2008 AMA Nationals

Well I’m back from the Nats and the Supra is still in one piece.

We had 2 full days of soaring, I was able to see, and fly with some of the top pilots, and I learned so much. Man these guys are good! I ended up placing 50th out of 110 pilots, about where I expected. I sure didn’t feel I flew very good, I know I have better in me. It was evident that I’m not one with the Supra yet. I’ll have to plan on some future meditation. Day one started out sooooo humid. It was actually misting and ceilings were very low and visibility about ½ mile. The planes where drenched as soon as they came out of the car and stayed that way into the second round. The flying began about 9am, as soon as we could launch and keep from going into the clouds. I was quite nervous for the first flight and was probably the first one down. I think I was like 76th place right from the get go. A good number of pilots where making the 10 min tasks and spotting a landing despite the gray weather. Truly amazing flying! After a couple rounds I got into the groove and started to climb up the ladder. The overcast broke up and thermals began popping. I was still having a hard time making my times and getting the Supra to work for me but I hit a few good landings. At the end of the first day I think I was about 64th on the list.

Day 2 started almost the same way weather wise. Very humid, wet wings. First flights went up at 8:30am. I was in the second flight group and out floated everyone in my group and hit a good landing. That was much needed and bumped me up into 46th place. Dave Degroot showed up planeless and acted as my scouter for many of my flights. Thanks Dave. I sure wish I had his eyes though. He sent me off for thermals at the edges of my visibility a couple of times. I felt like I was really stretching it but they paid off. I had better flight times this day but had more trouble getting to the landing tape.

We flew 5 rounds each day. Each round the task was a 10 min flight and spot landing. The group was divided into 11 flight groups of 10 pilots. Flight groups all go to the winches and launch together. Depending on the wind direction they start launching from one end of the row. As soon as one guy is off the hook the next plane goes up. It only takes a minute or so to get them all airborne. These guys abuse these planes! I cringed at almost every launch. The launch lines where much shorter than we set up so the zooms where started quite low but I would guess more than half the altitude gain was from after the zooms. Talk about some screemin planes! A common technique is to stay with the group. It seemed more like follow the leader at times. If the leader didn’t find lift, everyone suffered the same. Although that didn’t happen often. I was amazed how these guys have an eye for where the lift is. Not only that but the guts it take to get to it. I saw quite a few times where in the top of the zoom pilots would pull back on the stick, go inverted heading downwind, then roll upright still cooking along and head downwind to the edge of my sight just to catch the thermal. Not to mention then drifting at 10 mph further downwind working it. The top ten pilots very rarely make mistakes and always seem to know where the lift is. You have to make your time within a few seconds up or down and nail the landing tape inside of a foot every time if you want to compete.

Overall a very good experience and I’m sure I will return to try to better my position next year.