"Sunday, April 09, 2006" Yesterday turned out to be a challenging day of soaring at Chilhowee. Twelve racers were on tap and the weather proved to be very interesting with blue skies and winds out of the N to NNE. The thermals averaging 2.5 to 3 kts to 4300' MSL and they seemed to be over whatever high ground there was. Finally, the real surprise was that the ridge was working. I don't know why given the wind direction, perhaps it was mostly thermal but several us of could cruise up and down without trouble while others reported that it didn't work at all for them. A 2 1/2 hour MAT was called for the A Class with Lookout Tower, Microwave, Rostex and Lookout Tower as the required TPs. We call a 2 hour MAT for the B Class with Lookout, Microwave, and Lookout. Once the task opened, we essentially ran the ridge up to the Lookout Tower, and back down the ridge to the Microwave Tower ... Then, it gets tough as several of us tip-toed at best L/D to Rostex. Dave and I were the first to go and we found a thermal about halfway, then another of Rostex. OG came in underneath us and climbed for a while but couldn't get enough altitude to leave the Rostex area so he wisely chose to land there. PF came along as we DS and I were in our next thermal (over the quarry). I'm not sure what happened then, but we heard PF asking OG to "not crowd the runway". Back to the ridge and runs back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Actually, I ran out of TPs and although I did another lap, it was for naught as the rules only allow 11 total TPs. DS had a few tough saves to stay on the ridge and finished as well. Also, X3 from Caesar Creek was able to get around smartly finishing as well. Final score is a tie for first among WE and DS with 1000 and X3 finishes 3rd with 771 points. The B Class had a very interesting day as well. Chuck Patterson zoomed around the course in his ASW-20 to win ... which apparently was no simple feat as a number of folks were never able to start. SEX flew the Blanik around the course with a student for ballast and finished second. Sarah reported that she was unable to use the ridge and had to do it all with thermals. Everyone reported having a great time. I hope to see everyone soon; but first, let's go have some fun at Perry. WE "GTA 06, 07" Chilhowee "Sunday, April 09, 2006" Preliminary A Class Day 1 Task: Modified Assigned ID Name Distance (Miles) Radius 51 SouthStartPt 0 3 23 LookoutTower 11.8 28 Microwave 28.0 36 Rostex 40.8 23 LookoutTower 69.8 1 CHILHOWEE 78.9 1 Minimum Time 02:30 Cumula tive Day Spee d Dist ance Remarks Rank Points ID Name Glider Rank Points Hndcp Actual Hndcp Actual Code Penalty Points ---- ----- -- ---- ------ ---- ------ ----- ------ ----- ------ ---- ------- ------ 1 1000 WE Elliott, Bill ASW-27 1 1000 53.84 61.18 134.6 152.96 1 1000 DS Stevenson, DavidKa-6E 1 999.6 53.82 44.12 139.01 113.94 3 771 X3 Paynter, F LS-4 3 771.4 41.53 43.71 103.46 108.9 MT 4 144 PF Pfortner, Peter LS-8 4 144 39.32 42.51 "MD, AB" 5 143 OG Jaeger, Dieter ASW-27 5 143 38.98 44.29 "MD, AB" 6 95 HK Carter, Gary ASW-20C 6 95 31.41 34.82 MD Codes: MT Flight time less minimum time. MD Flight less than minimum distance of 40 Miles AB 25pt Airfield Bonus. Preliminary B Class Day 1 Task: Modified Assigned ID Name Distance (Miles) Radius 51 SouthStartPt 0.0 3 23 LookoutTower 11.8 28 Microwave 28.0 1 CHILHOWEE 33.6 1 Minimum Time 02:00 Cumula tive Day Spee d Dist ance Remarks Rank Points ID Name Glider Rank Points Hndcp Actual Hndcp Actual Code Penalty Points ---- ----- -- ---- ------ ---- ------ ----- ------ ----- ------ ---- ------- ------ 1 1000 ZF Patterson, Chuck ASW-20B 1 1000 35.29 39.21 69.96 77.74 MT 2 651 SEX Kelly, Sarah L-13 Blanik 2 651 22.98 15.74 44.66 30.59 MT15 Codes: MT Flight time less tha MT15 Time > 15 Min. under .