OLC season

the second Monday in October brings to an end the OLC season (and, of course, opens the new season).

Right up to the end everyone in the northern hemisphere seems to have been having exceptional flights in October - i saw that Ulf did a respectable 290+ on Saturday http://www3.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html;jsessionid=057CA1169F0F6E65E9EB8F4B97EC5A4F?flightId=533943406

Jim Payne http://www3.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=1091120 gave the most eloquent epitaph to the season (and i trust he will forgive me for repeating it here)

Today's mission was a trifecta: improve the Classic OLC score, add insurance to the Speed OLC score, and see if a triangle could be flown in the Sierra Wave ... all below FL180. The wave was the result of a weather system moving into the Sierra from the northwest. Doug Armstrong gave me a heads up last weekend. Tom came down to fly with me in the ASH-25. The forecast pointed to weak wave early in the day with progressively stronger winds. The rapidly moving system resulted in constantly changing conditions which with the mostly blue conditions made for an interesting intellectual challenge. On tow the computer showed 11 knots of wind. Most the day the winds aloft were showing 25 knots. The sojourn to the last turn point on the triangle was of special interest. During the last leg south the winds had picked up to 38 knots and a big lenticular formed over Owens Lake. We tiptoed to the tertiary wave and headed back west. We made a good climb in the secondary and were surprised by the strength of the primary. We entered the lift just over 15,000 feet. The lift was so strong that we pushed straight through (for fear that we would be rocketed into Class A airspace), gaining 2,500 feet in 3 minutes at 110 knots indicatedIt looks like today will the last good day of 2009.

Congratulations, Klaus, on winning the Classic OLC.

Thank you, OLC for this wonderful contest that encourages pilots, Doug for the forecasts, Dr Jack for BLIPMAPS, Bill Francis for all the tows, Greg Cole for letting me fly your beautiful yellow SparrowHawk, Bob Ettinger for letting me fly "F-16", Tom for being a great brother and partner, and Jackie for all the support and the retrieve to Idaho.Think wave!

JP

I think we all share Jim's gratitude to OLC, our fellow pilots, crews, met men, tugpilots, friends and families.

EY