Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Santa Cruz Flats (Day 2)

We had a little excitement yesterday when Rhett struck a couple gliders in the launch line. I was pre-flighting Larry Bunner when I got a glimpse of green coming our way. I heard a crunch on the glider behind us and a strong strike to Larry's glider as the tug passed right over us. The entire glider shook and the downtubes bowed outward as the cross-bar broke. Larry was a bit shocked and then asked if any battens were bent. I stood up and immediately saw Larry was done for the day as his glider looked like a wounded bird with a broken wing. Once the shock wore off and reality set in we moved Larry aside. Instantly Rob Kells was working on a backup plan. Before long Larry was back in line with another new-looking T2C and looking relaxed and ready to compete. (He did quite well as you can see in the daily results.) I talked to Rhett later in the day and he said he was coming in, got dumped, applied power, and then listened to the engine stutter. He immediately came over to make sure everyone was ok and, as expected, felt very bad about what had just happened.

Aside from the constantly shifting light winds and a few weak-link breaks, launching went well. After a quick shower Amy and took off for some local touring. There is a lot of open land around here with lots of scrub and farm fields. We also passed several mega-feedlots filled with cattle. No exageration, they were huge. We also stopped at the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument that was just off the yesterday's course line. I was impressed that anyone could build a 4 story mud building, let alone have it last over 700 years.

No comments: