Sending out a writeup on the first GTA weekend at Sylacauga, hosted by our own Central Alabama Soaring Association (CASA). We had a great turnout, 7 guests and 3 CASA members flying. Contest Manager was Jay Miller, Competition Director Jim Hogue, Chief (and only!) Towpilot Russ Ferrell, Weather Steve Bair, Jay's wife handled the retrieve phone, and Sniffer Pepper Scharff. And an excellent ground crew consisting of Jay, Nathan Lemmon, Roy Tanner, Mack Clayton, Mark Fehn, and Tim Lockert (sorry if I missed anyone). And a HUGE amount of pre-contest planning and preparation, as well as pro-active participation in the Competition Committee, by Mike Solley. I can confidently say that this contest would never have happened, and wouldn't have gone as smoothly, without Mike's extensive work and encouragement. Thanks, Mike! And many thanks to Airport Manager Tommy Dobson, for his encouragement and cooperation, and his long-term support of CASA and soaring at Merkel Field Sylacauga. You are the best, Tommy! Regarding Saturday, lift was not as high or strong as forecast, and it started off quite windy and got windier.... The task was a 1.5 Turn Area Task, going West to Shelby County Airport (15 mile radius turn cylinder), than Eastnortheast to Hawk (6 mile radius turn circle) and then home, nominal 58 miles up to a max 96 miles. We tried but that wind was just too much for the lift, and it was too torn up and low to send the fleet out on task. A number of pilots launched anyway, for some local flying, but Joe Gieseke ZZ defied the conditions and flew the course, well done Joe! For dinner, Jay arranged a BBQ feed, with Pepper supplying some great German beers, what a treat. Thanks, Jay and Pepper! We received an excellent writeup by Rand Baldwin on the one contest day we got in (Sunday), and see no need to add to that day's description, thanks, Rand! See his writeup below. Only thing to add is that CASA's very own Pepper executed a brilliant landout in the CASA Discus, well done, Pepper, now the rest of us don't need to worry about being the first! Attached are the prelim scores, thanks Chris. CASA had a great time hosting this contest, and I think everyone had fun! See you all again at our second Sylacauga GTA race later this year! Cheers, Jim Hogue Competition Director for the Sylacauga GTA contest, ASH-26E N223MP J6 ============= Chris and Mike, FYI, here’s a write-up on Sunday’s race that I sent to the Huntsville group. Again, the organization at Merkel was first-class. Everything…the task sheets, maps, weather briefing, facilities, gridding…I could go on. You set a high bar. We’ll have to up our game when we host the next race at Moontown! :-) Rand ---------------- I got a late start to Sylacauga for last Saturday's GTA race, but it turned out to be a no-contest day, so I really didn't miss anything. I left home around mid-afternoon Saturday with the LS8 in tow and arrived at the airport 2-1/2 hours later, just in time to chow down on the (literally) last bite of barbeque in the hangar where the other pilots had gathered for dinner. I learned that only one competitor had managed to struggle against the strong winds for long enough to fly the day's assigned task. Everyone else had tied down their gliders in the morning and spent the afternoon hangar flying or just hanging out. Sunday was better. The winds aloft were relatively light and by ~12:30, we began the launch. The soaring forecast predicted a blue day, but with decent thermals to ~4,500' MSL between ~1:00 and 3:30. The CD called a 1:30 Turn Area Task (TAT) with a 20 mile circle around St. Clair Airport to the NNE and a 12 mile circle around Columbiana west of Sylacauga. Most of us managed to climb to ~4,500' before the task opened. I started a few minutes after BZ (John Mittel), who was a couple of miles to the NW, heading into the St. Clair TA when I started. I was soon joined by Chris Ruf (C2) in his ASW-27 and Wally Berry (WB) in his ASW-20. The terrain around Sylacauga includes large areas of forested ridges, but there are landable fields, and a fair number of public and private airfields. It was obviously prudent to stay high, especially with no cu’s to mark thermals. John, Chris and I tracked NNW well into the first TA and found some good climbs, at times seeing 4 to 6 knots on the vario. Somewhere along the way, we lost Wally. John turned around after flying a few miles past the first ridge in the St. Clair TA, and I followed suit after crossing the ridge, as did Chris. Unfortunately, the way back was a bit of a struggle. In fact, to me, it seemed like a different day! The strong thermals were gone--and not so much as a haze dome in the blue. On my way to the second turn area, I lost sight of both BZ and C2 and flew most of the way back without seeing another glider. I got down to ~1,800' AGL ~10 miles north of Merkel. I was too low to glide to Merkel (with 800' of safety height), and I still had to fly into the last cylinder before I could finish the task. For a while, I thought I might have to land out, so I had to divide my attention between searching for a last thermal and locating and evaluating landable fields. After what seemed like a very long time (but was around 10 to 15 minutes), I blundered into a couple of weak thermals and gradually climbed high enough to just nip the last TA, then final glide to Merkel. After our ships were safely tucked in their trailers, saying our goodbyes, and congratulating our CASA hosts on a beautifully run competition, John and I headed home. We stopped on the way to enjoy a Cajun seafood dinner in the Birmingham suburbs, then separated again for the last part of the journey home. I rolled into Madison just before 11:00, tired but happy. For me, Sunday's flight ended a ~3-1/2 year hiatus from racing. It felt great! Rand Baldwin "NN" ============================================ GTA SCD - May 2017 Sunday, May 07, 2017 Unofficial A Class Day 1 Task: Turn Area ID Name Distance (Miles) Radius 1 01 MRKLFLDSL 0.00 3.0 38 38 StClarCnt 23.93 20.0 12 12 ClmbnGrss 59.80 12.0 1 01 MRKLFLDSL 78.08 1.0 Minimum Time 01:30 Cumulative Day Speed Distance Remarks Rank Points ID Name Glider Rank Points Hndcp Actual Hndcp Actual Code Penalty Points ---- ----- -- ---- ------ ---- ------ ----- ------ ----- ------ ---- ------- ------ 1 1000 BZ Mittell, John ASW-27 1 1000 43.58 50.26 66.13 76.27 2 959 C2 Ruf, Chris ASW-27 2 959 41.82 47.65 62.53 71.25 MT 3 855 1FL Larsen, Tim 304CZ 3 855 37.31 40.19 55.63 59.93 MT 4 702 WB Berry, Wally ASW-20 4 702 30.64 33.50 44.83 49.00 MT15 5 686 SG Schraeder, Charles ASW-24E 5 686 29.90 32.65 44.42 48.50 MT 6 684 MS Solley, Mike 304S Shark 6 684 65.13 79.09 7 665 NN Baldwin, Rand LS-8-15 7 665 63.29 69.17 8 619 J6 Hogue, Jim ASH-26E 8 619 27.00 32.57 48.76 58.81 9 592 E15 Scharff, Pepper Discus b 9 592 56.36 60.60 10 265 OG Jaeger, Dieter Discus 2b 10 265 25.29 27.24 MD Codes: MT Flight time less than minimum time. MT15 Time > 15 Min. under minimum. task time. MD Flight less than minimum distance of 40 Miles Created on Monday May 08, 2017 - 23:51 by Winscore Rev 3, http://www.gfbyars.com/winscore Rev B