Region 6 Grid - CCSC is a wonderful site and easily accomodated the 45 sailplanes that were involved in the contest. This is all flat-land thermal flying - and the five difficult days resulted in a number of landouts, but there was no damage to any sailplanes or pilots ... other then bruised egos.

Region 6 Pilots Meeting - Every contest day starts with a pilot's meeting ... the R6 Meetings were held on a covered deck outside the CCSC clubhouse. Andy McQuig was the Contest Director ... Andy unfortunately has arthritis in his hands and tends to walk with his fingers/hands held straight and immobile ... being the sensitive guys we are, we gave him the nickname of "The Penguin".

Here is Andy with his "Lovely Assistant" ... I don't remember her name, unfortunately ... she did a wonderful job of distributing daily task sheets and distracting pilots on the grid - acting as a foil to Andy's running - and funny - monologue ... "No touching my lovely assistant, please."

The PGC Breakfast Club - We started consuming these 12" chocolate covered donuts for breakfast - something of a local treat - they did wonders for our wingloading. As you can see, Jack was our crew chief and provided wonderful support for the duration of the contest.

Shots of the gang ... I think these were taken on the last few contest days. Overall it was a good meet with five flying days ... we had some excellent days, and flew on others that seemed to have no chance at the morning pilot's meeting. CCSC is a great place to go for your first contest because of the flat geography and numerous airports.

2008 Region 1 Contest - Chip (KK) and his family headed up to Sugarbush Airport in Vermont to compete in the R1 meet. R1 is one of my favorite contest locations - but it is technically challenging. Also, I have always had good weather - unfortunately, even with a 'lucky' rainbow, Chip did not have the same experience this time.

This is a nice shot of the R1 Grid looking off to the northeast. The ridge in the background has to be cleared to get home from the north - a typical tasking direction. This can result in a white knuckle final glide - but if you clear the top (or even sneak through one of those notches) you are home free.

Chip helps Juan Mandelbaum (front) retrieve his ship from a field. BTW, Juan is the filmmaker who produced "A Fine Week of Soaring" - I guess he wasn't talking about this contest. R1 was a brutally tough and costly contest this year - one ship was destroyed landing in the trees - fortunately, the pilot was unhurt. Another landed in a lake - but suffered no damage - and were soon flying again.

Eight PGC XC pilots competed in the Guv Cup during the 2008 season - scoring on 16 sorties covering ~ 2,000 cross-country miles. PGC scored 11K points putting it in second place - with BSA close behind with 9K points. GC activity was down in ACA and PGC this year- WX and general life issues seemed to impact participation this season. However, true to form, Norm completed the GC six times this year. Norm Price and Pam Cavanaugh also deserve a special notation as they completed the GC in a Grob 103. BTW, the GC is perfect preparation for a Regional contest - if you know how to fly a GC, you are ready for a regionals.

PGC pilots also participated in the OLC during the 2008 season. PGC pilots posted 23 flights during the 2008 OLC open period - somewhat lower then 2007 totals. (Some of us missed the opportunity to post contest flights - OLC has that Draconian weekly cutoff on Monday - we'll have to watch this next season.)