Charlie Spratt

John Good wrote a beautiful obit for Charlie Spratt in the June 2009 issue of Soaring. Charlie left us April 10th that year. Good start Good finish!

On Friday, April 10, 2020 at 10:04:01 AM UTC-4, Karl Striedieck wrote:
John Good wrote a beautiful obit for Charlie Spratt in the June 2009 issue of Soaring. Charlie left us April 10th that year. Good start Good finish!

I still miss Charlie a lot.
UH

KS, what is your favorite Charlie Spratt story?

On Friday, April 10, 2020 at 10:04:01 AM UTC-4, Karl Striedieck wrote:
John Good wrote a beautiful obit for Charlie Spratt in the June 2009 issue of Soaring. Charlie left us April 10th that year. Good start Good finish!

Yes, I miss Charlie....among many stories...I remember at a contest in "upstate NY" where he was CD....I got stuck for an hour low....finally got up, radioed the site, got a crew member flying a contestant glider....he relayed back to Charlie...."UH doing a finish!...".....Charlie was already into keg (with many others) and gave a "good finish!" Even though he likely didn't see it....back when I upset others since landout scoring was based on slowest finisher.....Charlie was cool....yes, I miss him....
Makes you want to say things to peeps while they are still around.....not eulogies....better, face to face....:-)

A little known secret. Charlie was more competitive than most of the competitors. We needed the last day of a Regional to make it a contest. The day forecast was for strong winds, low thermal tops, weak lift and blue. Charlie set an out and return task with the turnpoint straight down wind just further than the minimum distance required for a valid contest day. When I asked Charlie how he expected the competitors to get home, "not my problem". While everyone ultimately landed out, the minimum distance was achieved by just enough competitors and we had a contest. I landed near the town of Earth and got to tell my crew that I had landed NW of Earth. Loved that guy.

On Friday, April 10, 2020 at 9:04:01 AM UTC-5, Karl Striedieck wrote:
John Good wrote a beautiful obit for Charlie Spratt in the June 2009 issue of Soaring. Charlie left us April 10th that year. Good start Good finish!

He wrote a book entitled, "See ya' a the Airport". I've forgotten all the details, but he reveals that there was some controversy with the racing community about his suitability as a national contest director or manager. The book includes some compelling letters of support from some of our soaring royalty (e.g., Ed Byars, George Moffat). Also, positive reviews from others such as KS and Pete Smith.
If you promise to pass it to others, I'll send you my copy. Just provide your address by PM. I'm guessing that our friendly soaring businesses might be hurting during this economic shutdown, so I will buy a book from one of them of at least equal value.

Too many Charlie stories to pick one - but.

One night there was window rattling crash from upstairs, and when asked about it Charlie said he fell out of bed.

Or one of the numerous glider delivery sagas when he was passing Flagstaff mid- winter and felt sorry for a freezing hitchhiker. Turned out the guy was drunk so Charlie put him in the front of the trailer.

Speaking of his gift with humans, a favorite kid-on-the-road story was the year he took a lad who had a learning disability. At some point the boy found himself in a game of Scrabble with other young kids, and was the brunt of ridicule for a word choice. When they left for the motel Charlie took the Scrabble game and said to the lad "We'll play some more Scrabble and you can spell the words anyway you want."

Hey Karl,

I love that last one. Aside from the great story telling, he was one of those guys who truly cared about people.

I think it was my second season of racing when I owned a Baby Grob and we were flying out of Dansville. Probably 1990. The weather was actually pretty good - just good enough so I could get pretty far away before getting in trouble and landing out.

I proceeded to land out I think 5 days in a row; on at least 2 of them I was the only landout. After the 5th day Charlie took me aside and asked how I was doing, was I discouraged, etc. He ended the session with "I'll buy you a beer if you get back tonight." I did, and he did.

P3

On Friday, April 10, 2020 at 6:24:45 PM UTC-4, Karl Striedieck wrote:
Too many Charlie stories to pick one - but.

One night there was window rattling crash from upstairs, and when asked about it Charlie said he fell out of bed.

Or one of the numerous glider delivery sagas when he was passing Flagstaff mid- winter and felt sorry for a freezing hitchhiker. Turned out the guy was drunk so Charlie put him in the front of the trailer.

Speaking of his gift with humans, a favorite kid-on-the-road story was the year he took a lad who had a learning disability. At some point the boy found himself in a game of Scrabble with other young kids, and was the brunt of ridicule for a word choice. When they left for the motel Charlie took the Scrabble game and said to the lad "We'll play some more Scrabble and you can spell the words anyway you want."

On Friday, April 10, 2020 at 7:04:01 AM UTC-7, Karl Striedieck wrote:
John Good wrote a beautiful obit for Charlie Spratt in the June 2009 issue of Soaring. Charlie left us April 10th that year. Good start Good finish!

Ran the gate for us at a remote (from the airport) spot and complained to the local farmer, land owner about how hot and out in the open it was, farmer stacked hay bales around him. Charlie called it "hay henge". My granddaughters worked with him on the gate, they loved him.

gary kemp

In my first contest at Cordele in 2000, when it became apparent that I was no threat, he let me launch early and complete my 5 hour to finish my silver in the club 1-26. Tami worked the gate with him and Annie Byrd. After that we were hooked.

Kevin
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