ECC Review

So the jury is in and the comp is complete and overall I am very happy with the results but wish the conditions had been better. For the second year the conditions were light and this year the tasks were even shorter than last. I would have loved to fly longer each day with fewer blue days and more clouds to work with. I was with open class gliders on the first day and that helped alot to follow and see where they were stopping to turn, or in some cases not finding lift and sinking out, but it seemed most days I was out on my own searching and hoping to run into some lift.
Pictures as promised from the top are: awards banquet and most of the sport class pilots, Teddy, around the bonfire after hours, JD, what the world looked like in the AM with a Margarita haze , the line up and an awesome sky, early morning balloon rides, Roger and Tom at the pilots meeting, Frutiger concentrating on setting the task in his Flytec vario, the meet director David Glover and weather guru Davis Straub, Jim Kolynich setting up, watching a gaggle scratch at 600' had everyones attention, and Ron's domicile for the week with the pilots lounge behind.
The facility is great with lounge, game room, hanger/movie theater, a full kitchen for open use, breakfast and lunch brought in daily for sale from a cullinary school, 4 tugs towing, skydiving and balloon rides available and the greatest group of local pilots around. On the non-flyable days there is plenty to do including tax free shopping in near by Delaware, fishing in the Chesapeak or Atlantic the Capital an hour and a half away and of course the sea food. If you have never spent a couple hours crackin' crabs for lunch or dinner you should give it a try.
I made a few mistakes and never won a day but dispite a lot of confusion the first day and flying by the goal and having to work back up wind to get back to it I was consistant enough to gain the lead on the 4th day and the conditions made it easy to hold it on the last. Roger and Brian were great fun to fly with and hopefully they will be back next year to try

and take it back from me on much longer flights and harder tasks, but one thing is for sure I will go back and fly at the ECC next year. Great fun.
5 flights: 2.5hrs, 42km