John Armstrong with his super cool Fox glider. It is fast and aerobatic.
By Mike Bergerson
Day three of the Cross Country (XC) portion of the 2025 Soaring Nats began just as the first two did…rain! It went away around 11AM. We began our day setting up the winch and starting festivities under heavily overcast skies. The ceiling was somewhere around 1500 feet and the air was buoyant with some really good lift in spots.
There were many folks that showed up for day three. First and foremost is a young man named Caliber Brandt. He and his dad drove all the way from Nebraska to allow him to fly in the Altitude Limited Electric Soaring (ALES) contest beginning on Saturday morning. He brought his Radian to fly. After we installed a borrowed CAM unit (it turns off the motor at a specific altitude), he programed the altitude and proceeded to play. Caliber got a bit of coaching from a few of the pilots and should do very well.
Menchen Lee, Ben Stewart, and John Butler came to fly DLGs and electric sailplanes. They both assisted and Ben flew John’s Challenger on one of the runs down the course and put up some miles! I will say again, we’ve hooked John and he’ll be back to do it all over again.
Skye Malcolm brought his Foxbat, Anitol Pollilo flew his Volo, Ron Smith an Edge, Bobby Burson had a Maxa, Wayne Wimbish his Super AVA Pro, John Butler flew his Challenger, and John Armstrong flew his electric Fox glider. I zipped a tiny little 2M Sprite around for the morning and played with a 4M Ultima 2 at the end of the day.
Bobby Burson made a run after his 2K fly and return. He made it to the turnaround but only made it 8/10ths of the way back as sink and gravity had their way.
Gavin Trussel brought out an old purpose-built XC sailplane named “Dura Mater XC”. It was built by Noal Rossow, we assume, many years ago. This thing is a beast! Gavin freshened up the electronics and added full telemetry in hopes of a run down the course. A test glide or two and several winch launches were used to trim and tame this unruly glider. Once setup, it flew well and thermalled out a few times, it but never did get a chance on the course. I have a feeling Gavin may bring it next year to give it its shot and honor the builder.
It was quite the turn out for our weather-delayed last day of XC 2025. It looks to be even bigger next year now that the word is back out. Not everyone that flew came to fly XC, but they did come to observe and see what all the ruckus was about. Now they know that XC is a blast! Blue Skies.
