Labor Day Contest at Cal City by C. Brickner

Cal City has hosted the Region 12 Championships over the course of at least 40 years now. We can’t lay claim to having a 40th annual, since it has occasionally migrated to alternate venues, most recently Inyokern twice and Tonopah once. Other occasions saw Region 12 occur in Bishop, Barstow and El Mirage.

This year, it “wasn’t even a Regional”, even though the entire Region was invited. Why not? Ramp construction began on July 28 at L71. Agreement for main runway gridding was achieved on Aug. 11. The first CD was reassigned for work related travel. With notice to pilots that Caracole couldn’t guarantee a wet contest, and that things would be “different”, pilots started turning away.

It was their loss. We had the nicest weather, and an airport nearly to ourselves, due to
the construction NOTAMs and no transient traffic. The pilots who had the manners to
RSVP were advised that we would try for water, and make sure we had FUN. All goals were met. Entry was to pay for tows plus a $25 contest/day fee. That got scoring, daily prizes, afternoon munchies, and the second towplane . Due to the wide range of performance and experience, we opted to handicap and fly Sports Class for all.

MAT tasks allow beginners to fly to as many sequenced turns as they wish, cut for home after any turns, or complete the listed turns and tack on more turns(in any order) to meet the minimum time. This allows various skill levels to compete on an assigned stretch, test their skills, but not require a landout or pushing into uncomfortable terrain. We blended this with the Turn Area Task (for a scoring mess) to allow even more flexibility.

Day One was two hour MAT, with a TAT last turn. L71, Fox, Kern Valley, Cinder Cone, Intersection 14/178, Searles Intersection (15 mi rad.) and home for 232 st. miles. Six pilots flew, Eiler for 1st at 182 mi. and 72 mph, Payne at 184 mi. and 72 mph, and Rogers at 184 mi. and 57 mph. The only landout of the five days was Navarre coming home and using Honda Entrance Road safely.

Day Two was two point five hour MAT. L71, Neuralia Ints., Barstow RR Yard (20 mi radius), Red Mtn., IYK, Kelso and home for 158 to 183 miles. Payne flew 168 mi. at 67 mph. Other daily pilots in order were Eiler, Barry, Navarre, Rogers, Iten, Miralles and Malolepszy. Miralles and Larry Jolly in the Grob 103 mis-set units in a PDA and were short of turn 2, getting credit for only 46 miles of the 90 they flew.

Day Three was 2.5 hour MAT. L71, Rosamond, Lloyds, Neuralia, Goler Wash and home for 100 miles. Thermals were expected to 9k, and light east winds. Clerx went 143 mi. at 57 mph for first, followed by Payne 173/69mph, Rogers 160/54mph, Eiler, and Iten.

Day Four was three hour MAT. L71, Radar Site, Fox, Mojave, Borax, Smgglers and home for 155 mi. Most pilots stretched the end for miles to meet minimum time. Clerx got 1000 pts for his 183 mi at 59 mph. The sequence was Payne 225/69 mph, Romer/Easton 184/59 mph, Iten 166/54 mph, Miralles (Discus B) 168/53 mph, Eiler, Malolepszy.

Day Five and we were still launching east in cool air, a record in present day memory.
The MAT and 3 hour task was L71, Neuralia, Rosamond, Tehachapi, Goler Wash, home for 126 miles. Paynes made 203/67 mph, Iten 149/49 mph, Eiler 153/51 mph, Brickner/Blue 128/42 mph, Malolepszy 150 mi/50mph but missed turn 2.

The people who made this event possible as personnel were: Bill Elliott, scorekeeper; Frank Donnelly and Derek Lisoski towpilots, Cindy Brickner, tasks/operations; launch helpers Krista Keizer, Alan Keizer, Marci Blue, Jackie Payne, Bruce Markovich, Bill Elliott, Elias Wagner, Paul Trist. Sniffers: Ron Desilets, Jim Skydell, Fred Niewenhuijs. Hor d’oerves: Dave Romer, Marci Blue.
Thank you to the pilots who participated in a learning, teaching, training, contest environment. We never issued a Band-Aid in five days. You missed some fun!