CLGC, Review of 2011 Season

1. CLGC, Review of 2011 Season Local Clubs Reporting Accomplishments, News Sporting Events and Results

2. 2011 Soaring Season • Local Clubs: Relevant events, licenses, badges, new gliders • Club Events that made a Difference • Safety Considerations • Membership

3. NISC (Northern IL Soaring Contest) • After a slow start the local flying season was again quite successful. • Submitted were a total of 135 flights over a total distance of 16,357 mi (raw) or over 100 mi per flight. • Compared to the East Coast clubs, we had a strong weather season after mid-June • Even without the Sky Memorial-Day contest contributing, the total stats are impressive, congrats to all participants

4. NISC Participation • Number of flights, total mileage, number of pilots are all up vs. 2010. • Weekday-flying was stronger than last year. • Aggressive task-setting at CGC yielded more and longer flights (Thanks SH and BB) • The NISC is alive and well and it seems to be quite unique in the US Soaring scene. • John C. deserves loads of thanks for doing most of the scoring. (Applause please) • Who won?

5. 2011 NISC Results

6. Online Contest (OLC) • More local pilots entered flights • Our Region 7 quite a bit behind others in flights and distances entered • Blackhawk Soaring in Iowa beat all Chicago Clubs, can’t let that happen again! • We are doing the fastest flights, however • Stats for Region 7 only containing flights that originate in region • Following are stats that I downloaded from the OLC results spreadsheets:

7. 2011 Region 7 OLC Champion

8. US OlC Champion 2011 East of Mississippi

9. 2011 Champion, Speed-OLC

10. All Flights OLC 2011

11. 2011 Best Club Region 7, OLC

12. US National Contests • Seniors Contest, Clermont FL (R. Ridenour 8th, Kroesch 12th, Spitz 17th, Macys 24th) total of 6 pilots from CGC • Sports Class Contest, Benton TN (R. Ridenour 6th) • 15 – m Class, Logan UT (Cochrane and Shakman) • Pre-Worlds Uvalde, TX, Cochrane Some Regionals were also attended, have no details

13. Comments Regarding Logan UT • Controversial contest with high number of comments from pilots • Disturbing number of highly rated pilots left the contest, especially in Nationals. • There were 3 damaged gliders, 2 of them pretty badly. • Task calls by KS were very aggressive • No thermals in the valley, had to go rock-polishing to make it up the mountain • More relights than desirable, especially for water-ballasted ships • Day starts very late (2-3 PM), lasts until around 7 PM • Intimidating terrain, perceived out-landing options are scarce • J. Cochrane and Duane Eisenbeiss did very well • Organization was lacking, no retrieve office was established until John C. stepped in, CM was ineffective and inexperienced, no Port-a-Potties • Local knowledge was more important than usual

14. From Tom Kelley’s Blog (711) Were the risks any greater than elsewhere? Perhaps; I didn't feel any more vulnerable flying along the ridge than usual, didn't have any close calls, and with some sensible planning it was always possible to reach a reasonable field for landing. But that's because I was flying in survival mode much of the time and not able to think much about competing, so I was making sensible rather than competitive decisions. There was some damage to a few gliders whose pilots knowingly carried on into bad weather over inhospitable terrain, but not necessarily more than would occur in a contest anywhere else. The real carnage was in the dwindling number of competitors as the contest went on. Mass landouts, late night retrieves and aggressive and inflexible tasking options relative to the actual weather conditions took their toll, and by the end of each competition a very significant proportion of the competitors had chosen to go home early, rather than risk becoming a statistic.

15. From Frank Paynters Blog (TA) The Logan 15m Nationals and Regional contest was by far the worst managed and most dangerous contest of the season.  We were extremely lucky to get away from that contest with *only* 3 broken gliders and no serious injuries or fatalities.  After the first contest day, my contest strategy changed to “please let me leave this place with all my body and glider parts in the same order in which they arrived”.  They got just about everything wrong, with the topper being their decision to censor my commentary from the contest.  Too bad they spent so much time getting wound up over my use of the “Unlandable” word and not enough time figuring out how to run a safe contest in the Logan soaring area.  These guys really ought to get a life and enjoy the sport a little more ;-).  My vote would be to never hold another nationals at Logan either – it is just too technical, and there are too many temptations to literally bet your life on the outcome of a tricky transition.  it would be a great place for a soaring safari, with it’s spectacular scenery and great soaring potential, but not a good place for a serious contest.

16. For more information, google ‘Logan Contest’ on rec.aviation.soaring, also go to Frank Paynters blogs on soaringcafe.com where you can find comments from John Cochrane and Mike Shakman

17. Show some flight recordings, picture slides and video from Logan if time permits!