His and hers trophies came to visit at Caracole last week. (April 23 to May 10, 2009)
Trophy One - The Alby
The Alby Trophy is a bronze statuette of a Lasoyan Albatross that is venturing across the continent by delivery to each easterly glider field by sailplane flights.
April 23 the Alby Trophy moved from Tehachapi to Caracole Soaring via a mountain wave flight. Following a long day of training in an AS-K 21 for four Canadian customers, Cindy Brickner used Christian Mackin’s AS-W 27 ( and the Canadians as crew) to fly the Trophy off the mountain top and into the desert. Her flight allowed the albatross to view the High Sierra with snow cover, see lenticular clouds and have a glimpse of the vastness of the desert crossing yet to come. The girl brought the bird in to roost, briefly!
On May 4, Marty Eiler made a wave flight attempt to try to deliver Alby along to Jean, Nevada. He achieved 20,000 feet MSL just west of California City and intended to travel north to Lone Pine before turning east to cross the Panamint, Black and Nowah Mountains on the way into Nevada. Due to very weak wave conditions, and scarcity of landing places along the route, he chose to return Alby to Caracole to wait for a nicer soaring day.
On May 8, Christian Mackin arrived for his soaring weekend, and was given the task of delivering Alby to Jean. Christian made a valiant attempt, took breathtaking photos of the Sierras and Death Valley, and ended up at the very nice airstrip at Furnace Creek. Cindy departed with the trailer after a full customer-service day, and arrived at Furnace Creek just before midnight. A brief night’s rest at the resort ended at 5:30 a.m. to derig before the sun rose, click some more pictures, and get along the road to have Cindy home for training duties at Caracole by ten am, as she had predicted Friday night. Maybe we will see some of Christian’s Alby photos in Soaring Magazine in the future.
We didn’t wait long to try again.. May 10th Marty departed again with Alby on board. He scratched out past Trona, clawed his way over Telescope Peak, tickled into mountain wave, and used a late thermal to cross into the valley at Jean. Cindy again hitched up and departed after closing the home aerodrome, and hit the I-15, fortunately against weekend LA return traffic. Misti Roland and Jim Staniforth gave Marty a lift to town and fed him dinner, while Cindy closed the gap.
A cell call told Marty that Cindy was minutes from Jean, and she had the glider lined up to feed into the trailer as they returned. A speedy derig had Cindy enjoying dinner at Whiskey Pete’s and hearing about the flight from Marty. Rather than stay a night and play in Las Vegas on Monday, they drove home to tumble into their own bed at 3 a.m.
Feeding the dog, cats and horses were part of the return consideration.
Being part of the Alby Story is fun, but Cindy is glad to have such accomplished delivery pilots, to eliminate the need for more “attempt” retrieves.
See the full Alby story at http://albysvoyage.blogspot.com/index.html.
Trophy Two – The Berle
The Berle Trophy for the 2008/2009 season ended yesterday, April 30th. There were only seven flights logged. Six at a quarter and one at 50 cents, yet the trophy contains no less than $8.71. Only three pilots entered the competition. With stakes that high!
The winning flight was posted on April 22nd, by Marty Eiler, who already had money in the trophy. Marty called Jane to declare the flight, launched out of California City, flew into the start cylinder for the contest, and stayed where the lift was best. The total distance for the Berle Trophy part of his flight (starting in the cylinder) was 635km, which with a 114 handicap gave him 557.2 points.
The closest runner up was Jim Staniforth flying on the same day, a 528k triangle for 480.3 points. Oscar Alonso at least submitted an entry, taking the third place spot with 68 points... On March 28th! I thought that Paul Corbett had made a Berle flight, but there is no comment on the OLC or entry on the Berle Trophy log. His flight would have been 194 points.
The five days starting April 18 saw flights of at least 500k in the area.
- April 18th. Christian Mackin with a remote start at Boomer Ridge, 503k O/R landing IYK.
- April 19th. Marty Eiler with a remote start at Boomer ridge, 512k zig-zag, landing Cal City.
- April 20th. Jim Staniforth with a 537k O/R from Inyokern.
- April 21st. Cindy Brickner with a 526k zig-zag out of Cal City.
- April 22nd. Marty Eiler with a 656k zig-zag out of Cal City.
- April 22nd. Jim Staniforth with a 601k triangle out of Tehachapi.
Please note the "out and return" and "triangle" flights listed are OLC distance, not actual task distance or OLC points. For example 528k declared was 601k OLC.
This was some of the best April weather we've had!
The breakfast awards ceremony for the Berle Trophy took place May 2, with Marty collecting the $8.71 cents payout of accrued entry fees, in a ceremony with Jim Staniforth presiding. Cindy smiles at the score sheet, Pat Russette regrets not getting a flight posted, and Misti Roland offers congrats or condolences as needed.
Click here for the Berle Trophy Origins Story.