Volume 3, Issue 7	August, 2004

WESTERN ADVENTURES

When our illustrious editor discovered I would be spending time this summer attending some contests out west, he asked me to take pictures. So, here are some of them. I don’t own a good camera, so many of the shots were taken with a “throw-away” and aren’t the best at long range. I do apologize. Some were taken at the Region 9 contest which was held in Hobbs, NM during the first week of July. Others were taken by the “official photographer” at the Standard and World Class Contest, held the 20-29 of July, also in “scenic” Hobbs. If you haven’t attended a contest, they will give you a taste of what goes on.

In front of the Ops Building at NSF in Hobbs, the Indiana flag was displayed.

A typical day starts with rigging the planes and filling the water ballast tanks (if needed, on both counts). Most of the sailplanes are weighed at the beginning of the contest and are supposed to maintain that same weight throughout the contest. Top winners of each day are required to weigh again the next day. At around 10 AM, a pilots’ meeting is held and various administrative topics are announced. The day’s weather and preliminary tasks are discussed as well as hearing “the story of the flight” from the previous day’s winner.

Then, all contestants leave and prepare to have their planes at their appointed spot on the grid by a specified time. A last minute pilots’ meeting is held at the front of the grid to announce the final decision on the tasks for the day. At that point, it’s a waiting game, until the contest director announces the launches will begin. In Hobbs, that means standing in the hot sun on acres and acres of concrete. Hobbs Industrial Airport is an old WWII training field. Umbrellas, for shade, are part of the equipment for many.

Once the launch begins, gliders are sent off quickly. There were 5 tow planes available at Region 9 and 6 available for the Standard/World Class Nationals. They were able to launch around 50 gliders in about an hour on most days using youngsters who have been specially trained to do the hook-ups. Races among the tow planes/pilots, to see which ones could get back first, weren’t uncommon and were fun for the ground crew to watch.

While the gliders are out on task, ground crews monitor their radios in hopes of hearing, “XX is OK” or “XX is still flying”. Ground crews are not allowed to initiate any transmission. Dick Johnson has his own “code”…. “Bright Stars”. I did hear a rare transmission at one point, “Dim Stars”. Ground crews hope they don’t hear, “XX is low over Seminole” or “XX is going down at Hamilton”. That’s the signal to hook up the retrieve vehicle to the trailer, check in at the retrieve office, and head out to find the downed pilot.

With the advent of cell phones, many ground crews got calls with retrieve information as well as help from the retrieve office. I received one not-so-typical phone call from Mitch, my son, who was flying SEX (Yes, the SSA allowed him to use those contest numbers, but did require him to use the phonetic alphabet when calling in), a Discus B, in both contests. “Mom, I just landed out and hit an antelope! Here is my latitude and longitude.” There was other conversation, including a determination that he was not hurt, but that’s the summary. Needless to say, when I repeated his statement, a lot of heads turned to listen. Below are the pictures from that retrieve. (The official photographer went with me to help retrieve. “Mom we’re gonna need help with this one.”) He did pick a good spot to land, though. There was an unlocked gate leading to the road.

The hoped for transmission is: “XX four miles out.” That’s the signal to switch to the airport frequency, because the pilot will be landing back “home” soon! My usual ground response was, “Wahoo!” This means dinner on time and no assembly required tomorrow!

I have also included a picture I took out Mitch’s back door. The view you see is looking toward Moriarity, NM, where the Albuquerque Soaring Club is based. Just another typical day in “Soaring Paradise”, in case any of you have considered joining him to fly there.

In the time between the two contests, several youth attended a week long Junior Cross-Country camp held in Moriarity. It was organized by Mitch Hudson (who’s now too old to be considered a Junior) and Garrett Willat (a member of the Junior World Team) and was attended by several young pilots from across the country.

This picture was actually taken at Region 9, but the youth in the picture, with one exception, were involved in the camp. Yes, there IS youth in soaring.

Marty Hudson

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