Competition
Morningside was celebrating its 40th anniversary on Columbus day weekend. Plenty of activities were planned including some friendly competitions. I am not into competition much, but I decided to give it a try. The first one was a spot landing competition, and one can always use more spot landing practice. Another part of the competition included a "bomb" drop. I signed up for that as well.
On Saturday, I got one flight off 450 just to practice. Then there was a Plaque Dedication ceremony (more photos from the event -> Columbus Day Weekend at Morningside)
And then the competition started... Spot landing got combined with a bomb drop competition. And to make things go faster, or make it harder, not sure which, we had to do it all from 250 foot launch. Basically - launch off 250', drop a "bomb" on some spot marked at 150' launch (a bomb is a small toy with a competitor's number on it) , proceed to the LZ and land in the bullseye... on your feet. Easy... not. It actually looked pretty intimidating to me as there was not much altitude for any variation.
On my first attempt (we got 2 tries total) I turned toward 150 launch as soon as I was in the air. I ended up with probably 20-30' over the target. Dropped the bomb, but it didn't go anywhere close to the spot. No points. I didn't get any points on my spot landing either. I got too fixated on landing in the bullseye, and flared early, overshot the spot anyway, and whacked. No points.
When I got up for my second attempt, I figured, I would turn slightly away from the target first, to drop the altitude to a more manageable level where I can almost put my "bomb" into the bucket. That "almost" almost worked, except that I undershot. That wouldn't be a problem if I abandoned the bomb drop and just went on with a safe turn. But I got completely fixated on the goal. I was going to make that target, dammit! Common sense won eventually, but almost when it was too late. I was four feet off the ground when I finally threw the bomb in the general direction of the target, and initiated a turn.
The apex of the turn was just a few feet off the target. The only thing that saved me was... luck, and the fact that the target was placed close to the slope. When I turned, I got a bit more ground clearance, but my left wing was scrapping the hill. It touched the ground twice and I was totally in "I am about to cartwheel" mode. Luckily, it didn't happen. I proceeded to put more space between me and terraferma as slope was dropping away from me.
After that I was in total "just don't make it worse" mode. No spot landing - just land it safely. Since I didn't have much altitude to play with, I didn't make enough of a turn to get close to the bullseye. Rather opposite, I was landing close to all the parked gliders. I recalled all my motorcycling training - you go where you look - I was looking away from all those gliders. I didn't flare much, just ran my landing out, and was, to the last moment, concentrating to run away from the parked gliders. Amazingly, it worked. I didn't make things worse. I think, the bag with my luck just got a bit lighter... not sure if the bag with my skill got heavier, but one can hope... At least, my caution/awareness level increased - competition became secondary.
The competition continued on Sunday. The longest glide. Again, we launched from 250, had to cross the road, fly above a marker on the other side, turn down the runway, and glide along the runway as far as possible. The conditions were variable, and I could see people making questionable decisions after hitting some sink, and barely making it across the road. When I launched, I could see that my glide was not long enough to make the first turn. I abandoned the run and practiced a spot landing instead. I should have done the same on Saturday...
Here is a video of my target fixated bomb drop. Watch the glider shake a couple of times after I clear the target.... that is my left wing touching the ground.
Party
Saturday night there was a party in celebration of Morningside 40th anniversary. Rob and Sandy Jacobs organized the whole thing. They built a "coliseum" (it's on the left in the photo below)
they brought catering, music band, and finished the night with very impressive fireworks. I think, that was the best firework display I have seen.
I am not much into partying, but I had a lot of fun taking photos of everyone having fun :-) My new camera with a very fast lens performed well considering I didn't use flash, and lights in the coliseum were very dim.
Here is a couple of videos taken by the same camera:
A night to remember!
Here is an article posted on Morningside website -> http://flymorningside.kittyhawk.com/events/40th-anniversary-celebration/
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