MayFly 2007 is over but the memories will last for quite a while…
We flew 3 of 4 days with task times of 2.5, 3.0 and 3.0 hours respectively with three landouts and no incidents. Total XC distance covered during the three contest days by 11 competitors was 3729.8 km
Everyone involved should be proud of what was accomplished. Airmanship and safety were first rate and many pilots new to XC flying got a chance to see what really leaving the nest feels like in a friendly competitive environment. The morning pilot meetings were brief and concise and our “fill the launch grid as you arrive” philosophy worked like a charm. Special thanks to our tow pilots (Wolfgang, Norm and Ron) and our flight line crew for their work in getting everyone airborne quickly. We had 11 launches in 35 minutes on Saturday and 10 launches in 32 minutes on Monday.
We flew 3 of 4 days with task times of 2.5, 3.0 and 3.0 hours respectively with three landouts and no incidents. Total XC distance covered during the three contest days by 11 competitors was 3729.8 km
Everyone involved should be proud of what was accomplished. Airmanship and safety were first rate and many pilots new to XC flying got a chance to see what really leaving the nest feels like in a friendly competitive environment. The morning pilot meetings were brief and concise and our “fill the launch grid as you arrive” philosophy worked like a charm. Special thanks to our tow pilots (Wolfgang, Norm and Ron) and our flight line crew for their work in getting everyone airborne quickly. We had 11 launches in 35 minutes on Saturday and 10 launches in 32 minutes on Monday.
Our CFI took the opportunity to fly with a different non-XC rated pilot along on each of the three days in the mighty Puchacz. I’m sure that Terry, Jean-Marc and Alan all learned a lot. Ask these guys about why there are so many sweat stains on the Puchacz “prayer wheel” (glider calculator)! The Puchacz has never flown over Maxville as high (7200 ft on Monday) or as low (1100 ft on Saturday).
Evening entertainment consisted of multiple installments of “so there I was” stories around the fireplace and various videos about aviation and reviewing the flights of day as recorded by Nick & Frank’s tracker system. This system has evolved over the years to the stage where flights can be tracked up to 120 km away. The system utilizes a small black box (mounted on the canopy of the glider) which contains a GPS and uses an integrated low power data burst transmitter to send 3 dimensional position data to a receiver for display on a computer back in the Boudreault hangar. The system was surprisingly accurate and even helped crew locate the position of where pilots had landed out before they called in their location.
In the end, the top three pilots were:
1) Nick Bonniere
2) Ulli Werneburg & Remi Knoerr (tied for 2nd place)
In the end, the top three pilots were:
1) Nick Bonniere
2) Ulli Werneburg & Remi Knoerr (tied for 2nd place)
Complete results can be found on the MayFly section of the GGC website.
Additional thank-you to:
-Ted for being our resident weatherman
-Everyone who helped with ground operations
-Martin for ensuring that both towplanes were available
-Christine for providing the “voice of GGC” on the radio and controlling the start gate.
-Nick for getting the 2007 version of the scoring program up and running
-Sonia for handling the registration paperwork
-Lucile for providing the salads and desserts for the barbeque dinner on Saturday evening.
-and of course, Ulli for being our contest director and coordinating our trophies.
So there you have it. Flying, friends and learning…it doesn’t get any better than this. Start planning now to attend in 2008.
Around the Club
David has started filling the pool so with some warm weather we should be splashing around in about a week.
Greg has been busy getting the tractor and mower ready for the summer cutting season.
See you at the aerodrome,
Roger
(photos: Dan Daly)
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