PASS 2002 Bend Contest Report and Results

The Annual PASS XC race was held in Bend, on July 13,14, a two day event. At least that was the plan. Plans change.

We scheduled the date way back in Oct. at the annual CD meeting. I mean, after all, what ever happens in Bend the second weekend in July. The answer is nothing in particular, because “everybody” knows that the Sisters quilt show is that weekend and all the hotels will be filled up! At least that’s what we found out when we did the reconnaissance a few weeks before the contest.

This revelation resulted in a mad scramble to get housing for the teams. Don Pezsnecker and his team Oh Yeah) luxuriated in the home of Greg Munster, whose hospitality we all enjoyed for the Saturday morning pilot’s meeting. Dean Gradwell (Team SOSS) ended up renting a condo in Sun River. I had already arranged with a friend to rent his house in Sun River which was shared by both Team XCellence and Matt Brady’s team (Viagra). Other teams that had proposed to come either couldn’t find lodging or had other commitments come up (we’ll get you next year Beardsley).

We were fortunate to have Joe and Chris Barry from the Bend Amateur Radio Club to provide communication support for the contest. I had invited the radio club to come out and watch and be a communication backup for the contest. Chris stayed at the start and Joe leap-frogged the lead team to keep the base aware of the teams’ progress. I also hoped that the scoring on Sunday could be accelerated by relaying back the team distances before they actually got back to the start. Joe also helped drive Bob and Mike around during the reconnaissance trip. Joe and Chris did a great job. It really was out in the middle of nowhere and we appreciate their efforts very much.

So we started the race with 4 teams. The site was highway 20 east of Bend. See the picture below:

We launched along the dirt road on the right, the start point was the corner of the road, slightly left of center. We use the road mile markers to determine the distances flown.

The goal was straight out distance, longest flight on each day, summed for both days, longest distan

We started out shortly after 10 AM. Don Pezsnecker was first up and out on course but came back quickly, without logging any distance. His newly installed rudder gyro was cross-controlled or otherwise interfering with control of his glider. Mike and Team XCellence discovered, while assembling their plane, that the vario had been damaged in transit, so they were flying deaf, so to speak. They headed off next, down the road without the vario. Dean and his team were in great form and got out on course shortly after Mike. Matt was a little short handed on his team. Chris Rankin from the Bend club was pressed into service to be the driver for Matt and Alex Kain. They got out on course next while Don tinkered with his plane. As the day progressed the wind shifted to the south and Don, was forced to launch downwind. During one launch something went wrong and his plane was damaged beyond easy repair. One team down, three to go.

Mike was struggling along without the vario but managed to get 19 miles down the road before getting too low to recover. The plane was landed without damage.

Dean was several miles behind, sure that Mike was going to get a 100K pin without a vario and so pressed on in some uncomfortable circumstances (more about that later). He didn’t realize that Mike had passed him heading back to the start, when Dean was at about 15 miles. He kept flying on, a distance of 44.7 miles! Never saw Mike and figured he’d (Mike) really gone some distance.

Matt and team were moving out well and as the wind shifted to the south, found themselves drifting far north of the road with each new thermal. While trying to get back to the course they got low and landed the plane some distance away. Quite a hike really, off across the desert, past snakes and SCORPIONS! (Ask Bob about the SCORPIONS!) Before starting the hike Alex set the transmitter down at the edge of the cleared roadside, well away from the road, just as a reference point for sighting, in case they didn’t find the plane immediately. But they found the plane, after the long hike, undamaged. Made it back to the Jeep and packed everything up to go back to the start. Well, almost everything.

Matt and his team had made it past the Brothers rest stop about 11 miles for a total distance of 35.1 miles. They came all the way back to the rest stop before realizing they’d left the transmitter by the side of the road! Do I hear a Putz award here? By that time Joe had gathered with them and offered to drive Chris Rankin back to look for the transmitter. From previous experience we know that Matt’s Jeep has a limited forward speed and it was thought that Joe could get there and back before Matt’s Jeep could even get there. Also there’s the concern of the gas mileage (or lack thereof) for the Jeep. (Ask Matt about the last time he drove that road!) Why they sent Chris and not Alex has not been quite explained.

So Chris and Joe go back. Chris searches in the desert for over an hour. Matt and Alex realize there must be some difficulty and drive back to the landing site, walk immediately to the transmitter. I’m surprised Chris didn’t kill them. Definitely a Putz award here.

After Dean came back from his run, he expressed concern about the course. Mike had run the course 2 years ago as a single car along the highway. Not too bad for just one car. In the contest there were several more chase vehicles stretched out over several miles. This was not well received by the regular traffic. There was some horn honking. In addition while the traffic was not too heavy but there were many 18-wheelers and motor-homes. In one case, at a particularly narrow section, one each came from opposite directions while Dean was parked on the narrow shoulder. Fortunately there was no accident. Dean and his team was shaken and felt real uncomfortable. Who could blame them? After landing and discussing the options Dean’s team chose not to do another run on the course. Two teams down. Not much of a contest with just 2 teams remaining.

As the contest director, I felt that the concern was valid with regards to the course safety. Rather than take any chances with problems the following day, the Sunday task was cancelled.

So the contest was scored with the distances from Saturday and the places are:

Congratulations to Dean and his team for a great flight.  We all agreed the area has potential but changes need to be made to the course.  I have begun to look in the area east of La Pine for less traveled roads and launch sites.  Next year we’ll try some other weekend.  It should be a little quieter and far easier to get a room.

Other notes on the weekend

Both Friday and Saturday evenings were spent “hanger flying” and sharing great food.  Even with all the interesting aspects of the contest, the best part was the time spent with the pilots and teams.  We discovered that many of us had been in the same contests years ago (like 1972!) but with changes (minor, of course) in our appearances we didn’t recognize each other.  Several of us had worked for the same model companies at different time in the 70’s!  Very small world, marvelous time was had by all. We will do this again.  Keep in touch.