The Willy Burhen Cup (WBC) 2018

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September 25 marked the end of the 2018 OLC year and thus also the end of the Willy Burhen Cup (WBC) 2018.  This is the 14^th annual competition for the best XC flight of any soaring pilot in Western Washington in memory of Willy Burhen who was one of the enthusiastic supporters of exploring the XC potential of the Cascades.

There were some outstanding flights by the top pilots with Ron Clark adding to his winning streak in the WBC – his 8^th consecutive win (and 10^th overall)!  His winning flight on July 23 – 628.3 OLC points for a 541.1 km distance – was another outstanding achievement, the second best ever on the west side!.  Henry Rebbeck flew almost the same distance at the same time but because of his higher OLC handicap (114 for the LS-8/18 versus 107 for Ron’s LS-3) got “only” 595.6 points.  Third was Thomas v d Velde who got 489.3 points for a nice flight six days later.

Everybody else blamed the disappointing weather for disappointing flights – a long wet spring and a long dry but unusually stable summer with extreme hazy and smoky conditions.  In between there were a few weeks in July that allowed longer flights from the west (if one was not in Ephrata or other soaring location).  All this meant that there were only 10 pilots with flights with over 150 OLC points in 2018 compared to 19 in 2017. Interestingly the stable conditions in the low country and even in the foothills did not extend to the higher mountains.  There were often good conditions further into the mountains but it took long and high (and pricey) tows to connect to thermals.  Ron’s favorite “entry point” from Arlington for these conditions seemed to be behind Mount Higgins requiring a 15+ mile tow.  Mount Ditney is another time proven starting point when nothing seems to work around Arlington.  Will this still hold for next year?

Anyway, here are the final results for 2018.