The Twisp OLC Camp

Submitted by Fred Hermanspann on Mon, 08/03/2015 - 22:12

eGlidepath

The very successful Twisp encampment is now memory and it is time to relate some of the experiences and to sort out the relevant achievements.

First and foremost, it was successful because of Ron Clark thoroughly organizing this event, getting the Twisp community involved (including an article in the Methow Valley News), and getting a lot of local businesses to contribute prizes.

And the whole event would not have been possible without Duane Barr's tireless towing efforts (and having to wait until every pilot was back for a possible retrieve before having a beer).

There was good soaring weather for the 5 days of the camp, even though the second day was cancelled as a "contest" day because of a threatening forecast. That did not stop Paul Adriance with Eric Dwyer in the G103 to make a flight with 521 OLC points – a career high for Paul and best performance so far for an Evergreen club ship. The Wolverine fire near Lucerne on the southwest side of Lake Chelan gave out a lot of smoke which made the lower Sawtooth Range almost IFR on the last day but did not have a TFR until later.

The first few days saw the better flights go out over the plateau ranging as far as Ephrata and Vantage. The last two days got everybody to head for the mountains and getting high. Having oxygen was a distinct advantage.

Brad Hill was the undisputed winner in his home built Tetra-15 (even though he only posted on Skylines-Project), winning all four contest days - congratulations! He also posted the highest daily score (590 OLC) and reached the highest altitude (16,000 ft).

Here are the cumulative results for the top pilots:

PILOT	OLC POINTS	comments
Brad Hill	1953	winning all 4 days
Ron Clark	1607
Chris Klix	1348	3 flights
Bill Ling	1164
Daniel Dyck	1071

Besides Paul, several pilots achieved their own personal high scores and none more remarkable than Daniel Dyck. Within two weeks of getting his Cirrus (PY) he got 455.2. points! Others were Chris Klix (536.6 points), Bill Ling (358.4 points) and Tim Henneghan (442.2).

There were several landings at other airfields (Methow and Tonasket) but no off-field landings. The G103 made an unplanned skid landing by - by guess who (no damage). Terry Crippen had the shortest flight of the camp when he realized he had no airspeed and vario indication and almost beat the tow plane to the landing.

Bill Ling got the hang of the DG 303 and posted the highest speed of the camp (56.2 mph). Bill also provided an impromptu dinner on Tuesday in his party bus (thanks!).

Everything went smoothly and in the spirit of camaraderie and friendly cooperation. That included the local community and even led to a friendly article in the Methow Valley News (thanks largely extent to Ron’s PR efforts).

The last minute Evergreen BoD decision to allow the G103 to be aero-towed by the tow plane (30Y) to Twisp made it possible for quite a few Evergreen members to participate in the encampment. The two ferry flights went without a hitch. And it was gratifying to have two PSSA members (Tim Henneghan and Terry Crippen) participate.

There was general agreement that this event should be repeated and it might become an annual event!

pictures by Kathleen McCrary