This weekend, I competed in my first-ever sailplane competition. The competition was held in Lexington, Kentucky by the Bluegrass Soaring Society. The 2004 Mid-American Soaring Championships was held for the 28th year, this year at beautiful Jacobson Park on the east-side of Lexington.

I’m currently working towards my League of Silent Flight Level II certification, and I need 6 contests to complete that level. The contest spanned both Saturday and Sunday, and I had a plane that could compete in two different levels — both “Unlimited Sportsman” and “RES” (Rudder/Elevator/Spoiler). My first day, Saturday went pretty well for my first contest. I ended up 5th out of 9 in Unlimited Sportsman and 9th out of 16 in RES. Sunday, however, was a different story all together. I was again competing in two classes, and while the clouds were very low early in the morning (around 600 feet), I took my chances and went up for my first RES flight. The flight went pretty well, and I got 6:49 out of 8 minutes for the flight and an 84 out of 100 for my landing points. Then I said “Hey! Let’s shoot for one of my Sportsman class flights!” Feeling all heady with my earlier flight, I brought it back to the line. I plugged the battery in, switched on my transmitter, and with fellow LASS-mate Gordy ready to time me, I sent it up the winch. Pretty good! A little too left, okay now it’s way left, push it back right, okay good! Left again? What the hell? No response! NOOOOOO! It nosed in about 50 yards from the winch, so hard that the nose was in about 6 inches, and the very sturdy fuselage and tail were shattered. One wing was completely snapped in half, and the other sustained minor damage.
I hauled it back to the pits, and after investigating a possible radio-frequency conflict, I figured out the issue was actually with a battery cable. It would seem that a lot of jostling and pulling in and out of this cable caused a weak connection in the wire, as it would cut power at the slightest touch.

But not to fear — I came back with my 2-meter Spirit and finished out the rest of the day (4 flights), managing to get 9:58 out of 10 minutes on both flights and 91 out of 100 on two flights, with the other two being rather unimpressive. Overall, I think I finished DFL in the Sportsman class, but considering I killed one of my planes and got a zero in the first round, not so bad.

So aside from the calamity, I had a blast! Lots of fun. You can see photos of the contest here: 2004 Mid-American Championship gallery at LouisvilleSoaring.org