Spring has Sprung - Finally
March is usually the month when thermal deprived Evergreen soaring pilots look for the first days of recognizable thermals to allow getting away from the confines of the AWO pattern. This year it started with Ron Clark and Chris Young posting the first tentative XC flights (with over 100 OLC points) on March 4. Things got moving on March 18, when 3 pilots were able to speed up to the border and back in three hours. Things got more exciting on March 23 when improving conditions allowed flights of up to 5.5 hours into the mountains and 6 Evergreen pilots posted flights on the OLC. Ron Clark took the top spot with 404 OLC points; he together with Dan Housler and Brad Hill did not only get the top spots in Region 8 on that day but also in the USA! And Movses had his first go at this in the L-33 and posted actually two 100+ points flights – not a bad start.
Since then there have been some more good days and more Evergreen pilots have taken their sailplanes out of hibernation. March 29 saw 8 pilots post their flights and Arlington is now leading the list with accumulated OLC points in Region 8 for this year.
This is also a good time to look at the current status of the Willy Burhen Cup (WBC) , now in its 10th year. Only the best flight (with over 100 points) of each pilot is entered in the list.
WBC 2013
place |
name |
sailplane |
handicap |
OLC points |
1 |
Ron Clark |
LS-3 |
107 |
404.1 |
2 |
Dan Housler |
Cirrus 17.7 |
100 |
394.0 |
3 |
Brad Hill |
Tetra-15 |
110 |
390.7 |
4 |
Chris Young |
LS-8/18 |
108 |
298.7 |
5 |
Travis Brown |
Krokus |
107 |
275.9 |
6 |
Fred Hermanspann |
L-33 |
86 |
253.1 |
7 |
Kenji Ominato |
LS-6 |
108 |
252.1 |
8 |
Dave Reusch |
Std. Libelle |
98 |
160.6 |
9 |
Marty Gibbins |
ASW-19 |
99 |
125.4 |
10 |
Movses Babayan |
L-33 |
86 |
114.2 |
This is just the beginning (as of April 4); let’s see this list grow!
by Fred Hermanspann