From: ludeman@astroatc.uucp (Weekend Pilot)
Subject: Re: Competitions
Keywords: First time competitor
Organization: Astronautics Technology Cntr, Madison, WI
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 20:38:03 GMT

In article <gaynier.718509273@s1.elec.uq.oz.au> gaynier@elec.uq.oz.au (Ron Gaynier) writes:
>I competed for the first time and learned ALOT, not
>just about competing but about gliding in general.
>
>I was wondering if other people would like to share their experiences
[...]

The learning curve does get pretty steep at a contest.  I've flown three
contests now, two in the Sports (handicapped) class and one 15m, all
with an HP-18 (homebuilt flapped 15m vee tailed ship with performance
similar to a PIK-20.)

My first contest was in Elmira NY last year which saw us flying in horrible
visibility and often scruffy conditions.  My longest flight of the contest
was 90 miles and my best speed was about 43 mph.  I landed out two days
and finished second in a class of 12 on the other two (so much for 
consistency :-)).  Scared myself once, had a lot of fun, learned a 
lot.

My second contest, another Sports Class, was in Albert Lea Minnesota
last May.  Newly planted fields abounded and cloud bases went from 4500
to 9500 with strong, abundant lift.  I landed out once as a result of
being much too aggressive and flew 85, 129, 130 and 150 mile flights
the other four days.  My best speed was 53 mph or so (no ballast in
Sports).  *Great* fun.  Biggest problem was freezing to death at 8000+
feet (OAT about 38 - 40 F).  The last two days I finally taped up all
the vents on the ship.  WHat with 100 mph cruising speeds and all I got 
plenty of air through the canopy weatherstripping!  Visibility was usually
50+ miles so navigation was easy.  Finally started getting the hang of 
final glides (God they make me nervous!).

Flew my third contest (or rather tried to) in Dansville NY this last
August.  Hurricane Andrew dealt us a pretty wet week and although we
did get three contest days (just barely, by the rules 25% of the class
attempting the task has to go 50 miles, on one of those days 6 of 24
15m ships went 50 miles and one of those only went 53 or so...) I only
flew two.  I got things going right off by landing out on the practice
day (just to get my new crew broken in ;-)), landed out again after a 
50+ mile flight day one along with 38 others.  Day two I took off with the
one and only goal of sticking to the sky and I somehow managed to take
a picture of the Avoca airport turnpoint with seven gliders already
on the ramp and got back to Dansville but didn't get speed points for
not having gone the minimum required 50 miles (i.e. my 38 mile flight 
was scored as a landout) -- the same thing happened to John Seymour,
so at least I had some distinguished company.  By the end of the day there 
were thirteen gliders at the Avoca airport, most of them having landed
after a straight 19 mile glide from Dansville.  An incredibly frustrating 
week.  Still, learned a few things, had some fun and at least put together
two nicely executed off field landings.  

If there's a problem with having gotten involved in contest flying,
it's that local weekend flying starts to seem pretty insipid by 
comparison.  These days I tend to find myself more interested in
working on the ship instead of flying it if the weather is less
than XC worthy.
-- 
Evan Ludeman   
astroatc!ludeman@spool.cs.wisc.edu 
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.soaring