2011 Seniors Day 5 Report

Well, today dawned foggy again, but at least I wasn’t accosted by the
hawk family on my run. I think I was early enough so they couldn’t
see me go by in all the fog.

At the morning meeting, weatherman Ray Galloway told us that the
synoptic weather conditions were pretty much the same as yesterday,
so we should expect pretty much the same soaring conditions.

The task today was SE to Wine, then SW to Wauchulla, then back NE to
Chalet Suzanne, then north to Tex Merritt, and then home.

Out on the grid for the pre-launch meeting, John Good (facing south)
told the group that he didn’t expect any clouds today, whereupon
several pilots (facing north) raised their arms and pointed to a very
nice looking cu that had just popped a few miles north! ;-). Alas, it
wasn’t to be, as what few cu’s there were in the task area faded away
before the start gate opened. There was also a huge field fire just
about 5-10 miles south of the field, and for a while I thought that
might work out as a first post-start fillup station. Unfortunately
someone got their times a bit off and it started too early, and was
basically dead by the time the start gate opened – rats!

Most pilots headed directly south toward the Wine circle, and there
were plenty of marked thermals on the first leg. The bomber streams
started to separate as pilots with different task strategies started
to turn at different points along the leg. A few brave pilots turned
very early in the Wauchulla circle in an attempt to get to the clouds
to the north of the field in the Tex Merritt circle. Reports were
that the clouds were there, and they worked, but not well enough to
make up for having to fly alone in the blue to get there. Many of the
faster pilots went deep into the Wauchulla circle and just nicked the
Chalet Suzanne and Tex Merritt circles. Local boy Rich Owen showed us
how it is done here at Seminole by winning the day with 59.93mph raw /
55.05mph handicapped. John Seymour took second with 63.17mph raw /
54.19mph handicapped. Chip Garner had another good day at third place
with 58.92mph raw / 53.92mph handicapped.

It didn’t pay today to get low, as the thermals were hard to center
below about 3000’msl. Several pilots paid the price for getting too
low today, as there were several landouts. As I write this report,
all pilots are accounted for and no human or glider injuries have been
reported.

After 5 contest days, Tom Kelley is still in first place overall, 71
points ahead of Karl Striedieck. That’s a pretty substantial lead,
but not insurmountable. Karl has a 62 point lead over John Seymour in
third place overall, and John has only a 38 point lead over Dick
Butler in fourth place and only 61 points over Frank Paynter in fifth
overall. So, I anticipate a real horse race tomorrow as the pilots
already on the podium try to hold their places or advance, and the
pilots near the podium try to muscle their way onto one of the spots.
Traditionally the last day’s task is a ‘banquet task’, designed to get
everyone home in plenty of time to shower, shave, and get ready to
party at the awards dinner, so the top guys might all wind up bunched
together at the top of the scoresheet – we’ll just have to wait and
see!

TA.