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2008 Soarfari Events Record: Inyokern May 2,3,4 The first-hand report is that the flying was excellent all the days we were there, with flights way up North in the Whites and South to Kelso Valley and the Honda Track! Pilots Who Came: Stan Foat, Rick Leffingwell, Paul Robinson, Bob Nyman, John Medley, Kevin Nick, Bill McClellan, Russ Barry Bishop June 30-July 5 - Honcho Rob Morgan Bishop used the Aero One (Rod) towplane Pilots who signed up include: Rick Barber, Wayne Walker, Bob Nyman, Mark Mahan, Paul Robinson, Rob Morgan, John Downing, Bill McClellan, Larry Forqueran, John Medley was also in Bishop that week with family but without sailplane! Hopefully someone will supply a report for the week!!! Hint, hint. Tonopah August 3-9 - Honcho Russ Barry Due to lack of sufficient interest Tonopah Soarfari event was CANCELLED ONLY ABOUT HALF OF THE NEEDED PILOTS EXPRESSED INTEREST. Lone Pine Aug 29- Sept 1 - Honcho Doug Levy Lone Pine Event was fully subscribed with 12 pilots Tow Plane provided by Dan Kline from Sierra Soaring at Inyokern. He ferried in from Inyokern each day but it was still less expensive than paying for his hotel and all his food for the weekend. At Lone Pine the contest-like rotating grid launch order was used and seemed to help keep everyone from rushing out to the runway for unreasonable waiting before launch, just to get a good launch position. That worked on Friday and Saturday. Sunday was not flown by most pilots so the order did not matter. Friday was a great day and everyone had good flights. Saturday was another good day. Sunday dawned with strong wave apparent early in the morning on the Sierra side. Paul Robinson flew in extremely strong Sierra wave all day. John Medley and Bob Nyman opted for the Inyos (secondary wave and rotor), which was good for sustained flight but a dust storm traveling southward in the valley from Bishop caused them to land early ahead of it in order to be tied down before it got there. It ended up stalling around Independence and safe Lone Pine landings would have remained viable through to sunset. A call from Dan Kline Sunday night indicated that he had a broken wheel damper on his towplane and would be unavailable for towing on Monday. Monday dawned with strong winds out of the North and would have been a blown out day anyway, so things worked out OK on the towplane. Pilots who attended: Doug Levy, Paul Robinson, John Medley, Dan Fitzgerald, Larry Forqueran, Stan Foat, Rick Leffingwell, Dan Gonzales, Carl Czech, Mike Ziaskas, Bob Nyman, Scott Lance |