The contest has ended

The 2nd FAI Pan American Gliding Championship is over.  Congratulations to the new Champions, Claudio Schmidt of Brazil in the Standard Class, and Martin Bossart of Argentina in the 15 Meter Class.

The last landing of the contest occurred somewhere around 5pm on December 15, 2017. Retrieves were involved, so we had to wait a few hours for the final scores to appear. Then the results of the entire competition were presented to the FAI Officials for review.

Chief Steward Alfonso Soto and Jury President Angel Casado

Finally, at about 9:30 pm, Director Eduardo Toselli convened the prizegiving ceremony, and Jury President Angel Casado declared that the results were final. The winners took their places on and around the podium as pictures were taken and the FAI flag was lowered.

Our best results were achieved by Ryszard Krolikowski (7th in the Standard Class) and Fernando Silva (5th in the 15 Metre Class). Fernando says that his first international competition was very valuable as he prepares for his second one, the World Gliding Championships in Poland this coming July.

In keeping with the Argentine tradition, the farewell dinner started up right on time at about 10:30 pm. A jovial crowd of pilots, crews, and organisers assembled in the hangar and partied until who knows when.

Today we begin the journey back to winter and to our homes in Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Vermont. We take with us memories of a happy, well run competition, and we look forward to seeing all of our friends again at the next PAGC, in Ontario, Canada in 2019.

Our crews

These hardworking members of the US Team are not only our crews, but they are also our close friends.  We look forward to seeing them again at the next international competition.

Gabriel Anzil

Graciela Gentile

Juan Matthews

Maico Hernandes

Miguel Boero

Pedro Guzman

Last race day

The day started with loud cheers for Fernando as he went to the podium to be recognized for winning the day yesterday. He has made a lot of friends here, and he took a moment to thank Martin Bossart for helping the US Team throughout the competition.

At every contest there seems to be one day on which the weather forecast completely misses the mark.  Today was that day. We were told to expect thin cirrus, 20 kph winds, and 3 m/sec climbs to 2000 meters. They gave us a 3-hour AAT and no Task B.

The reality was thickening cirrus, slow heating and 40 kph wind.  The day was barely flyable.

After a 1.5 hour delay on the grid, they shortened the Tasks to 2 hours and launched both classes. The Standard Class start gate opened at 1415, and a few minutes after that the 15 Meter Class Task was cancelled.

Al was not able to get away. He landed back home and took over the base station radio and tracking computer in order to help his partner around the course. For the rest of the day Ryszard chased the sunny areas and touched all the cylinders. He was one of two finishers, coming in 30 minutes overtime.

The contest is over, but we don't yet have the final scores. There will be a prize-giving ceremony at 8:30 pm, followed by the farewell party.

It was a safe and happy contest, without a scratch on any glider. The worst mishap was probably Ryszard's flat tire yesterday.

This is all I've got today. We are frantically breaking camp, returning equipment, packing gear, and climbing the power pole to retrieve the antenna

A mixed bag

Our penultimate day at Chaves was both frustrating and rewarding.

The weather gods gave us sunshine and reasonable wind speeds, and the Task Setter gave us 3-circle AATs and reasonable minimum times. The delay in the launch was only 50 minutes, which we've come to expect.

Today, none of the guys managed to fly together, not even our pair flying experts Ryszard and Al.

Fernando bounced through an armadillo hole on takeoff, which flapped his wings violently enough to lose his wingrunner before he had aileron control. He released and landed straight ahead. This caused a small delay in the launch and caused Fernando to go to the back of the grid. By the time he got back in the air, he was unable to join his teammates.

Before the start, the thermals were inconsistent, topping out at different altitudes. Most pilots waited around for them to get organized, but this never happened, and you couldn't really trust them all day. The Standard Class went through the gate around 2:30, and the 15 Meter Class about ten minutes later. The first leg was into the cirrus area and mostly into the wind. Average speeds for the leg were around 50 kph.

Ryszard and Al just touched the first and second circles. Al was later than Ryszard and decided to skip the last one, giving him an incomplete Task. Ryszard made it all the way around and was rewarded with a flat tire when he landed.

Phil, who got up to 2100 meters for his start, got in trouble immediately, and by the time the rest of the team was alerted to his plight, they were too far away to help. He landed in a field only half an hour on Task.

Juan joined the fast gaggle, and by going a little deeper in each assigned area, managed to beat them around the course. Robin struggled at first but climbed high in the second assigned area, allowing him to glide all the way to the back of the third one and then home.

Like the others, Fernando spent the day without the company of his teammates. He did make use of information from Juan, who was about 30 km ahead of him, and from the ground, where we were monitoring the OGN tracking. He got high on his way out of the first area and didn't circle again until just before the second. One more climb near the center of that one, and he glided all the way home. His credited distance was just about the nominal distance for the Task, and that turned out to be the longest distance of all, good for the win and 1000 points!

Tomorrow is the last day, and if it's anything like the 2013 WGC, the closing ceremony will begin at around 8pm, and the farewell party will be just getting going at 10pm.

Mug shots

Mouse over for photo credits.

Slow news day

It rained all day today, and the team dispersed to engage in "independent activities." I don't have much to report since my independent activity consisted of taking a nap.

The highlight of the day was a presentation of the Open Glider Network (OGN) by one of its founders, Angel Casado, who is here serving as Jury President.  OGN is the hugely successful online glider tracking system, based largely on FLARM, that is deployed all over Europe. It is also catching on in Australia and South Africa, and we are using it here in Argentina. Angel made a point of saying that there is a "great hole in the coverage" in USA.

The day before yesterday, Juan's film "A Fine Week of Soaring" was presented in the Briefing room, to great acclaim.  The same crowd is expected to show up tonight for a screening of "The Sun Ship Game."  It is clear that the domination of the film industry by our country includes gliding movies.

Here is a nice picture from a nicer day (photo by Evelyn):

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DD MM SS

While we were standing around on the grid, before today's Tasks were cancelled, the Team Captain of Canada told an interesting retrieve story from two nights ago.

It seems that they were victims of the classic mistake of mixing up "degrees, minutes, seconds," which seems to be what the outlanding office uses, and "decimal degrees," used by our InReach trackers and most everyone else.

The crew arrived at the wrong place, only a few minutes north of the glider, but they had to drive an arduous route on back roads to find their pilot, once they understood their mistake.

A similar thing nearly happened to us on the same day. Ever since then, we make a point of double-checking the data input step before letting the crews leave.

Mr. Torno

Of the six gliders we rented for this contest, the one in the best shape was ZC, the ASW-20 provided for Juan. So it was a big surprise during the practice week when Juan discovered that his tailwheel was completely shot, about to fall out of the housing. The roller blade wheel itself was salvageable, but the axle, bearings and bushings were not.

Fortunately, there are a lot of hardware stores in Chaves, and after visiting all of them, Juan had everything he needed for the repair, except for the special bushing needed to fit the axle to the new bearing. He needed a machine shop for that.

The word for such a shop is "torneria," which means "place where thing are turned." Finding the recommended torneria required following very precise directions. There is no sign outside. The final step is to walk through an unlabeled open doorway.

Inside, we found Mr. Torno (his actual name!) to be a charming gentleman whose shop would have looked familiar to anyone looking for a part for a steam locomotive a hundred years ago.

Juan and Mr. Torno spoke at length about the project, and it was clear, even to a non-Spanish speaker, that Mr. Torno takes genuine pleasure in solving other people's problems. He was very impressed by Juan's engineering drawing of the part needed.

Mr. Torno invited Juan to come back in an hour, but Juan was so delighted by the experience so far, that he insisted on staying to watch the master at his lathe.

In much less than an hour, a perfectly fitting part was produced. The bill came to 100 pesos, about six dollars.

Mr. Torno is hereby declared an official sponsor of the US Soaring Team.  We would put his logo on our webpage, if he had one.

Low in the blue

After a day off yesterday, the team was ready to go back at it today.

The forecast was for a manageable north wind and weak low thermals without cumulus. This is exactly what we got. The Tasks were both bowtie-shaped AATs (i.e. three circular areas, instead of the usual two), and the minimum times were 2.5 hours.

The only thing the Organisers never get right is the trigger time.  The Director is a pretty busy guy each morning, and I suspect that he chooses the time of first launch before the weatherman completes his forecast.  Anyway, after an hour of sniffer flights, the launch got underway, and almost all the gliders made their starts by 2pm. The pre-start climbs were slow, and with maximum altitudes of only 1000 meters, everyone dumped their water.

Our team flew well together, and did a good job helping each other around the course. But the truth is that we stumbled strategically today. The 15 Meter guys bit off more than they could chew and came home 30 - 45 minutes overtime. The Standards were similarly late, but they did much better in a relative sense, because there were only four finishers in that class. Ryszard made it home for third place, and Al, who flew the greatest distance of all, landed only 9 km short of the finish line.

Fernando's crew, Gabriel Anzil, is also the team chef. He planned to cook a team dinner at US Base this evening, contingent upon everyone making it back. It was such a close call, that Gabi (the crew) refused to say whether Gabi (the chef) was available until shortly after 6pm. At that point he started cooking and only two hours later produced a feast for the team and our guests, about 25 people in all. If it weren't for the fact that tomorrow is a flying day, that party would probably still be going.

Asado

The word simply means "roast." But there is so much more to the Argentine tradition of Asado than can be contained in a one-word translation.

A proper asado consists of cuts of beef or sausage flame-roasted on an iron rack, arranged vertically at just the right distance from an open fire.  The racks are stuck into the ground and tilted at a slight angle so that the meat is cooked uniformly. When the chef determines that the cooking is complete, the racks are quickly stripped and the meat is handed, still sizzling, through a window into a hangar full of hungry glider pilots.

Combine that with wine and folk dancing, and you have "Argentina Night" at the 2nd PAGC.

Today's activities

Phil's trailer gremlins don't give up easy.  Today he's debugging the lights.

Fernando and his crew are securing the tables, chairs, and awnings at US Base in preparation for the afternoon zephyrs.

Most of us are headed to the charming town of Tres Arroyos to do some tourist shopping.

Juan will present his film "A Fine Week of Soaring" at 7pm, and the Argentine team will host us for dinner after the movie.

Day cancelled

No Tasks today. There will be a Briefing at 1000.

Pic dump

Mouse over for photo credits

The rest of the story

Apparently, W crew passed VN crew on the road as they were both returning from their outlandings. Fernando noticed that the other trailer was sagging a bit at the bow, and he signaled Phil to pull over.

The trailer tongue had suffered a major failure and was about to let go. Phil limped into a service station and was referred to a welder.  John Good and Juan Mandelbaum arrived from Chaves to assist.  They brought Juan's empty trailer in case it was needed. The welder arrived and declared that he could fix it - back at his shop. So the boys got to work and removed the trailer tongue, gave it to the welder to repair, and repaired to the local diner.

A while later (not sure how much later), the welder returned with straightened and reinforced part, and following its reinstallation, the crews were back on the road.

They arrived in time for dessert at the hotel.

Never pick up a stranger

On the road again

Every morning after Briefing we have a team meeting to discuss the task and weather. At the beginning of today's meeting Fernando put his finger on the map on the task sheet and said, "I'll be landing here today." He based his prediction on the forecast time of arrival of an intense ridge of cold high pressure air from the Pacific.

The Task Setter gave the same task to both classes, a 2 hour AAT, and we had an atypically early launch into a southwest wind. The obvious strategy was to get out of town while the getting was good, and that is exactly what everyone did. The Standard Class, who went first, escaped before the weather changed. The 15 Meter start gate opened just as the mini-frontal passage occurred, and some of the gliders were able to climb above cloudbase before the start. Others weren't so lucky. On the ground, the wind picked up, and the temperature took a dive.

Robin and Juan were overrun by the stable air and were trapped at home. Phil and Fernando met the same fate on course and came to earth just after making the first turn. Phil landed first. His crew had some trouble hooking up the trailer. Something didn't seem right at first, but they eventually got it attached to the car, and they departed.

Meanwhile, Fernando hung on just long enough to reach his predicted landing spot.

Al and Ryszard, who had a slight head start on the new weather, flew 90 degrees to their courseline in order to get even farther away from it. This tactic worked, and they stayed in the air the longest of all.  They probably got minimum distance.

There were 21 outlandings today, so the scorer doesn't have much to work with. We won't know if the day will be valid in either class until much later.

All but one of our pilots are on the road home now. We promised to keep the light on for Phil, who has stopped along the way to get his trailer tongue welded back together. Maybe that will make it easier to hook up to the car next time.

International night

Juan and Fernando served the burgers.

We had the most popular table, by far.

Wheat loss

It's a long walk from US Base to the grid on Runway 31.  I have to make the trip twice each morning, and I'm lucky to have access to the team bicycle.

Yesterday I stashed the bike by the side of the runway, opposite Juan's pickup truck, where I could find it later. Then, just before the launch, Juan's crew moved his truck, and I spent the next half hour wandering in the wheat wondering how much a bicycle costs in Argentina.

Today we'll be using Runway 18, which is even farther away from base.  I'll be more careful today.

Late to the party

It was relatively easy to get started today. Our gliders were already assembled at their tiedowns, full of water. The only thing easier would have been to tie them out on the grid last night, which probably would have been allowed.

We've had a temporary change of accommodations. Five of us have been staying at a ranch house 5 km north of the field. At the time of our original reservation, we were told that it had been booked by another group for this weekend.  No problem. I am typing this report in a very familiar place, the Hotel Paris cafe, in downtown Chaves. The last time we were here we held morning team meetings over coffee and evening team debriefings (okay, story telling sessions) over beer and pizza.

The day started, yet again, with a weather briefing that featured the possibility of storms.  This time it was airmass thunderstorms, not a squall line, but who's keeping track? Trigger temperature was to be 27 degrees, and if it reached 33, the sky would blow up. The time of first launch was optimistically set at 1100. We have not seen 27 degrees at such an early hour since we've been here.

For the second day in a row the Tasks for the two classes were the same, except for the different start points. This is allegedly done to separate traffic, but as was the case yesterday, the start lines touched each other.  The Tasks were 2-hour AATs, with the first leg into wind.

The grid squat lasted until 1300, and the 15 Meter Class was first to go. Our guys started early, before the Standard Class had finished launching. There was a problem with towplanes, and the Standard Class gate opening was finally set for 1438. With eight minutes to go, their Task was cancelled, for reasons that have not yet been officially stated. Ryszard and Al landed and got their planes into the trailers.

The 15 Meter Class could not be recalled, of course. Juan, Robin, Fernando and Phil fought their way upwind to the first circle, which they barely touched. While they were deciding what to do next, they blew all the way back to Chaves, and the path across the wind to the second Area looked hopelessly blue. All four landed back home, with several others.

The Argentine team took a run at the second Assigned Area and disappeared. At least that's what our friend Sergio Reinaudo said when he came by our camp while we were submitting flight log files.

We assume that they've been located by now, and that crews are on the way. This will definitely delay the "International Night" party this evening.

The scores still aren't posted, so we don't know if we have a valid day. Some have suggested that the Scorer went on a retrieve.

Dud

We knew we were in trouble this morning at Briefing when the met man showed us the sounding. A strong inversion up to 1000 meters AGL would require at least 27 degrees to break through.

The Task Setter gave us 2 hour AATs, which were identical, except for the Start points. The first launch was set for 1330, but nobody took that seriously.

After the first sniffer flight at 1415, the Director cancelled the Standard Class Task. After the second one, a half hour later, the 15 meter Task was also called off.

After putting the gliders away, our crews completed the move to our new base camp, and a few of us went to the beach.

The preliminary outlook for tomorrow is for a hot and windy day. There will be plenty of sunshine. The only question is whether it will get hot enough. Fernando says that it will.

US Base is back on the air

Like a traveling circus, we set up our tents, trailers, motor homes, etc. in exactly the same relative arrangement in our new location, just south of our former location in the arboreal disaster area.

The base station antenna was redeployed on one of the nearby power poles, which we tend to trust more that the trees these days.