2006 Golden State Cross Country Race

The Spring California Valley Cross Country race was held on April 28th and 29th, 2006. With all the late season rain, the valley was filled with wildflowers and unusually green. The California Valley lodge was race headquarters and provided food and lodging for pilots and crews. Most of the eight teams arrived by Friday night and enjoyed a pot luck barbeque.

California Valley is well known by cross country enthusiasts for its strong thermals and long flights. Saturday’s weather however, made it a rough road for the pilots and crews. Saturday morning dawned wet and foggy. The task was a distance day on a prescribed course. It was not until after 10:00am that the fog cleared enough for teams to start launching. It soon became apparent that the lift was not up to the usual California Valley standards. The wind picked up but the lift stayed weak. The winches were given a workout as team after team struggled to gain enough altitude to start out on course. The very weak lift was topping out at around 450’ and given that the first turn-point was directly upwind only Richard Beardsley’s team dared to venture out on course and they got less than two miles from the start line. It was decided to change the course and make the first two turn-points directly downwind. Richard Tiltman managed to make it to the first turn-point 5.4 miles away. A few other teams managed to get two or three miles down the course with Rich Spicer getting 2nd with 3.7 miles. By 4:00pm only Richard Tiltman had made it to the first turn-point so it was decided to call it a “NO CONTEST” day. Both Richard Tiltman and Rich Spicer were flying RnR’s new Cross Country glider the “MXC”. The new design captured 1st and 2nd place on its very first cross country flights. It was a promising debut for the new design.

The weather Sunday morning looked very similar to Saturday, but fortunately the fog burned off about an hour earlier. By 10:00am it was clear the lift was better than the day before, though still not the usual killer California Valley thermals. The task for the day was a speed task with a minimum two hour flight. This time all 8 teams managed to get out on course and fly through multiple turn-points. Richard Beardsely won the day with an average speed of 14.65 mph. Team Broken Aero was a close second with an average speed of 14.5 mph.
Special thanks to Cindy Gervais who came out and helped run the contest even though her husband Mike could not attend. The next California Valley event will be August 26 and 27. The lift that time of year is awesome so be sure to attend!