July 18, 2024: XC Soaring

By Mike Bergerson

We now have day two of the 2024 AMA Cross Country (XC) Soaring Nats firmly in the books. There were Explorers, Maxas, a couple of purpose-built XC Catalinas, and even an old House of Balsa “2T” Crunchie. Rick Bothell, of “Hands Free Retriever” fame, was out flying his 2T, AVA, and others as the day progressed. All were welcome to fly from the winch or use their own electric nose-winches to test the thermals over Monroe Central High School in Parker City, Indiana.

John Marien holds the day’s honors for his whimsical jaunts in the “Country Cadillac.” He actually flew his launches from the back of the parked pickup truck, thermaled his 4M Maxa out a bit, and then sat down in his special flight chair and proceeded to log not one but three flights out meandering on the XC course. His first outing netted a total of 1.1 km, his second netted 1.3 km, and his final cruise down the course went for 0.3 km. His distinction was that he was the only one to run the course today. Nice job, John! 

Mike Ward drove out from Michigan, arriving in his awesome custom camper. He came to fly his electric Catalina XC ship. It launched beautifully with plenty of power and flew amazingly. Mike outsoared everything all day, but he never went out on the course … perhaps tomorrow. 

Ed Dumas made several flights with his Explorer, but with the spotty thermals all day, he never made it out on the course. 

Our illustrious contest director (CD) and master storyteller, Wally “by Golly” Adasczik, worked on his Supra all morning but failed to launch. New flap pushrods tonight, victory tomorrow! I’m assuming that’s his plan moving forward. Lol!

We had a few curious soaring junkies come out and help as well. John Armstrong, from Arizona, and Randy Everly, from Tennessee, showed up, lent a much-appreciated hand, and were excellent company. Both are coming back out tomorrow to fly and, with a bit of encouragement, head out on the XC course for their first time.

I continued to have launch issues with the new Supra and retired it with injuries. Out of the van came the old, trusty AVA. I actually had her up at a great altitude but alas, I wasn’t ready to go. I believe the correct phrase for my failure to start is, “I chickened out!” That didn’t sit well with me. On the next flight, I thermaled back out again. The AVA is such a beautiful flying sailplane! If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. Since most great experiences lie on the other side of fear, I decided to go for it … but the truck was leaving with John on his last run of the day! Really?! Lol! There’s always tomorrow. 

Ed, Wally, and Kent Nogy tirelessly worked the winches and the retriever, and they helped launch sailplanes all day. Many thanks to Ed, Kent, and Wally for their hard work keeping XC Soaring going! One more day to go!

Blue skies!

Note from AMA: Do you have photos from the Nats that you’d like to share? If so, email them to Clarissa Poston at clarissap@modelaircraft.org. Please include a brief description in your email, naming any individuals pictured in the photo(s), the name of the event that the photo(s) were taken during, and the name of the individual who took the photo(s). Your submission(s) might be posted on AMA’s Flickr page, which can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/modelaircraft/albums!