Sky Sailing Events

Warner Springs Gliders, an unofficial group of pilots mostly based at Sky Sailing took 1st in the 2007 & 2008 On-Line Contest (OLC) League Scoring (FIRST in Club in points for the World 2008, 2nd for League in the World).

League Scoring is the fastest 2.5hours of your flight, they take the top 3 pilots flying at that club and combine them to get a Club League points for that weekend. Scoring is done Formula 1 style, where each lower place is 1 point less. Then at the end of the 2007 OLC year we took 2nd in the World and 1st in the US on the total amount of kilometers flown. The OLC is a world wide decentralized contest, anyone who wants to can participate. All you need to do is log your flight with a GPS, post it and look at your distance. The distance is calculated automatically and uses 6 legs. Pilots can see how they did compared to others flying that day.

You can specify if you want to compare to the Worldwide or North America. There are lots of statistics you can compare. The best part is you can look at each persons flight even download it and look at it with Google Earth or any Soaring Flight Analysis software.

To view the OLC please visit www.onlinecontest.org Click on Gliding on the tab bar and away you go.

2008 Region 12 Soaring Contest

The dates are April 21-26th 2008. We are expecting to have a full house with 35 gliders competing in Sports, 15meter, Standard, and Open Class. Feel free to come out and watch. The take-off and landings are the best for spectators. We are looking for volunteers. If you are interested on any of the days please call Garret. 760-782-0404

http://region12.deltavictor8.com/

Region 12 Soaring Championships will be held in Warner Springs CA April 21-26^th and is hosted by Sky Sailing Inc.

A simplified version of what a glider race is. First you need to understand that there is no engine to keep the glider up, each pilot is provided a 2000ft tow and must find rising current of air (we call lift) to stay aloft. Once everyone is launched the task is opened. This task can range from 50-300miles (or even more). To start on task you leave the start circle which is a 5mile cylinder with a 5000ft top, this is GPS controlled with each pilots GPS able to track their flight (we will go over that part later). Then the glider pilot heads out on course looking for lift. Depending on the task will determine the radius and number of turnpoints, but let’s say it is a one mile circle, once you enter the turnpoint you can begin the next leg. The fastest person around this task wins. The task finishes with passing a finish line or in our case a finish cylinder with a floor of 500ft, centered right over the airport. Once the pilots safely land they hand in there GPS (which stored their flight) to the scorer who confirms that the pilot did in fact fly the correct task and calculates there speed. Again the fastest person around this task wins and receives 1000points, each place below gets a percentage of that based on there score in relation to the winner. But there are six days planned and the cumulative score determines the winner.

The task speeds and lengths are determined by the weather forecast for that day, however at a regional contest we try and task for flights around 2.5-3 hours in length. Warner Springs is a very unique site in the fact that we can use many different lift sources. With the mountains we can use wave and ridge lift, most days provide thermal lift, and the proximity of the ocean and desert we get a convergence of those two air masses.

Here are some pictures from Region 12 2006 http://www.ssa.org/sport/PhotoGalleryMain.asp?category=contest&id=258

Also you can find a video of the launches and a few landings at: http://www.skysailing.com/pages/videos.htm Second from the bottom

http://www.ssa.org/UsTeam/ust_press.htm

There will be 4 US Team members here practicing for the World Gliding Championships. Mark Keene is coming out from State College Pennsylvania to practice with his teammate Chip Garner from Santa Fe New Mexico. Chip says the weather patterns that we see in Warner Springs are similar to the weather they will expect to see in Reiti Italy. http://www.ssa.org/UsTeam/usc_multi1.htm Gary Ittner is from LA and is using the Region 12 contest as the first contest of the season and will later be heading to Luesse Germany. Garret Willat is one of Sky Sailing instructors and will be acting as the Contest Director, and will also be heading to Luesse Germany. http://www.ssa.org/UsTeam/usc_multi.htm

Currently 17 pilots registered 3 of which are ranked as the top in the country, the competition should be very good. Sean Franke is a former member of the US Junior Soaring team and will be providing assistance to the Contest Director for tasking.

This in from Hawkeye CONGRATULATIONS !!!

To Doug Levy and Garry Dickson who won first and second place in the Western Diamond Division of the 1-26 Association's 2007 Sweepstakes Contest and to Lane Decker, who placed first in the Silver category

#1 Doug Levy 1,810.92 miles

#2 Garry Dicckson: 1,102.80 '

#3. Bob Spielman 1,059.31 "

The closest any 1-26 pilot in the US came to matching Doug and Garry's mileage was Charles Shaw in the Cental Division who scored 1,072.99 miles Ron Schwartz won the East with 693.66 miles.

Lane Decker won the Silver West class for the second year in a row:

#1 Lane Decker 406.76 miles

It appears that Lane may have some serious competition in 2008 from Rob Stone and Cal Tax, should they move from Bronze to Silver category. So watch your six o'clock, Lane..

For the details, go to www.126association.org and click on Sweepstakes

2006 Garry Dickson, one of the Warner Springs 1-26ers, won the Best Flight of the Year in the Internet Contest. This is against all sailplanes in the world!! click here

Remember: Safety is Not an Accident!!!

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Remember: Safety is Not an Accident!!!