Final Day of Cross-Country Soaring

By Wally Adasczik

What a wild day for sure. The wind was up early in the morning and all of the pilots were chair flying. Those who decided to sniff a little for thermals, launched, flew around the field, and landed. The morning was definitely not conducive for getting on the course.

The afternoon, on the other hand, more than made up for the morning. Peeps were out on the course but struggled to get to halfway. John Marien and Ed Dumas, on separate runs, landed with a few feet of each other, both posting 3.4 miles. John on a separate flight chipped in another 1.2 miles. Jeff Carr got up to 300 meters at launch and literally went busting down the course, hit a huge sinkhole, and posted only a mile. Ed Dumas Jr. launched as soon as the chase came back and clocked in a .9-mile effort. Carl Thuesen hung around the school all day and did not get out on the course.

The totals of the runs are in the table below:

Jeff Carr getting ready to launch John Mariens “Ascendent”, a scratch build. The model later encountered a severe case of tail whip and gravity won. The model was destroyed on a landing attempt. So sad.

When you cant wait for the chase car to come back you start walking the course. Here Jeff Carr is heading to the end of driveway and then northward. He posted a 1.0 mile effort…walking his first couple hundred feet!

Carl Thuesen(R) from Montana takes 4th place! Carl flew an electric sailplane. The advantages of not worrying about winch availability were low on Carls mind!  Well done Carl!

Ed Dumas (R) from  TN placed third! Ed flew most of his XC without a vario. He finally flew with one and posted much better scores!

Jeff Carr (R) from NC placed Second. Jeff is not new to XC and flew all his flights without variometer assist.

John Marien from New Hampshire took the Grand Champion award home. As you can see from this phto it was a blue air day. All the pilots did well in the afternoon. That 10K is so very allusive.

Lastly here are all the contestants and a helper that photo bombed the group. From left to Right: Wally “by Golly” Adasczik – CD, Jeff Carr, John Marien, Mike Bergerson from Maine, Ed Dumas Jr. and Carl Thuesen.

XC for 2022 is now closed and in the books. The author wishes to thank the Monroe Central School board for support and use of their facilities. Can’t wait for 2023!!!