Down wind dash

On Thursday, May 4, 2017 at 8:15:22 PM UTC-5, Tony wrote:
Awesome flight! Mitch and I flew the last 150 miles side by side. Made it to goal of Gibbings and then floated to LaGrange. More later!

Congratulations! It was quite exciting to watch your progress on the SPOT tracking site. And to think that we have not even started the soaring season at my place in Michigan due to the cold and rainy spring...

Looking forward to reading your "Pilot's Story".

Tom BravoMike

Here's the current OLC Link. This is the file from IGCDroid on my phone so the altitude is goofy. http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0...tId=-691876141

It rained over an inch at the glider club and for the first 100 miles of the files the night before. We were a little worried about that of course but as soon as the cu popped we were off and climbing with no trouble.

Once out of the rain area we had trouble! I got down to 1100 AGL but hooked a 4 knot climbs which kept me.moving. I was running out ahead of Mitch and Mike. They flew their Discii dry while I watered up my Cirrus in an attempt for us to stay together.

Once we crossed the red River the soaring got better. The clouds were more honest, we were bumping well, and it was pretty easy going to our declared turnpoint at Weatherford.

At that point Mike peeled off to do his turnpoints for his 750km flight. He had to work Friday morning so cut it short to land at home.

Mitch and I joined up near Lake Whitney and flew the rest of the way side by side. This was perfect timing as the day was starting to die. Cu were thinning while we tried to figure out how to get to our declared goal at Giddings. We got there without much trouble. Then Mitch searched and found us a weak climb coming off town. This got us high enough to make LaGrange!

John and KC decided to get a head start and left Wichita with my trailer at 8:30 am. Confidence! They were at the airport in Giddings when I flew over..

It was so much fun to have friends along for one of these dashes. Still need just a little better day (or glider) to make 1000km and the ultimate goal of the Gulf of Mexico!

On 5/5/2017 5:54 AM, Tony wrote:
Here's the current OLC Link. This is the file from IGCDroid on my phone so
the altitude is goofy.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0...tId=-691876141

Snip...
Studly!!! Looks' like you're getting purty good at picking straight-out goals
in Texas! Funny thing...both days during your last two vulgar downwind dashes,
the idle thought, "I wonder if Tony's 'out there' today?" came unbidden to
mind as I was enjoying the post-frontal screaming southbound winds ripping
through eastern Colorado.

Bob W.

Congratulations on a great flight.... Must have been fun to fly the last 150 miles side by side ...

AE

GOES East showing cloud streeting from mid-Kansas to mid-Texas (flight start-to-finish) late afternoon.

I'm wondering how the pilots compensated the crew for their ~20 hour round-trip retrieve?

https://www.dropbox.com/pri/get/Publ...w29CG rZ-5sOA

Kinda fuzzy in the beginning since the high res archive didn't start until 1900 UTC.

https://psu.box.com/s/qitztjd2ea2lr83s5nzp4c0wpmayr3d3

Dropbox has changed their policy so Public is really no longer public.
Could you post this somewhere else please?

https://www.dropbox.com/pri/get/Publ...w29CG rZ-5sOA

Due to crew unrest, we've upgraded from Whataburger to Braums. As is my tradition they also get ice cream.

Updated OLC Link: http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0...l?dsId=5671348

At 18:19 05 May 2017, Tony wrote:
Due to crew unrest, we've upgraded from Whataburger to Braums.
As is my
tradition they also get ice cream.


Tony...congratulations to you and all! Inspiration for those of the sport
who have just darn good sailplanes of previous generation.
You know, the first time I went to a Whataburger was in the '60's in
Odessa, during the later heydays of long-range Texas soaring. Maybe
sticking with Whataburger is a good omen...RB