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Harris Hill - Thanksgiving 2000 by Dan Baker
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| The annual Snowbird Contest at Harris Hill was blessed with clear skies and calm winds (unless, like me, you can't land without a gusting 90 degree cross wind). It was also cursed with frigid temperatures that kept the hot chocolate flowing. Fortunately, the Snowbird requires much pushing of gliders from the touchdown area to the take off grid. The industrious were comfortable, the lazy eventually froze to the tarmac and will be thawed out in the spring. | The nine o'clock pilots meeting was (more or less) led by our own Alasdair Crawford. If you remember last year, Alasdair won the overall single competition and was thus elected (drafted?) this year's Contest Director. After explaining the rules and setting the duration time, towplanes were started, planes mounted, and soon gliders were falling from the sky at regular intervals (there was little to no lift). | Once again, Schweitzer's pilots showed up with a 2-33 with a working disc brake (that can't be fair). After the first flight determined that our 1-26 had NO brake at all (I'm not going first next year) we pumped up the tire and (under the watchful eye of Jen Schober) dug into its innards to tighten the brake mechanism. After that, most of us could stop within a few inches of the cone. |
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If you studied the landings, you found that most of the pilots used a steep approach with remarkably constant descent rates. It was quite impressive to watch. However there are still those who dive down and just float, and float, and float. In either case, there were a lot of landings this year that were in the "0" zone and very few blew by the cone. Although one Civil Air Patrol cadet took a peek over the backside of the hill, there were absolutely no fly bys. This year, Hank Nixon's name would not be found on the score sheet, but he spent a lot of time as safety pilot in the back seat of the Harris Hill 2-33 with some of our new-to-the-hill pilots (Thanks Hank!). The usual comraderie permeated the field and the clubhouse where our hosts provided doughnuts, lunch, and lots of hot chocolate. |
| When the sun went down, stronger libations were required to ward off the penetrating cold. So, VSC headed for the Olive Garden, where they apparently forget about our behavior from year to year, and took over one of their more sound proofed rooms. Those who showed up late were summarily embarassed by a standing salute, and a good time was had by all. After dinner, if you knew how to find Heinz's house on the back of Harris Hill, you would have been treated to a delightful open house and the first annual UN-bonfire. But that's another story. Saturday dawned with the same temperatures and wind as Friday, but there was more moisture in the air which helped the cold penetrate through anything short of arctic wear. Scores varied and the usual clamor to get one more flight for our pilots that needed to improve their scores left us wanting another plane on the line. |
Not quite close enough! |
You can dress 'em up, you can even send 'em to the World Championships, but... |
As the sun set, we once again had no idea of the team standings and scorekeeper Carolyn Mampe wasn't talking.
'24 was taken apart and put on its trailer so Scott Calvert could tow it home the next day (Thanks, Scott). The VSC pilots returned to their hotel rooms to (in the name of tradition) dress for dinner. Once again Harris Hill put on a wonderful dinner with Dianne Nixon supplementing our table with way too much Finger Lakes wines (See photo). The secret entrance to the National Soaring Museum was also opened up for our enjoyment. After dinner, it was awards time. Corky Gill presented Harris Hill's annual club awards and then turned the ceremonies over to Alasdair. |
| Although the Snowbird winners left with the traditional Bird trophies, runners up were also mentioned and provided with bottles of yet more wine (Pepsi for juniors). In the family category, Dave and Jen Schober placed a respectable 3rd (when was the last time Dave was in the front of a 2-33?). |
In the Junior/Senior category, Jason Kainu and Scott Calvert took third, while Sean Gavin and Dan Baker were edged out of first by just 3 points. Valley Soaring took 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place in the Senior/Senior category with the team of Bob Rippstein and Charlie Kasmarek leading us. Our hot shot juniors Sean Gavin and Jason Kainu took our only first place in the Junior/Junior team category beating the second place team from Harris Hill by a whopping 185 points. |
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For the Overall award, John Fessenden of Harris Hill turned in scores with every landing in the zero zone, a worst duration just 8 seconds short (the others were within 3 seconds), and a worst stopping distance of 12 inches. He beat our own Greg Madigan by only 8 points! Sean Gavin came in fourth and Charlie Kasmarek finished 6th overall.
By this time, the VSC table was subdued as we saw so many of the first place Birds plucked from our grasp. The whole room got real quiet as Alasdair explained that first and third places in the Club category were seperated by less than 16 points. Second place went to the Schweizer Soaring Club and First Place for Snowbird 2000 has been regained by
Valley Soaring. |
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