Chris O'Callaghan

We woke this morning to the terrible news of the loss of Chris O'Callaghan following a mid-air collision at the 15 Meter National Championship yesterday in Uvalde, Texas. At the close of today's Pilot Meeting here, Al Tyler stood and made the announcement of the accident asking the pilots to "Please be careful, I don't want to lose another friend."

Our thoughts are with the Callaghan family.

15 Meter Day

 

Everything really clicked for Al and me yesterday. Cloudbase was only 2700’ above the ground, and we left 5 minutes after the gate opened at 3:00, both because the day ends promptly at 5 and we had a 2 hour task, and because the start gaggle seemed pretty dangerous to us.

We were able to click along, working from 2,500 to 3,000’, doing a lot of long straight glides. We worked together very well, each finding the core about half the time.

We had a bit of a low point after the first turn, but with a few minutes of fishing got right back up again. The gaggle caught us at this point, but we led out and never saw them again.

The last leg was a beautiful street, still 3,000’ MSL but right on course. Our twin clearnavs set us up for a perfect finish exactly on time. The street was clearly soft and the sky was bluing out however. We took two one knot thermals to build a little cushion on final glide, closed the vents and came on home in formation.

There were only one or two gliders on the airport, the sky was totally dying, and for a moment we let ourselves dream that we really had smoked the day. It was not to be. The winners somehow flew far over time, going to the back of the turnpoint that we nicked, and finding an even better street to come home on. Oh well, our speeds were still pretty good and 15/16 is still a decent performance. Yes, we probably could have saved several minutes with a more aggressive final glide, but on the other hand we’ve seen enough Hungarian and Serbian farm fields to last a lifetime. All in all a really good day.

 

John Cochrane (BB)

15 Meter Time

Today's flying for the Open and 18 Meter Classes has been cancelled.

The 15 Meter Class will fly an Assigned Area Task with three areas. Minimum time is two hours with a nominal distance of 223 km. BB and 8H crews are gridding the gliders now. Take-off will be no sooner than 2pm...just over an hour from now.

Well, finally we had a good solid Midwestern day. It was mostly 3 knot thermals with the occasional 4-4.5 in the middle of the day, with cloudbases to 4,500.

 

Al and I decided to ignore the gaggle and fly US style, since there would be good cloud markers. Our first leg was a bit weak, or rather a bit too full of water for the 2 – 2.5 knot conditions. With water it’s hard to center, but that’s part of the game. You have to struggle a bit early so you have the water in the heat of the day. We worked together well and kept going in the punchy lift.

 

After a good high downwind turn, we got separated on the second leg. I got busy fixing the latest software issues, and didn’t hear Al stopping to climb. Still, we had a nice looking sky ahead of us and the best part of the day. Both of us had a very good run back to the Tiza river. The Italians came about 1,000’ over me, pair flying beautifully in their Dianas. I have learned not to even try to follow them. The Dianas have a huge performance advantage and just walk away from me.    

 

The Tiza river produced a big blue hole. No problem, stop in the last few clouds, take 3 knots to the overlying SUA, and go. (Unlike the US, we often fly under airspace in Europe). After a long quiet glide, I connected at 2,000’ under the first cloud, to a solid 4 knots. Now the fun part started. Clouds with good vertical development had wide swaths of 3 knots with 4-5 knot cores. I got a 97:1 glide in here. Going in to the second turn over Romania, the big clouds ended, and cloudbase went down about 500’. Time to dial back 70-80 and take those 3 knottters. It also had the look and feel that it would work under the clouds but not low. Alas, due to software glitches and my miscalculation I took about 10 km too far in this turn area. It wasn’t a disaster, it was just slower than otherwise.

 

Time to go home. We had widely separated clouds with good vertical development, producing smooth 3 knots with bigger cores. I happily took the 3 knots, thinking that it would be terrible down low.

 

That was right. Al, unfortunately did get low over Romania. He did an absolutely amazing job of working up again, but by then the day had died and he ended up landing out. Fortunately, he got out of Romania and didn’t suffer another border crossing!

 

Passing under the gaggle, I saw it only going up two knots, and chose instead to bump up under a nice street going home. I bumped form 600 under to 600 over and floated home.

 

The end of the day was very interesting. Ron went through first, and radioed back that it was booming on the way home. Bill finished later with a bit less enthusiasm. Garrett radioed “it’s getting a bit soft”. I found only 2-3 knots and very mild lift under the street. I looked back 10 minutes after I landed and the street was gone. When the weather gods turn the switch off, they turn the switch off!

 

It felt really good. Every flight has a few regrets –not either starting 10 minutes earlier, or starting 5 minutes later to gaggle down the first leg; not doing a better job of the final turn area; disconnecting with Al, and a little slowness on the last leg. But even though I’m not high in rank on the scoresheet, all but the Dianas went about 106 and I went 104, so it’s pretty good overall.

 

It’s back to rain and weak weather. However, that’s not a big disappointment, we’re here to race. I learned a big lesson from Doug Jacobs on the grid one day with looming thunderstorms. Everyone else was moaning. Doug was licking his chops, “I can really make up some points today!” It’s all about maintaining a positive attitude.

 

John Cochrane

Maybe...

Szeged and task area weather is currently 1,200' overcast with good visibility. The satellite shows a gap in the cloud cover approaching from the west so...maybe we'll fly today. We have a Pilot's Meeting in 10 minutes. The Contest Director tells us that a decision on flying will be made at 1100 local and task sheets will be available then.

Milka Schoko & Keks

That is my new favorite chocolate bar. Chocolate makes the day better, and I generally do not like chocolate.

Sorry did not write yesterday the internet died a sudden death last night. Now it has all blended together, and honestly I cant remember too many details.

But today, the start gate was so much fun, at cloudbase with people starting and bumping the gaggle on the way out, with people heading to the gate, in near IFR conditions FLARM is quite a nice toy. SS and I were on the fence about an early start, the 2 german winners did that. But we had a reasonable start, I got a little anxious and started, SS went back and started about 8min later. I had the great idea of driving hard straight on course and take a good climb. It was wonderfully executed for the last part...a good climb. I was reporting back to SS, at least telling him where I was, and seeing if the grass was greener on the other side, which it normally is. I caught up to a nice pack, which I new I started after, but eventually lost. Then had the Brits come in under me, which was fine, but they started after me and a few thermals later I was looking up at them.

So I shifted gears and tried to push for a stronger climb, but it never really worked, I just marked thermals for everyone. I was pushing too fast for the climbs I was achieving. I did have a good final glide that I started below glide and bumped home. The 18meter boys were with me in the last thermal and went to cloudbase. I just bounced along, finally got a 2.5knt final glide, then found all the lift I was looking for the last 60km and had to push to near the yellow arc. I know which is not the worm burner final glides one might be used to. I have been practicing the normal cruise speed final glide, but unlike the multiple people we have seen short of the runway with a safety margin. Its late and we have to go Mosquito hunting before lights out.

August 4

When we last left you...we had two pilots, two crews and two gliders still in Serbia. John Cochrane has brought you up-to-date on his and Adnan Mirza's long, late retrieve from the Kikinda airport.


Al, Rhonda and Wesley Tyler along with stalwart crewman Rob Ware, (Mayor of Cave Spring , Georgia) had an epic retrieve from a very muddy field in Serbia. I will leave it to Al and his crew to tell that amazing story. I think it would make great article in SSA Magazine.



Well, all of that occurred two days ago. Since then, we have had serious internet connectivity problems. So, let me tell you a bit about yesterday.



Our Open Class guys continue to work very well together and had another great day. Ron Tabery is in fourth place now and only fifteen points out of a podium position! Garrat Willat is in eighth overall.



In 18 Meter, Bill Elliott finished 33rd yesterday with a speed of 106 kpm over the 330 kilometer task. Bill is currently 25th overall. Tom Kelley flew the task at 99 kph for 43rd place yesterday and is now 47th overall.



15 Meter pilot John Cochrane flew the area task at 103.7 kph for 384 k. placing 16th for the day. John is 30th now, overall. Al Tyler outlanded only 26 k from home, proving that even the best pilots can have a string of very bad luck. Al is 46th overall in 15 Meter.



Gotta run the the Captain's Briefing!