The Appeal of Cordele

by Rand Baldwin (RandB2@aol.com)

The Mid-Georgia Soaring Association sponsored this year's Region 5 Contest in
Cordele, GA, between Sunday, June 2 and Friday, June 7. The 1996 contest
marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Region 5 South Soaring
Championships. For me, it's the ninth contest I've flown there (or in Tifton,
an alternative site used two years in the late 1980s) since 1979, when I
entered my newly acquired H-301 Libelle in the 15-meter class (would you
believe there were 39 pilots competing in the 15-meter class alone that
year!) 

This year, twenty-four pilots flew in three classes: 15-meter, Standard, and
Sports. The 15-meter contest drew 10 entrants, including four Texans: Sam
Fly, Dick Mockler, and Ed Shilen. Floridian Alfonso "The Fonz" Jurado, many
times U. S. National Sports Class champion and eventual winner of this
contest, maintained warp speed in his Ventus, squeaking past second place
pilot and retired airline captain, Sam Fly by a hair. Venti dominated the
15-meter field, with four of 10 pilots choosing the Schempp-Hirth racer, but
Rolladen-Schneider was also well-represented, with three pilots, Robin Clark
(M2),  Mike Smith (2P), and John Bojack (J4) flying LS-6s. Larry Goddard and
Fernando Silva of MGSA flew as a team in their beautifully refinished LS-3,
"01". Several times world record holder, veteran competitor, and assistant
scorer, Roy McMaster of New York, plied the courses with his venerable
ASW-20D, "1". At the Huntsville convention, Roy, an expert user of Cambridge
Aero's flight/nav computer hardware and software, was ever present at the
Eastern Sailplane booth, explaining the intricacies of the Cambridge system
to passers-by. In Cordele, he spent many hours after each task processing GPS
data logger records of the 8 or 9 pilots who used this method of turnpoint
verification in lieu of cameras. Every day, we could replay the courses as
flown by these pilots on his laptop, starting them all at the same time on
the computer. The playback reveals instantly who's really ahead, by how much,
how far he deviated from track, and whether it helped or hurt. It was a real
eye-opener for pilots heretofore unfamiliar with the technology and its
application to sailplane racing.

Standard class luminaries include Johnny "The Birdman" Byrd, a longtime
Discus driver from Florida and 1995 U. S. Standard Class champ, who, as
befits a national champion, bested the competition at Cordele and emerged at
the top of the standard class by week's end. Ken Sorenson from Texas and Sam
Giltner of Chester, SC, both top seeds in U. S. soaring competition, also
flew Disci. (Sam 's plane is a beautiful Discus CS with winglets custom
designed by John Roncz, chief aerodynamicist for Group Genesis. ) Don Wasness
(LS-4, "1E"), Gilly Smith (ASW-24, "PR"), Ray Galloway (ASW-24, "P1"), Ed
Byars (Discus, "ED"), Mitch Deutsch (ASW-19, "6T"), and Yours Truly (LS-4,
"NN") filled out the nine-pilot class.

The Sports Class managed to attract the minimum five entrants required by U.
S. regional competition rules to constitute an official contest. K. C.
Alexander, recently moved from Kansas to Atlanta, entered his Pik-20D in the
Sports Class, joined by Charlie Meason, MGSA President and SSA Governor of
Georgia (Libelle 201 "3K"), Mark Morton (Phoebus, "ZM"), Hartley Falbaum
(ASW-20, "KF"), also of Atlanta, and Harold Buck (Ventus CM, "H"), a resident
of Columbus and member of Southern Eagles Soaring in Auburn. The lead in
Sports changed several times during the meet, but when the last mile was
flown, K. C. had a firm hold on the brass ring.

Clyde Taylor organized the event and served as Contest Manager. His crack
team of volunteers included, aside from Andy as CD, Bob and Lynne Davis of
Knoxville, handling Operations and Administration, respectively, and Ron
Roberts, who stepped in as Scorer and Photo Processor on short notice.
Weatherman and sniffer, Harry Senn, called the weather and Roy McMaster
assisted pilots and staff with data logger flight verification. Karen
Sorenson ran the start/finish gate, ably assisted by John Arthur Baldwin,
Evelyn Clark, and other volunteer spotters and timers. The tow pilots, led by
Gary Wackerhagen of Knoxville, did a fine job of getting 24 sailplanes
launched every day quickly and without incident. A new member of the
Knoxville club handled the photo board and helped with launches and ground
operations . Tom Elmore, who has flown in or assisted with Cordele meets from
their inception was on hand to collect film and landing cards from pilots at
the end of the day. Clyde's team did a magnificent professional job of
running the show. Their many years of experience in all facets of sailplane
racing and contest administration were evident throughout the meet.

Now I'll back up a bit and add some personal notes. . .
My son, John Arthur, and I left Huntsville on Saturday, June 1, and made the
6 1/2 trip to Cordele with our LS-4 in tow. We arrived in Cordele by late
afternoon, tied the trailer down at the airport, and joined two of my
standard class compatriots, Gilly Smith from Atlanta and Don Wasness of
Spartanburg, for some R&R and hangar flying.

On Saturday evening, most of the glider gang repaired to a small Italian
restaurant on Highway 280 in Cordele for dinner and a pre-contest get
together. It was great fun to renew old friendships. I've been racing with
many of these pilots off and on for over 15 years, but hadn't seen many of
them since I flew my last contest there in 1992.

Competition Director Andy McQuigg, a Boeing 747 captain in real life, decided
to forego the official practice day on Sunday and get the contest off the
ground a day ahead of time. In view of the iffy weather forecast for the rest
of the week, his decision was widely applauded. Last year, the same move
saved the contest, which must have at least three official race days to count
as a regional and for competitors to have their seeding renewed.

The weather was good all week--with one exception. An overcast greeted early
risers on Monday and hung around until mid-afternoon, when it quickly
dissipated and was replaced by a sky full of cus and cloudstreets. The day's
race, of course, had been cancelled hours before. Secretly and selfishly, I
was not unhappy about the cancellation; on Sunday evening, while attempting
to switch batteries on the charger, I managed to plug them together and
instantly fried the wiring--not to mention my fingertips! The no-contest call
gave me extra time to borrow a replacement battery and, with Don Wasness's
help, equip it and the ship's electrical system with compatible connectors.

After recovering from the battery fiasco, Andy McQuigg offered to let me fly
his beautiful 2-year old ASW-24, whose outer wing leading edges had been
profiled by Paul Gaines to match the ASW-24b and which had been fitted with
winglets like the '-24. I flew for about an hour and loved every minute of
it. Andy claims that the winglets markedly improve the ship's handling and
that the leading edge mod reduces its pitch sensitivity. I haven't flown an
unmodified '-24, so I'll take his word for it. In any case, Andy's plane was
a pleasure to fly. I thought the handling was superb. 

Back to the contest . . . 
As you can imagine, it's quite impossible in a short article to properly
describe the swirl of people, planes, and events, and the heart-warming,
stupid, funny, brilliant,  and sometimes scary things that happen during a
soaring contest, but I'll make a stab at it. Mere words cannot express how
wonderful and exhilirating it is to race every day, 3 to 4 hours for 140 to
200 miles with some of the best glider pilots in the U. S. And the
post-flying social events were great fun as well. All of us enjoyed
Wednesday's free fish fry organized in our honor by the Cordele Chamber of
Commerce on Lake Blackshear, kicked off by a flyby as Air Force pilots from
Warner Robbins AFB swooped low overhead and dipped their wings in salute to
us motorless types. On Tuesday, the Ramada Inn, our host hotel, served up
hors d'oeurves by the pool as a special treat for weary but animated pilots
and crews.

Blow by blow accounts of sailplane races are of interest mainly to the
participants, so I won't subject you to this particular form of torture. I'll
simply point out that in five days, I logged over 20 hours in the air and
flew nearly 900 miles, averaging ~180 miles per day at speeds between 50 and
60 mph. Andy called designated speed tasks for standard and 15-meter classes
on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday and 3-hour P.O.S.T. s (Pilot's Option Speed
Task) on the remaining two days. All Sports class tasks were P.O.S.T.s.
Cloudbases were generally ~5500 MSL to 6500 MSL after about 1:30 or 2:00,
when most of us went through the start gate. Climb rates for me averaged ~3.5
to 5 kts during the week. Not a bad way to spend one's vacation--if you're a
soaring addict! 

Andy's task calls were spot on every day. His thousands of hours in racing
supplemented by the assistance of task advisors like John Byrd and Sam Fly
and the weather smarts of Harry Senn, allowed him to fine tune the tasks to
the day and to change the task in the air when necessary prior to the task
opening. Andy's talents are not; however, confined to task calling and
sailplane racing. This was the first contest I've attended at which the
entertainment provided by the CD at the pilots' meetings was almost worth the
entry fee. Andy's "Karnac the Magnificent" parody of the old Tonight Show
routine brought the house down at the pilots' meeting on the last day.

If you haven't been to a regional or local competition, consider volunteering
to crew for a competitor. After you've completed your Silver Badge and flown
several cross countries, you may want to try it yourself. Aside from the
pleasure and excitement of competition, racing sailplanes is the most
effective way I know of improving one's competence as a soaring pilot. When
you're ready, give it a try!

Next year, the MGSA will host the combined U. S. Standard Class and
Motorglider Nationals at Cordele. Forty to 50 ships are expected to fly in
both classes. This will be the fourth national soaring contest organized by
the MGSA group at Cordele. I plan to be there!