Wow! Got your final glide calculations that badly
wrong?

Not really, ideally I would have reached redline just before crossing
the finish line, but Ephrata had a particularly ugly set-up. The finish
line was located in the middle of the ramp, so after finishing one was
forced to make an emmediate climbing 180 turn and fly 1/2 mile back to
set-up for a landing on the ramp. That day I believe I crossed the line
at about 100 feet and 145 knots. Needed every bit of that energy too,
in order to make it back to the entry point for landing. The PW-5 was
flying slow because he needed to conserve everything he had in order to
do the same thing.

Thankfully, Ephrata saw the light and went with the 500 foot-1 mile
cylinder the next year. Made everything sooooo much easier, just
pull-up, slow-up, turn down-wind for the ramp. Make a radio call if you
saw others near by. The difference in anxiety level was like day and
night and I was able to save all that testosterone for the bedroom.
;) JJ