On May 11, 8:48*pm, rlovinggood wrote:
CLUB CLASS HAS ARRIVED TO THE UNITED STATES! *There's no way I can
thank Sam Giltner enough for his perseverance in bringing Club Class
to the States. *Finally, we get a class where we can fly assigned
tasks and also fly against a group of gliders that have a tighter
range of handicaps.

Today, the weather forecast was similar to yesterday, and as you
recall, no tasks were called for yesterday, a practice day for both
the Club Class and the 15m Nationals. *Fortunately, the weather turned
out better today than yesterday, but in the morning, the CD had to
come up with a task suitable for the Club Class (it's still a practice
day for the 15m National guys.) *Sam Giltner, the CD, came up with a
nice Turn Area Task. *At first, it looked "almost" flyable. *Then, as
we flew down the first leg, it looked like it would be an easy task.
Some found the second leg easy, too. *Clouds kept filling in for the
third leg and I thought I would be under the three hour limit, BUT NOT
TO WORRY! *I've got ways of screwing up a pretty good flight with lots
of time spent down in the "oxygen rich" flight levels... *And so, on
the last leg as I attempted to add a few more miles and insure I
wouldn't come in early, I did just that: *Added more useless miles and
surely didn't come in early. *But, I finished.

We did have some landouts as I understand it. *Both in Club Class and
in 15m task.

A LARGE dinner was hosted in the Ramada Inn, consisting of scruptious
barbecue chicken, ribs, and shredded barbecue pig. *EXCELLENT! *And,
topped off with banana pudding and/or pecan pie. *I'm well ballasted
for the rest of the contest...

From the cool motel room in Cordele,
Ray Lovinggood

Ray,

Wonderful reports. I can almost tase the dinner.

P3