The ALES pilots’ meeting.
By Mike Bergerson
Wind, rain, and outrageous sink… what more could you ask for during the first day of Altitude Limited Electric Soaring (ALES)?
The first round was a battle to find any form of lift in the breezy early-morning conditions. “Muncie Madness” was in full dress. You could hear the expletives back in the pits. Unbelievable that the 150-meter preset launch height wouldn't net you your time. And the wind, let's not forget the gusty winds stealing your landing away. Oh man, this is fun!
Seriously, the stage was set for epic saves and thundering defeats. Finding your ride only to have your mind blown when you tried to return and had no choice but to motor up because the sink was excruciating and you were way short, or just outside the 75-meter landing distance. Now this is a contest, y’all!
By round 2 everyone knew what was needed to make your time. You needed that ride downwind. Not just any ride, it had to get you up high. The thermals were small and fast in the breezy conditions. You had to circle fairly tight and get them cored if you wanted to get out with enough altitude to get back.
With the winds out of the west increasing by the hour, the most common strategy was to fly out as far as you could go upwind to try and get to the tree line, then pull up in the last seconds to full height. Deciding which side of the field to take during this was, and I'm serious, a crap shoot. Left, right, middle, holy moly (you just want to use colorful adjectives to describe this), you think you can read this consistently. That's where the best pilots rule. And ballast, you need ballast. If you didn't have your plane up to 50-ounce minimum, you weren't going anywhere. Just look at the individual round scores on Gliderscore.
This went on for the first three rounds. The winds were getting stronger and gustier, with maybe five pilots out of the 40 flying getting their times consistently. The rest were eking out what they could glean from their particular choices. The winners were taking it out downwind. There were lots of zero flights for the unlucky. There were also some wild low-level battles on the bumps and waves out front, upwind and just behind the pits canopies downwind. There were also several low-time rounds where these flights made the difference. These were the most exciting flights to watch and to participate in.
Then the rain came… and more wind. The cutoff was set at the pilots meeting to 20 mph of steady wind for one minute, and there would be a 30 minute evaluation time if there was a lightning strike. The rains came and went in waves several times all through round 4. How many times can you break your plane down and put it back together in an afternoon? In my case, three times!
The rain would get sideways and come in under the canopies. Out came the stories of the destruction from a bad storm back in 2 aught 22… yeah, that was a bad one. Enough of the gloom and doom. Personally, I was having a blast. This was amazingly challenging and just plain fun.
The day was done when the guys in round five, group one got caught in a sudden downpour mid-flight. Timers were blocking the rain for their pilots while they hunched over their transmitters, trying to keep them as dry as possible. I'll include some pics of the soggy action. Thanks for those pics, Rich! That's when powers-that-be called it.
This was not bad for the prequel to team selects. Tomorrow is another day.
Blue Skies!
