East Coast Championship 2014

[Lostgriz]

I am sorry to report that I will not be able to participate in the ECC this year. I had a PM quit and I need to cover their job. I will probably come and try to fly the first and last tasks, and possibly one during the week. Good luck to everyone and safe flights!

Cheers,

Matt

[Rich E]

So would I!

Cheers

Rich

[John Dullahan]

Good to hear from you Brian. Sure; glad to have you in the driving pool. See you tomorrow.

John

[Rich E]

John,

Just to clarify, am also looking to join the car pool with Adam. I've messaged him directly as well.

Cheers

Rich

[John Dullahan]

Hi Rich,

Glad to have you along. That makes three with Brian B. and me. Just need one more to make it $25 per day per pilot.

[John Dullahan]

Hi Matt,

Sorry you won't be able to make it for the entire comp. Hope you can make it for a few of the tasks during the week - I know you will smoke the course.

[Rich E]

Hi John,

I have another buddy, Cory Barnwell (also friends with Adam) would like to be the 4th member if that is okay?

Cheers

Rich

[John Dullahan]

Rich,

Sounds good. That makes four. C U tomorrow?

[boudreaufly]

Thanks John,
I will see you tomorrow.
There is another driver here (Nate from Wisconsin) who is driving for Greg Dinauer and he is looking for two more pilots to drive for. He has a vehicle. Greg's van.
Thanks,
Brian

[Rich E]

Hi John,

Yes, both Cory and I are heading to Highland tomorrow (Sat) hopefully arriving around noon-ish. Look forward to meeting you there.

Cheers

Rich

[FlyingFelix]

Looking forward to lots of sweet XC flying this coming week! I'll be working through Saturday evening so I'll only be at Highland on Sunday. I'm interested in a ride for the comp but I need to stay with the Sport class, rides shared between the Open-Sport class isn't the best idea...I'm sure there will be options once we're all there. There were some local people willing to drive last year, hopefully they'll be there again. If not, what's wrong with hitch-hiking?
Hope for nice weather!

[mcgowantk]

The weather looks great early in the week. I have to work until Thursday or Friday. Tom McGowan

[Ward Odenwald]

Great start to this year's ECC. Here are 3 pics from a thermal conditions exploratory flight (aka wind dummy experience). More details will follow from others.

Ward

[krryerson]

1th day, on Sunday, in the ECC was a great. I was flying in the sport class and made it down 15km to the first turn point. Next and last turn point was 10km down to goal. Having a new GPS and thought sport class goal was back to Ridegly, I decided to turn around and fly back up wind to Ridgely and made it. Funny! Thoug, I only got points for 1 turn point, my flight was all great. Lift and sink was both great; but what made it fun was that cloudbase was 5k and wind was manageable for sport 2's. Today, 2nd day was canceled. More to come from other pilots. Knut

[Rich E]

Flew the furthest I have ever done and made goal, one of only 4 to make it - fantastic day yesterday. Sadly there was a broken humerus on landing near goal and today there was another heavy landing and an auger in just off the cart so safety committee made the right call. Hoping for better conditions tomorrow...

[markc]

Keep the reports coming, stay safe everybody, and tear up those skies! Wish I could participate, maybe next year....

[carweill]

Yes keep those reports coming.

Here you can see the scores.
http://www.soaringspot.com/ecc2014/

Quietly Greg Sessa won 2 consecutive days in Sport class


Fly safe

Carlos

[krryerson]

3rd day in the ECC, Tuesday, Jun 3rd.
Great day and was the only pilot that finish the task and made it to goal.
For sport class: 1. Ryerson 42.3km/h, 2. McElrath 25.4km and 3. Barnwell 18.4km.
I was also the only pilot that did fly with a "tail". When telling this to my 9 years old son, he told me "You made it to the goal because you had a tail". Funny!
Anyway, on first tow, there was NOTHING and most pilots had to go for a second. On second, most pilots did go XC; however, it did not feel it was that good and flew back again to the airport. On my 3rd try, it just did feel right, though the thermal I started out in was weak, but consistent.
After that it was a long concervative flight. Low, high and low, reaching from 3k high to as low as ~1400 feet and mosly in weak lift. Made it to the goal high, in ~75 min and had a safe landing at Jenkin airport. Nevertheless, it was a bummer that there were no other pilots at the airport. It would have been fun to have some cheering; but had a great chat with the airport owner and famer after the flight.
More to come from other pilots.
Knut

[krryerson]

Obssy: goal was 29.6 km and Miller now on 2nd for sport class. Link posted seems to have a typo on dirtance. (Using km and miles makes it all confusing) Knut

[Danny Brotto]

Knut

While having someone else in at goal might have increased your celebration and possibly your points (more validity to the task) as it was you earned almost 250 points more (speed points and a few distance points) than the guy that landed a few kilometers short of goal. That's a pretty good spread and you should be proud of it on what looked like a sketchy day.

Glad that the airport owner was happy to see you there. Please note that not all owners of private airports may be as welcoming. While they can't deny an emergency landing, they may not be happy about targeting it as an intended landing without prior permission. This is especially true with a swarm of gliders landing there... ask me how I know. Check at the pilot's briefing if the goal airport is welcoming. If unknown then its best to tag the goal and land in an adjacent field if safety permits.

Best wishes for getting to goal fast for the rest of the task days!
Danny Brotto

[Danny Brotto]

I checked on Jenkins Airport. Looks to be privately owned, public use; no prior notice needed. (It is right on the SW edge of Dover Class D and we do need to stay out of that.)

If on a sectional you see the words "PVT" and/or an "R" in the airport locator circle, that's the private, non-public use airport category that I was giving a heads up on in my prior post.

Danny Brotto

[carweill]

Nice work Knut.
I think is very competitive in the sport class.
No spots from the open class!

Fly safe

Carlos

[krryerson]

Day 4th: 1. Felix 34.0km/h, 2. Knut 29.0km and 3. Brian Boudreau 29.0km. To tired to write up to much; but a great flying day again, after all... . The air started to become active around 1:00PM and we had good strong thermal's around 3.00PM. Wind NW 8-10, but turned more in to West during the day, which put us off the flight path. Started to get overcast around 4 PM.
We did fly perhaps 5-6 sports class pilots all together, early on and most of us started around 3:00PM, during this "Second Part" of the ECC. Felix left on the first wave and was probably in goal by then. To the best of my knowledge the open class did great and most pilots made it.
For the sport class, I got out of course and did not fly my last leg efficient. But was able to top out at 4k once. Again, a jumpy flight, and almost had to land twice. Most sport class pilots was in the "Second Wave", due to another accident after all the open class pilots had flown away. It was a bad landing and the pilot had to be taken out in a helicopter. To the best of my knowledge he is okay. Knut

[markc]

I heard that it was John Dullahan who had an accident upon landing, possibly for a re-light? Flown to shock/trauma in Baltimore, but this was after he had unhooked and walked around.... So with luck, perhaps his injuries won't be severe, let's hope so!

MarkC

[mcelrah]

I just got a call from Joanne Dullahan: John is gonna be OK - but first he has to have surgery to fuse T1-5 vertebrae. He cracked two and shattered one, plus broke at least one rib and a scapula (shoulder blade). I saw only the last second of it: he was coming back for a relight, came in low over the hangar/pavilion and then the avgas/jet fuel tanks, hooked a light stanchion next to the tank and was brought down. The glider didn't look that bad, maybe only a broken downtube? He walked with assistance to shade, but agreed to emergency assistance for a feeling of compression in his spine.
- Hugh