Motorgliders (long)

Eric asked for examples of motorglider advantage in contests.

My favorite story occured at the Minden regionals, a few years back. Gary and
I were working a decent little thermal, deep in the boonies, north of Basalt. I
spotted a wing flash on the next ridge and figured, "Anybody out here, knows
what they're doing." We left our 3 knotter and joined the glider I had spotted.
He didn't have a thing, just junk. Mad at myself for leaving the 3 knot
thermal, we all started a glide for Hawthorne. Gary was on the left, the
unknown glider, in the middle and I was on the right. As the ground became an
item of interest (read, we were below 1000 feet and Hawthorne was still more
than 10 miles away), I saw two little dors open on the unknown glider and an
IRON THERMAL appeared. Gary and I landed at Garlach Flats, its actually a
bombing range that isn't a restricted area. the Army tests cluster bombs there.
They just fly over with a cluster bomb slung below a helicopter, look all
around and if they don't see anybody on the ground, or in the air, they drop
the sucker. The individual bomblets are inert, they are just checking for a
good dispersal pattern.

Anyway, we landed in this bombing range. I shouted to Gary at the last moment,
to land outside the fence. Supper that night consisted of my apple and Gary's
candy bar. I gave him exactly half of my apple, but I think I got shorted on
his Baby Ruth. We gathered up all the fire wood we could find and then about
sundown, I felt the *call of nature*. I wiped myself with half of the task
sheet and then used the other half to start a fire. About 10 PM, the last of
the wood was consumed, so we got in our cockpits and settled down for a long,
gold night. As I drifted off to sleep I thought, "Wonder where that motorglider
is sleeping tonight."
JJ Sinclair