Each year, a group from Memphis Soaring visits Uvalde for a soaring camp conducted by Bill Bartell and friends. This is my story of the August, 2001 trip.
Day 1 - Monday (7/23)
In the pilot's meeting we divided into advanced, intermediate and beginner groups. I selected the advanced
group. Poplawski (Grob) and I had the lowest performance ships in this group. The task was
Uvalde, Carizzo Springs, Batesville, Uvalde for 85.8 nm. The group leader was Danny Sorenson.
I think Danny is the best soaring pilot I've met. He's the son of Kenneth Sorenson. He won 9th last year
in the 18 meter nationals flying a standard class ship (ASW-24)! He and Jason Howard, the other
pilot assisting with this year's camp, represented the USA in the 2001 World Junior
competition. Cloud bases were 6000-7000' agl this year, lower than before. But the lift
was often very strong, though narrow. We ho problems with the task.
Day 2 - Tuesday (7/24)
The task was Uvalde, Catarina, Batesville, Uvalde. The group leader was Bill Bartell.
I took the lead early rather than hang around cloud base waiting for others to catch up. But, separated
from the group, I lost the advantage of Bill's coaching and marking lift. Before I knew it,
they were well ahead of me.
I flew the best I could but couldn't catch them. So I turned for the 2nd turnpoint about 6nm short
and soon caught them working lift under a nice cu. Bartell was at cloud base waiting
for the others. I found the core and was up there with him in no time. Reb, Bill and I left
for Batesville. I believe I was last of the three to Batesville and back to Uvalde. With the
remaining daylight, I returned to Batesville then to Coyote and back to Uvalde for 186.9 nm and
5.3 hours of flying.
Day 3 - Wednesday (7/25)
The task was Uvalde, Hondo, Callaghan Ranch (near Laredo), Uvalde for 186.9 nm.
I declared this one for my diamond goal. The group leader was
Jason Howard (Discus CS). Our group launched last and it was 4:00pm before we started the task.
This trip was memorable for several reasons. First, Jack Wyman, from Michigan, marked my first
good thermal with his Diana (the one tested by Dick Johnson). He was 1000' above me when I
entered and we were together before he rolled out on course for Hondo.
That was a 7-8 kt thermal with a tight core. What a ride!
I reached Hondo (32nm East) behind Jack with the others following. Robert was late getting
initial altitude and was playing catchup. The Hondo-Callaghan leg, down I-35 toward Laredo,
was interesting. I caught Jack once but he was gone before I reached cloud base. Bill and
the Reb (Zuni) and I played leap frog at first, but I ended up last to Callaghan. Along the way,
Jason saw that it was looking poor down South and the day was dying. So he asked if we wanted
to head directly home. I said that I had declared this flight and I was going
on to Callaghan (thinking "or land out"). Everybody kept going. Despite radio chatter to the
contrary, for a moment I thought I had caught the group and that they too had not yet turned
at Callaghan. Actually, I was flying 4 miles west of course line and was looking at Laredo and
thinking it was Callaghan Ranch. The group had already turned at Callaghan and
was on their way back to Uvalde when I met them. So, after meeting them, I had to run East for the
Callaghan turnpoint. By then they were well ahead of me and with 85nm to go everything was
bluing up on course line. So I cranked McCready back to zero and began nursing it home, bumping every
little puff. It was getting late and turning in weak lift wasted daylight. So I flew at best L/D with
a 19kt tailwind and hoped. Soon I found Robert in a good one that yielded 4 kts. I worked
one or two smaller thermals on the way as I listened to others announcing their arrivals.
The neat thing was that even without thermals, I kept gaining on the glide slope and arrived
back at Uvalde with excess altitude. I was last to land at 8:15...that's right 8:18pm!
When I climbed out, the sun was slipping under the horizon. I tied down in the dark. Altogether
it was 5.6 hours of flying with 4:15 on course.
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