[LASS Soaring] Tullahoma Weekend

[Edwin Wilson]

By now you have heard Lee and I both trophies this past weekend at 
Tullahoma. A few notes you had to be there to see.
First flight for me on Sunday was a first for me. After launch I went 
way out in front looking both right and left found nothing. I had  
decided this was going to be one of those short groups as no one was 
doing anything. All the planes were about the same height. I drifted 
back down the access road hoping for some lift. Jon Stone was over the 
road abreast of the winches hanging in what appeared zero lift. I came 
abreast of Jon just slightly west of his position. The Pic gave me my 
first beep of the flight. Using the rudder on my Evolution I began some 
flat turns to search for the best air. During the next minute and half I 
searched all around for anything. I finally was able to maintain a beep 
from the pic all around the circle not 100 feet from Jon. I was soon 
joined by everybody else as we "saved" the flight.
What made this flight really special was just as I began to core the 
thermal I saw a bird climb out of a tall tree below me. It turned out to 
be a hawk climbing to join me. As the other planes began to join the 
thermal we were joined by no less than 5 other hawks. The original hawk 
I had was now flying opposite my circle in perfect formation. The white 
on the bottom of my plane matching the white underbelly of my hawk.  The 
feathered soarers continued to climb out and soon disappeared as we had 
to come in for our landings. That was a cool flight.

Lee had his own special flight. Last round on Sunday was 12 minutes. Lee 
flying his Spirit 100 went out and did not find any lift on this flight. 
Tom Scully was his timer and coach for this flight. Down to almost 100 
feet Lee was thinking landing. Tom would not let him quit. Lee had found 
a hand launch bubble way out near the main road that just held the plane 
in the air. He hung at the same height for over 2 minutes. Slowly the 
the plane began to rise. Then faster and faster he climbed as the bubble 
broke free. In another minute Lee was the highest plane on the field. A 
great save and lesson learned about being patient. He topped the flight 
off by completing the 12 minute task making a max landing and flying a 
12:01 flight time, winning his group. Not bad for a 11 year old.

You may read what Scott Shaw did the last flight of the day. He got the 
full 12 minutes of the task while the next best flight was about 4:30 
minutes. Tom Scully and I were the benefactors of that crushing flight. 
I had dropped only 11 seconds for the whole day but left some points in 
the landing zone. Scotts flight reshuffled the deck and Tom and I both 
moved up to trophy. Moral is NEVER GIVE UP FLYING MOM! 8-)