Heinz McArthur* - NCSA	Robert Hills - PSS	Peter Pulfer - Foothills Regional	Roger Fowler-NCSA*
David Walsh - Harrier	Ray Livengood - NCSA	Ken Bell* - NCSA	Gary Garavaglia - PSS
Matt McKrell - NCSA	Charles Cook* - PSS	David Walsh - Harrier	Roger Fowler-NCSA* 4/25/2009

* multiple winning flights

I arrived early to try the water hoses in the Cirrus and to put some water in it for a dump test.  I had it ready to install the wings and no one had arrived at the staging area yet, so took a short nap.  Once the wings were on I realized one hose is a little short, so put the water stuff away and finished preparing to fly.

 Matt reported climbing through 2000' so I launched second at 12:40 and got off at 2500'.  I drifted down to 2000' where I could hold my own.  Poking around for something else I got down to 1400', but managed to stay aloft and each thermal was slightly better than the previous one.  At about 2 PM I got to 3200' and flew back to the airport to go through the start line.  There wasn't much over Lillington until a cloud formed and I flew to it.  I was rewarded with a climb to 5000' with the vario above 8 kts most of the way and pegged a large part of the time.  So I reported starting for Sanford.  All the climbs were in the blue because the few clouds were cycling so fast I could not get to them.  But I didn't take any climbs less than 6 kts and stayed above 4000'.  The wind was pretty much cross, so didn't affect the flight too bad.  I never flew over 70 knots because I was never sure where the next thermal was going to be.  Somewhere between Sanford and Siler City I looked at my progress and decided I was slower than I would like to be, but with just a little luck the lift would last until I got on final glide.  I contacted the tow plane and told him I was headed to Bahnson.  While Ray and I had talked about him coming to get me, we really had no definite plans.  But I decided to hope he could get away from his ops duty at a reasonable time. 

I cut the turn at Siler City a little short because conditions seemed to be weakening (not unexpected).  As I headed for Asheboro I seemed to be drifting downwind to find lift, but there was a cloud street so I contacted it and ran it until I was past Asheboro and upwind of course.  Then it got weaker and I started flying from airport to airport and taking weak thermals I would not previously have taken.  The low point of the flight was between Asheboro and Davidson County airport.  The altimeter said something like 2700' and the grass airports in the area were hard to find.  But I found a thermal under a cloud street that took me over 5000' and I was close to final glide to Bahnson.  While there were no clouds that could be used, there were enough Cu's popping to give me confidence that thermals were still forming. 

Final glides were interesting on this flight.  I was flying across lift streets, so when I was going through lift the glide to the next turn point kept looking better and better.  Then I would fly through the sink between the streets and the glide would look worse and worse.  I actually took 2 or 3 thermals on my way to Bahnson for fear that I would end up a little short.  I ended up over the strip about 900' above the  ground, didn't see much activity in the windsock, turned downwind, then noted that the flag was standing out straight in the other direction.  So I came around and landed over the trees and downhill. 

All in all, a good trip.  The start was late and it was mostly blue, but the climbs were good and I was able to stay high most of the way.  I never got seriously low.  And I had plenty of time to chat with Tom Orrell and another club member at Bahnson.  The best part was bringing the trophies home.  We left the glider at Bahnson since the Escape seems to be having some drive train issues, but it ran home just fine, albeit smelling of burned transmission lube.

 Many thanks to the Golden Retriever for coming to get me.

 Roger Fowler

North Carolina Soaring Association

Harnett County Airport, NC

Gary Garavaglia presents trophies to Roger Fowler

 

Thanks to BRSS!  For more information on the Boomerang Trophy as well as a list of those brave souls that have kept it traveling over the many years click on the below web link:

http://www.brss.net/boomerang.htm