Wednesday, June 08, 2005

ECC: Day Two: Which Way to Goal?

I have decided this meet must be my "trial by fire" meet! It was hot, hazy, and humid but there were still some cummies forming and the task was a straight shot downwind to the Summit airport. I was one of the first to launch and quickly worked my way to cloudbase. I was in good position at the start circle with a good group of pilots and "ready to roll". After I left the start circle I noticed that my flight computer was saying that goal was 40 miles south of launch, but knew it was to the north. Uh? Crap! Think Tom, what should you do? We were given new coordinates at the pilot's meeting. I must have entered the wrong coordinates. While I was fiddling with my flight computer I kept pimping off other pilots to keep going in the right general direction. However, I lost a couple of pilots since I was not paying enough attention on climbing while I was playing with my flight computer. I tried to call my driver Brian for the correct coordinates but he never turned on the radio in my truck. So much for that idea. I was losing too much time waiting on other pilots to climb up to me so I could follow them. Um. I finally just decided to head due north until I hit water and then head east I hope I could see an airport. It was the best plan I could come up with. By that time I was behind the leaders and flying with a slower crew. I turned on the after burners and finally started moving at my pace. I noticed a highway below me and thought it might be Route 301 that I drove in on a couple of days before. If it was 301, it probably was the highway that went by the airport. Ok, follow the road. I was moving smoothly north and joined Dennis and Pete but soon left them behind after a good climb. I came to a large town when Brian finally came on the radio. I slowed down in a weak climb and started asking him where the airport was in relation to the town, but he was not sure what town I was talking about. Meanwhile, Charlie, radioed that he was 10 miles from the airport. 10 miles? He was behind me. Instead of looking forward, I looked down and just slightly forward and saw the airport. I had it on easy glide. Bummer that I wasted an extra 10 minutes circling in nothing, I could have moved up a couple of places. However, I was not complaining, I was just happy to be there since I didn't know where I was going!

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