May 14 - A Day to Remember

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There were all the ingredients of a big day – a good weather prediction from Dan Housler, an eager group of ES pilots finally hoping for a great XC day, an impressive early line-up and start of towing just after 11 am.  Phil Andersen did the towing honors and one by one all hopeful pilots disappeared apart from one that sunk out (guess who).  Clouds were still trying to develop over the low lands while the mountains were full of low clouds but conditions gradually improved.  Most pilots were able to fly later in the mountains getting to over 7000 ft.  It turned into a long day; only after 6:30 pm, when the sun became obscured by a cloud layer, did the thermal conditions switch off and the last 6 pilots came in to land.  It was a day that everybody had hoped for - reasonable to good conditions lasting over a long time.  While the average speeds achieved were not particularly high, the long soaring window allowed 7 of the 10 pilots that entered their flights in the OLC to set new personal high marks for flying out of Arlington.

In the end Ron Clark came up on top with 545.7 OLC points, visiting the border and Mount Si and a lot of country in between.  He beat his arch rival Dan Housler by a mere 9 points – an amazing performance by both pilots who left everybody else way behind.

Here are some of the highlights;

Longest distance – Ron Clark with 499 km

Largest FAI triangle - Ron Clark with 282 km

Longest flight – Dan Housler with 7 hours and 45 minutes

Fastest speed – Chris Young with 73 km/h

Farthest into the mountains – Phil Rose (with Heinz Gehlhaar), Stevens Pass

This was Phil’s first flight at Arlington and we may see more of him!

And Movses Babayan made his first 5 hour flight!

All this has led to a major update of the WBC 2013 as follows (for flights with over 150 OLC points) and as of May 21:

                                                                                                                                      Fred Hermanspann