40. All of them experienced the same miserable 115 fpm average climb rates that exemplified their difficult day (I averaged 200 fpm). Ric had the toughest slog, and also the day's lowest single save from 850 agl. He is persistent.
Greg continued his cross-country learning with another twenty-mile flight, while Knut was the only disappointed pilot at the end of the day with a short seven-mile flight.
Everyone, including Knut and Greg (our permanent, non-drinking designated driver, bless him), wound up at the beach and most of us stayed for a loud, alcoholically fueled dinner before driving home very happy.
It had been another good day in a remarkable string of them. Today, Saturday, will be the contest's last task.
Day 9, Task 6
Quote Pete L:
"Yesterday was the final round of the 2023 Highland Challenge, aka Charlie Comp. Ric Niehaus won the last day by finishing first at the Indian Beach goal, albeit landing at the goal and not the beach itself. Apparently, he once again ventured out over Delaware Bay to get high before final gliding to goal. He also won the overall contest by winning two of the five individual tasks. Moreover, he made a bunch of money by going to work on the one non-flyable contest day. He's got it all figured out.
The overall results are at the bottom of this email.
Besides Ric, Charlie, Jim Messina and Knut all made goal, with the latter three also making it to the beach. Knut landed there for the first time, and it was particularly sweet for him as he'd suffered the worst flight on the previous day's beach task.
I did not fly yesterday due to having my glider damaged on the ground by wind, and Larry Huffman elected to bag the day after having not gotten up after releasing from his first tow. It was a disappointing end for both of us, but we nonetheless had a remarkably good week of flying in good conditions, over wonderfully landable terrain, and operating from an absurdly civilized airstrip. Larry had some thirteen hours of airtime and some two-hundred cross-country miles, while I had similar although slightly smaller totals.
Charlie Allen is to be congratulated for again having put on a genuinely fun, credible little competition. My only regret is that for all of his efforts in putting together the event, he has difficulty getting more than a handful of participants.
Charlie Comp Day 5:
A day at the beach, and Admiral Ric goes to sea...slightly
Yesterday, Charlie gave us the Rehoboth beach task (actually Indian Beach, just south of town) on a day of wildly divergent weather forecasts that ranged from no clouds, to thunderstorms by early afternoon. In the end there were heaps of clouds, indeed for the later launchers there were perhaps too many clouds shading the ground and making for very difficult conditions. The result was that the two earliest pilots on course, Larry and me, had a relatively easy time of it, while Ric, Charlie, and Jim struggled mightily to make it to the beach. Admiral Ric was even briefly at sea over Delaware Bay as he worked towards goal.
The actual 49.4-mile contest goal was set five miles inland from Indian Beach. That allowed pilots to score for the contest without having to cross the next five miles of built-up land and water to land on the Atlantic coast 54 miles from launch. Larry continued his exceptionally good flying on the performance-challenged Sport 2 and was first to make goal. He also had by far the highest gain to 5,800 feet. However he arrived at goal too low to continue on to the beach, landing at the goal. I was just behind him and had managed to stay high along the clouds marking the sea-breeze convergence line to easily arrive 3,000 feet over the beach. That gave me plenty of time to figure out the wind direction before landing in front of the amazed lifeguard and spectators. It's truly stupid fun to arrive out of nowhere at the beach after setting up over the Atlantic.
Jim, Ric, and Charlie all eventually made it to the beach flying a route that had them fairly far north of course line, and with Jim having been in the air longest at 3:40. All of them experienced the same miserable 115 fpm average climb rates that exemplified their difficult day (I averaged 200 fpm). Ric had the toughest slog, and also the day's lowest single save from 850 agl. He is persistent.
Greg continued his cross-country learning with another twenty-mile flight, while Knut was the only disappointed pilot at the end of the day with a short seven-mile flight.
Everyone, including Knut and Greg (our permanent, non-drinking designated driver, bless him), wound up at the beach and most of us stayed for a loud, alcoholically fueled dinner before driving home very happy.
It had been another good day in a remarkable string of them. Today, Saturday, will be the contest's last task.
Day 9, Task 6
Quote Pete L:
"Yesterday was the final round of the 2023 Highland Challenge, aka Charlie Comp. Ric Niehaus won the last day by finishing first at the Indian Beach goal, albeit landing at the goal and not the beach itself. Apparently, he once again ventured out over Delaware Bay to get high before final gliding to goal. He also won the overall contest by winning two of the five individual tasks. Moreover, he made a bunch of money by going to work on the one non-flyable contest day. He's got it all figured out.
The overall results are at the bottom of this email.
Besides Ric, Charlie, Jim Messina and Knut all made goal, with the latter three also making it to the beach. Knut landed there for the first time, and it was particularly sweet for him as he'd suffered the worst flight on the previous day's beach task.
I did not fly yesterday due to having my glider damaged on the ground by wind, and Larry Huffman elected to bag the day after having not gotten up after releasing from his first tow. It was a disappointing end for both of us, but we nonetheless had a remarkably good week of flying in good conditions, over wonderfully landable terrain, and operating from an absurdly civilized airstrip. Larry had some thirteen hours of airtime and some two-hundred cross-country miles, while I had similar although slightly smaller totals.
Charlie Allen is to be congratulated for again having put on a genuinely fun, credible little competition. My only regret is that for all of his efforts in putting together the event, he has difficulty getting more than a handful of participants.
Re: Mini 8 day R2G Comp on Eastern Shore
All,
I made a YouTube video and let Apple combine it, using what I had.
See the link: https://youtu.be/Gm1FqOCBioo
Knut
I made a YouTube video and let Apple combine it, using what I had.
See the link: https://youtu.be/Gm1FqOCBioo
Knut
Re: Mini 8 day R2G Comp on Eastern Shore
now it works
-
Danny Brotto
- Posts: 708
- Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2005 9:29 pm
Re: Mini 8 day R2G Comp on Eastern Shore
Thanks so much for sharing, guys!
Danny Brotto
Danny Brotto
Re: Mini 8 day R2G Comp on Eastern Shore
Day 8 gopro video here: https://youtu.be/0fwnb8diYJo
-
Larry Huffman
- Posts: 42
- Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2005 12:12 am
Re: Mini 8 day R2G Comp on Eastern Shore
Last week I participated in the Mini comp on the Eastern Shore for the first time.. What a great experience with a great group of pilots. I would like to thank Adam, Bacil, Hans, and Michal for all of their help. Thanks to Jim Prahl for the excellent job towing us and a special thanks to Charles Allen for all of his help and patience.
Before flying everyone helped to make sure we all had the proper airspace and waypoints in our instruments. After flying there were debriefings about our tows and flights. One pilot came all of the way from Connecticut to gain XC experience. I’ve had my share of XC flying but I’ve never programed routes into my Flytec 6030 before. Armed with the manual and Charles’ help I learned how.
The flying was great and it seems it has been good in the previous years. It is a shame that more pilots don’t take advantage of this golden opportunity.
Larry
Before flying everyone helped to make sure we all had the proper airspace and waypoints in our instruments. After flying there were debriefings about our tows and flights. One pilot came all of the way from Connecticut to gain XC experience. I’ve had my share of XC flying but I’ve never programed routes into my Flytec 6030 before. Armed with the manual and Charles’ help I learned how.
The flying was great and it seems it has been good in the previous years. It is a shame that more pilots don’t take advantage of this golden opportunity.
Larry