I see the Region 9 North contest was pretty heavily attended last
year, but in 2010 its being held about a month earlier in the season.
Can anyone familiar with the contest & the area explain to me what
this date move might mean for both attendance and conditions?

Thanks, take care,

--Noel
(who sadly won't be able to attend the SSA Convention, either - argh!)

Noel,
I may be biased myself. But I am a HUGE fan of Logan. Last year was
the first year of a contest at Logan. They have a HUGE airport
(biggest I have seen outside of Hobbs), but still in use. The airport
authority opened up their hearts and airport , we had an entire old
unused runway to use as tie-downs. We had an entire runway and
taxiway to use for launching. We had lodging, restaurants,
activities, entertainment, EVERYTHING. The soaring had ridge, wave
AND thermal. I couldn't believe it, last year we only had two FIELD
landings...and at one the farmer came out and wanted his family to
meet the glider pilot, and took the glider pilot into town to wait for
his retrieve crew (his mind was that it would be easier to find). We
had so many airstrips everywhere, that all of the other out-landings
were on actual airstrips. The city of Logan sits in a valley with
mountains all around. You seem to ALWAYS be able to find lift,
because you can use the ridge. Funny, but on the east coast, there
are ridge days when the ridge seems to work. In Logan, there wasn't a
day when the ridge didn't work. I was pretty amazed at seeing the
clouds indicate the wave. We had to daily remind the pilots to not
bump the ceiling. And as Tim T, said, it was the worst weather he had
seen in over 10 years. Wow....you should have seen some of the
altitude on the flight traces! Moving the contest to earlier this
year, will give us better conditions, and launching earlier this
year. I have already had a few e-mails of some seasoned competition
pilots that are going to be attending. Like last year, we are going
to have ground school (strategy classes) by some really experienced
pilots!
I can hardly wait to get back there....Jonathan's was the best steak
restaurant I have ever been to outside of New York City! Ok, maybe I
am a little biased! LOL
Micki