Saturday (practice day)
Got up a bit late and headed over to the TA truck stop for breakfast. We met up with Ron, Yaron and Rick. After watching Ron down a "hardy" breakfast the WienerWagon and the BloomMobile headed to the WalMart and loaded up on beverages (gatorade, water and beer). That Walmart is so big you can get lost for days (or at least it seems like you could).
Arriving at the airport, after leaving WalMart, we could see the hangar was completely stuffed. It's now, we started getting an idea just how many pilots are here. I'll get a picture up later but believe me it's really packed. Pilot check-in was equally packed. The pin in line looked to be about 30 pilots waiting, registration on the other hand was simple as Jamie kept the line moving quickly.
I met up with Ben (our driver from last year) and his friend Will. Will is going to be our driver in the BloomMobile this year. Looks like Shawn will set him up with a GPS so driving duties should be pretty easy once we show him how to use it.
The hangar pilot area is airconditioned so it's not too bad, but neither is the heat (it's only about 90). Launch line is in the same place as last year so once you're setup you can either hike your glider down to the staging line or put all your stuff on a cart and push it down with ease. I chose the latter and life was easy, until I got into the launch line. Lot's of confusion and people trying to cut in or cut you off. Last year on the practice day there wasn't any launch line. When you wanted to go you just went with little wait.
I was nearly ready to get a cart when the launch was stopped due to thunderstorm activity in the area. I waited hoping the weather would improve ...... It didn't. I ended up pushing the glider back to the hangar in a light rain. We waited a bit longer and I took the opportunity to pin in and get my waypoints from the scorekeeper. After meeting some new people and pinning in the launch was started again so I hurried over and got in line. Launch was smooth and uneventful, lift was light and I think I only climbed about 300' after pinning off (how sucky). Landing, I missed the spot but landed well and promptly moved into the hangar.
Our welcome dinner was really good this year and we had a bit of south western Texas entertainment. After the show and some annoncements we got to see how well represented the comp was. Pilots representing countries all over the world came up to the microphone and introduced themselves and which country they were representing. It was pretty impressive to hear all the countries that have pilots here in Texas.
The Big Spring folks are really happy we're here and it really showed today.
Listen to the audio post, kind of sums it up.
Arriving at the airport, after leaving WalMart, we could see the hangar was completely stuffed. It's now, we started getting an idea just how many pilots are here. I'll get a picture up later but believe me it's really packed. Pilot check-in was equally packed. The pin in line looked to be about 30 pilots waiting, registration on the other hand was simple as Jamie kept the line moving quickly.
I met up with Ben (our driver from last year) and his friend Will. Will is going to be our driver in the BloomMobile this year. Looks like Shawn will set him up with a GPS so driving duties should be pretty easy once we show him how to use it.
The hangar pilot area is airconditioned so it's not too bad, but neither is the heat (it's only about 90). Launch line is in the same place as last year so once you're setup you can either hike your glider down to the staging line or put all your stuff on a cart and push it down with ease. I chose the latter and life was easy, until I got into the launch line. Lot's of confusion and people trying to cut in or cut you off. Last year on the practice day there wasn't any launch line. When you wanted to go you just went with little wait.
I was nearly ready to get a cart when the launch was stopped due to thunderstorm activity in the area. I waited hoping the weather would improve ...... It didn't. I ended up pushing the glider back to the hangar in a light rain. We waited a bit longer and I took the opportunity to pin in and get my waypoints from the scorekeeper. After meeting some new people and pinning in the launch was started again so I hurried over and got in line. Launch was smooth and uneventful, lift was light and I think I only climbed about 300' after pinning off (how sucky). Landing, I missed the spot but landed well and promptly moved into the hangar.
Our welcome dinner was really good this year and we had a bit of south western Texas entertainment. After the show and some annoncements we got to see how well represented the comp was. Pilots representing countries all over the world came up to the microphone and introduced themselves and which country they were representing. It was pretty impressive to hear all the countries that have pilots here in Texas.
The Big Spring folks are really happy we're here and it really showed today.
Listen to the audio post, kind of sums it up.
posted by Jeff Chipman at 9:07 PM
1 Comments:
It was great to hear your voice. I miss you. Your 3 boys miss you. Good luck tomorrow. As you soar the skies, I'll be sliding on clay.
Wish me luck too! 1*4*3*
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