US: 15M/Open Class Writeups?

On Monday, June 7, 2021 at 3:38:05 PM UTC-7, Steve Leonard wrote:
On Monday, June 7, 2021 at 4:12:26 PM UTC-5, wrote:

I just checked the SSA web site for results. They are showing all
remaining days as "no contest". Has the fire season shut them down?

RO
I was wondering the same thing. Jim Payne did 900+ KM OLC in an ASG-32Mi on Sunday. Looking closer at the GOES 16 loop, there may be something real close by?

Steve Leonard



Just got a note from a contestant, today was canceled due to strong Cross-wind for takeoff on 16+ little convection. Tuesday & Wednesday canceled because of increased wind and even lower temperatures = no chance of thermal day.
Saturday’s score sheet are final results!
Good job guys!
JJ

Yes indeed. Jim Payne had such a great flight on Sunday that they decided nobody could do better, so they voted to take all his scoring points away! Also, the satellite pics showed a squadron of UFOs approaching Minden resulting in a mass exodus. Good call in reporting this guys! (The contest was call due to Wx)

.....but fire? Hmmmm, maybe not. https://www.fireweatheravalanche.org...ada/lake-tahoe

Howdy All,

Hopefully to clear some things up and quell the speculation, here it is from the horses mouth. Obviously I’m best to write these reports since I’m in the whole loop and I’m sorry I didn’t do better, so put the blame on me. I like seeing the daily reports just like everyone, and wanted to have daily reports like Charlie did but please understand there’s a lot going on here.

Many of you have been CD and know how busy things can be and Minden is very busy. As CD, the day starts at 0715 for a weather brief, then conferring with the scorer, followed by a 9am task meeting then a 10am pilot’s meeting. The conga line of gliders crossing the active power runway starts at 11:00 with the usual grid challenges, then launch starting as close to 12 as possible. During the launch, we’re coordinating with arriving and departing power traffic of every size from a C-150 to multiple corporate jets on a crossing runway, then relights and task opening thrown in for good measure. After getting tasks open it’s lunch at about 2 or 3:00 followed by a short break to decompress and get ready for the finish and recovery which usually takes over an hour or more. On several days, finishers were after 7pm with the latest being only 30 minutes before sunset (8:20). After that is dinner and back to the hotel around 9 or 9:30 then the cycle starts again. Not making excuses, just giving insight. Again, sorry. For the Soaring Magazine article we assigned each day’s write up to a different competitor. In the coming days I’ll write daily reports for the SSA contest page too.

Now, here’s the scoop on why we cancelled the last three days. We had a great run of six good weather days with several having unusually high temps in the low to mid 90s, which gave us the high thermals and great speeds. We decided to go six before a rest day because the rest day (Sunday) and the days to follow were looking to be high wind, and marginal wave, not to mention falling high temps and thermal heights. The high temp on Wednesday as I write this is predicted to be only 66F. (18C). Not very conducive to good thermals. All those days are predicted to have high winds which were also crosswinds not at all favoring “our� runway and, in reality, not even favoring the main runway, even if we could have used it. Today’s (Monday’s) max thermal heights (because of a double inversion) were predicted to be only about 4000’agl. which over the desert is extremely uncomfortable. On top of that, the winds at altitude were blowing over 35kt. Tuesday and Wednesday showed worse with higher winds at altitude (as much as 51kt), more broken thermals and marginal wave because of a non optimal wind direction. Bottom line is we used every good day we had and used them to the fullest. In the end, since the forecasted weakening trend was being verified by our ace weatherman Dan Gudgel, we decided that instead of sitting and waiting for the inevitable, we would pull the plug and call it good with six really good days.

As for the contest, it was a huge success. The contest organization, led by Reba and Alan, was to the letter complete and well run. The operation led by Mountain Mike was efficient and great to work with, in spite of meshing our ops with a lot of power traffic. Our tow pilots did a good job in density altitudes of nearly 8000’ too. All in all it was a pleasure working with and for a well run operation.

I’ll post again with some day reports and statistics that are pretty amazing.

Mark

It took Jim an hour and a half after release to get into the wave and then he blistered it with his skill and superior knowledge of the wave system. Over 900km in five hours. We’ll done!

Hi Al,

I really want to be like Charlie someday. In the meantime, I think he’d understand, having been a CD as many times as he was and as great a writer as he was. See my write up below and understand that my first obligation is to serve as the best CD I can be for the organization and pilots and that I’m no writer like Charlie, who could turn our a contest report in a “few minutes�. No one I know can match his writings. Sorry, I’m trying. I’ll take any suggestions

All the best to you and Rhonda. I sure miss seeing y’all.
Mark

Congratulations to Dan Mockler! He is a World Class Pilot.

What happened with the Nixus?

On Monday, June 7, 2021 at 9:30:44 PM UTC-7, Mike Carris wrote:
Congratulations to Dan Mockler! He is a World Class Pilot.

What happened with the Nixus?

Right wing dropped on takeoff at low speed and scraped the rocks causing minor cosmetic damage which has been fixed.

On Monday, June 7, 2021 at 10:46:19 PM UTC-6, 7K wrote:
On Monday, June 7, 2021 at 9:30:44 PM UTC-7, Mike Carris wrote:
Congratulations to Dan Mockler! He is a World Class Pilot.

What happened with the Nixus?
Right wing dropped on takeoff at low speed and scraped the rocks causing minor cosmetic damage which has been fixed.

Thank you 7K.

At the final meeting Mark organized a crowd-sourced contest write up, with one pilot volunteering to cover each day's flying. It should produce a good article for Soaring, though not the day by day commentary that I also enjoy on the SSA website. Here's my comments on Day 2 FYI

Contest day 2 at Minden was one of the most memorable flights of my soaring career. I have not seen conditions this strong in all my time flying the Sierra. We took the usual route south, from the Pine Nuts to Mt. Patterson. I always get low at Mt. Patterson, but for once this time I found a nice thermal over the top, and moved on to a boomer in the convergence that goes to the Sierra. A good sign! It took just a little tippy toing to get connected on the Sierra, looking down to Mono Lake on the left, the high Sierra on the right, an impressive escarpment just a little too close below, and clouds above. It’s hard to convey the sheer scenic beauty of flying a glider between Mono Lake and Yosemite. But we have a race to fly. Once connected at Mammoth Lakes, flying with Craig Rein hold (CR), we were able to fly down the southern sierra under nice clouds, without stopping to turn. A – for once – benign crossing of the Owens valley led to stupendous lift on the White mountains and right back to cloudbase. I did not turn once from connecting on the Whites all the way home. Again the natural beauty of the Owens Valley can be distracting. Watch your altitude! Yes, I didn’t place that well, but flew faster than I have since Tonopah, and burned sublime images in the back of my head. What a day!

John Cochrane BB

Just to put an exclamation point to Mark's comments about the upcoming weather, a hearty small band of wave enthusiasts that wanted to fly Tuesday morning were told NO by the best Minden tow pilot at 9:30 this morning. The winds were too severe and he wouldn't fly.
Craig Reinholt (CR)