Evergreen XC Soaring in 2012

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On October 8 (the second Monday of the month) the OLC 2012 year ended and thus also the WBC 2012. The OLC 2013 started the next day and the long distance specialists Jim Payne and Klaus Ohlmann did not wait too long to post the first 1000+ km flights. And the Richland pilots were the first in Region 8 to enter their first flights.

The Willy Burhen Cup (WBC) for 2012 ended for all practical purposes on May 26, when Dan Housler posted his winning flight. There were no other entries after this date - not so much because Dan had psyched everybody else out but because the weather conditions were no longer that favorable and because the action moved mostly to the East side of the mountains, meaning Ephrata and Twisp.

Altogether the WBC 2012 results did not quite match those from 2011 which saw the longest distances flown yet on the West side. That was not from lack of trying; as usual the weather conditions get the blame. But there were several new entries: Mike Berwaldt posted his first flight with the L-33 on the OLC and Evergreen's new flagship, the G103, made its first appearance on the list (Noel Wade with Nick Long). Brad Hill put his brand new Tetra to good use and Travis Brown did the same with his refurbished Krokus (SZD-52-2).

This was Dan Housler's second win of the WBC. Dan's flight on May 26 did not only feature the longest distance achieved this year (457.2 km/ 284.2 miles), it included also a large triangle, always a difficult task from Arlington (Brad Hill had actually the largest triangle) . His flight went over both, Glacier Peak and Mount Baker, combining soaring over the lowlands, the foothills and the high mountains.

WBC 2012 List

Only flights with more than 100 OLC points are listed.

The weak weather conditions in Arlington after May extended also to Darrington. The annual club encampment in Darrington (to escape the EAA Fly-In at Arlington) lasted only 2 days and then moved to Twisp because of poor conditions.

The Twisp airfield (located in the Methow valley) has become quite an important soaring site for Evergreen pilots thanks to the efforts of Ron Clark and Brad Hill. And it still offers supreme XC conditions when other sites like Arlington or Ephrata are in the late summer doldrums. Check out the following flights:

Best Flights in Twisp

The above flight in the G103 proves that this glider is quite a capable XC machine. It may actually be the longest flight in an Evergreen club ship (at least since the merger). It has already shown its potential for advanced training in Arlington, Darrington , Twisp and Ephrata and seems to live up to the expectations when it was purchased.

Ephrata became a major destination for Evergreen members after its annual opening in early April. The well-run and received Dust-Up fun contest over the Memorial Day weekend was followed by the annual ES encampment A number of students got their first XC experience and several Silver badges (Travis Brown and Marty Gibbins) were completed. The following annual Region 8 contest gave Noel Wade an opportunity to show his abilities by gaining second place in Standard class - good going! Nelson Funston won the Open class title (for the how manieth time?)

Here is a list of the best XC flights by ES member from Ephrata:

After the Region 8 contest 3 ES member went to Montague (Siskiyou County) in Northern California for the US Championship in the Standard class. Steve Northcraft gained 3^rd place, Noel Wade 4^th place and Chris Young 8^th place - a very solid showing for this Evergreen contingent!

While the contest was based on modern task setting (like TAT and MAT) emphasizing speed and precise timing, it involved also some impressive distance flights as seen by the longest flights for each pilot:

Congratulations to the pilots!

Overall it was a successful XC year for Evergreen even though there were no new records set.

Arlington - Evergreen's home base - has now established itself as the no 2 XC site in Region 8 (behind Ephrata) and Twisp has moved up to the no 6 position (as measured by accumulated OLC points). It should be noted that Evergreen members logged their flights also as members of the SGC (Seattle Glider Council) or the SSPA (Sawtooth Soaring Pilots Association) so an OLC listing by club is not too meaningful.

Cumulative OLC points for Region 8 airfields:

The 2012 total for Arlington was the result of 136 flights by 20 pilots (compared to 94 flights by 15 pilots in 2011). This is quite an increase over previous years (despite the weaker weather conditions) and proves that XC soaring is now well established in Arlington. Even more dramatic is the increase of XC soaring in Twisp considering that it started only 3 years ago and is based on a fairly short soaring season.

Not a bad year for Evergreen, let's build on that in 2013!