Miles in May

Another Miles in May competition has come and gone. And I didn't take one picture. The weather was less than perfect the entire week, and finally with the long range looking bad and pouring rain today with a driving north wind we called it done. I was the weather guy and had to drive around town looking for open access to the net from unsuspecting homeowners. The Vulcan country club (used to have free access for us) is growing not to fond of our business I guess.


Practice Day
Rounded up my winch mates and got everyones stuff sorted out and got to test out the winch. Soon as I got to the tow road I noticed a liquid dripping under my winch. A rock had been kicked up by the trailer and poked a hole on the brake line. Off to town I went to get parts to fix it. the driver towed the rope in and never shut it off soon enough and broke the swivel from the push rod to the pressure needle. After a few head scratches and parts scrambling we fixed that too. I got a tow late in the day when the wind had switched to a light downwind and on our short road I got a tow to only 800'. I found nothing and didn't quite make it back to the launch. not a very good day but we got everyone ready for the comp.

Day one
Task: Vulcan to Vauxall, 100K or so. Driver showed up and I spent the day teaching him to tow. I knew I wasn't going to get off too early. While loading a pilot on the winch I heard screams and yells and looked up to see everyone running my way. Then I heard an awful sound of a glider hitting the ground. I knew what happened and I turned to see a glider folded up on the field. He had locked out on tow. I quickly unloaded the glider and drove up to deliver a first aid kit and help. The pilot was in very bad shape. Very quickly the fire trucks arrived and I retreated. Soon after that the ambulance came to take him away. I found out later that his injuries were extensive but nothing life threatening. He suffered two broken tibia, three fractured vertebra 10 broken ribs with a punctured lung, and a broken shoulder. A few of the guys bagged their wings soon after due to the bad ju ju and nerves.

I launched soon after and got a tow to 2000' I tracked back along the road for only a few hundred hards when I found a light thermal. It soon turned on to 600 fpm and I was soon at cloud base. I went on glide towards the goal and found very little to turn in all the way to the ground. I called my driver and packed up my wing. When I looked up I saw another glider on the ground a kilometer away. After a long hike I found it was Ralph. I felt goon knowing he only made it 1k more than me. Ross made goal. Most others were spread out along the course line.

Day two
Task: Vulcan to Bassano. The weather was crappy but there was forecast to be lift and south wind. I got the first tow but found no lift to speak of. Got a few wing overs and landed. After launching everyone else the cloud cover became overcast and I packed it in. Ross made it just short of goal.

Day three
Task: Vulcan to Bassano, again. Again the day was only forcast to open up for a small window of opportunity. Just when it was my turn to go, my driver radioed there was a problem. The line was missing. After an hour of searching we found it. An hour later it was back on the winch and raining. packed up and left.

Rain and gale force wind was the greeting for the morning of day four. The meet was over. the next four days looked the same. Turned out I got fourth place in the king posted class and seventh place overall. Pretty good for a not very good flight on one day. but lots of other didn't even get that. I was soooo looking forward to this comp but mother nature wasn't going to cooperate. Better luck next year.