Goal Strike VIII

Picture yourself wearing a bright purple T shirt, sitting in the cockpit of a 1-26, cruising along under puffy white cloud streets at 12,000 feet, soaring for miles over the rugged mountains and the vast deserts of Nevada and California. It happened to a few lucky pilots this June.

Fifteen 1-26s (and one 1-23) gathered at the Jean, Nevada airport for Goal Strike VIII. This annual event, hosted by the Las Vegas Valley Soaring Association, is the brainchild of Del Blomquist .

Pilots and crews from as far away as Texas and Hawaii showed up seeking goals and sweepstakes miles and to indulge in that special camaraderie which 1-26ers enjoy.

	PILOTS	STARs*
019	Merle Clements	Mike McNulty
024	Garry Dickson	Brian Dickson
		Mike Farmer
026	Harry Baldwin	Zeke Mazur
144	Del Blomquist	Bill Lathrope
157	Kevin Ford	Bob Matheny
		Del Blomquist
		Bill Lathorpe
198	George Powell	Tom Lohrey
		David Torres
242	Curt Laumann	Carl Laumann
244	Bob VonHellens	Mike McNulty
277	Al Gough	Ralph Biesineyer
317	Doug Levy	Mike Longwell
366	Marvin Walker	Wayne Walker
	Wayne Walker	Marvm Walker
378	Mark Rosen	Jim Zapata
	Jim Zapata	Marc Rosen
382	Bob Hurni	David Torres
		Judy & Bill Schmitt
446	Vince Felgar	Ralph Biesineyer
460	Rich Gillock	Stephanie Campbell
4M (1-23)	Mike McNulty	Merle Clements
		* Sociable, Tenacious, Aircraft Retriever

MARCHING ORDERS
Our esteemed leader, in true Bos'n Mate fashion, opened the proceedings by passing the word that frowners would not be tolerated and that only smilers were welcome at Goal Strike. Because a 1-23 looks a lot like a 1-26 and this was the bird that Paul Bickle once owned, Del waived the" 1-26s only" rule and allowed Mike McNulty to join in the fun (but not until he became a duespaying member of the 1-26 Association).

UNIFORM OF THE DAY
Del then passed out the purple T shirts. Each year he carefully keeps the color a secret until the first pilot's meeting. He explained that this year's color was chosen to inspire greatness. Our shirts matched the purple paint on #026, the famous 1-26 in which Harry Baldwin won all those championships.

THE WEATHER
Strong southerly winds prevailed during the first few days of the meet. Gusty winds and high cirrus clouds made it difficult to escape the valley. R & R trips to Las Vegas were not uncommon.

Wednesday a cold front passed through. Thursday the wind blew from the north and crisp looking cu's with flat bases from 12 to 14 thousand feet began building over the Spring mountains. By Friday well organized cloudstreets formed up and down the valleys. Altitudes as high as 15,000' were reported.

BADGES
Although hundreds of sweepstakes miles were flown, and gold altitude gains were routine, only one FAI badge is known to have been claimed.

Doug Levy, aka "Hangman", because of his previous hang-gliding experience, flew 85 miles from Jean to the Jackass airport on the first day and 111 miles to the Beatty airport on on the second. On Thursday he flew a 105 mile dog leg to Jackass and on Friday made his first Off-field landing in a real glider at a lot used for tractor pulls. On Saturday he flew 118 miles toward Warner Springs, landing at the 29 Palms, CA airport. Doug hasn't decided which flight he will use to claim his silver distance. Doug is a welcome addition to the 1-26 community. He bought #317 from Carl Bergner last summer and is proving to be a hard-charging 1-26er with a great sense of humor.

FUN FLIGHTS
Not all pilot reports were available at press time. However, here is a summary of some of the fun flights made during Goal Strike known to your editor:

Merle Clements achieved the unique goal of "Making the Off-field Landing Nearest to the Pioneer Saloon." On Thursday, he conveniently landed "Merlybird" on a road within walkng distance of the saloon, thus beating everyone else to Goal Striker's favorite watering hole. All available pilots and crews immediately raced to Goodsprings to make sure Merle was OK - but were too late.

Garry Dickson flew six Sweepstakes flights in "Two by Four':

Date	Miles	Type
6-1	85	straight out
6-2	115	dog leg
6-3	95	straight out
6-5	120	dog leg
6-6	195	dog leg
6-7	153	dog leg
Total:	763 miles.

Garry's favorite flight was the 5 hour flight toward home on Saturday. Garry and your editor dodged rain squalls over Kelso, made amazing low saves directly over the wind sock at Amboy and flew into the teeth of a stiff headwind to land at the Yucca Valley @rt 130 miles southwest of Jean as the crow flies (153 miles with tumpoints). Unfortunately, Garry did not achieve his most challenging goal, which was to teach George how to fly diamond distance in a 1-26. Better luck next year, Garry!

Harry Baldwin is attempting to achieve the most challenging goal of all: Harry wants to earn all three diamonds in a single flight in #026. This year the weather didn't cooperate, and the purple shirt wouldn't cast its spell. However, 1-26ers never give up, and if he doesn't pull it off in the Owens Valley this year, he will be back next year for another try.

Del Blomquist achieved his goal, which was simply to "Have fun." In addition to perfoming the duties of Master of Ceremonies, CD and Master at Arms, Del flew six sorties, three of which qualified as Sweepstakes flights (91, 138, and 171 miles).

Kevin Ford repeatedly won the coveted "Captain MonkW' award for making the longest flight of the day. Here is his report:

"Although I didn't achieve my goal of a 5OOkm flight, I had a terrific time at my first Goal Strike.

Flight summaries:

Date	Miles	Type
6-2	115.1	dog-leg
6-3	166.8	straight out
6-5	90.8	triangle
6-6	219.3	quadrangle
6-7	238.2	dog-leg
Total:	830.2miles

Personal bests.-

1. Straight-out distance: 223.5 miles.
2. Closed course distance: 219.3 miles.

Off-field landings:
June 3: Landed in a turnout on Highway 95 south of Goldfield. It's the first time I've had to deal with moving obstacles :-)
June 7: Landed at a farm about 2 miles south of Hadley. The farmer offered to auto-launch me so I could get back, but I declined. It was raining and getting dark.

Most awesome experience:
Climbing 2500 feet above cloudbase in cumulus wave north of Nipton.

On June 5, after scratching out of a 1000'agl hole over the dry lake south of Wiskey Pete's, I connected with a solid thermal over the eastern foothills and went to cloudbase. Punching upwind of the cloud the vario continued reading up, and increased to 4 knots half a mile from the cloud. I "S" turned in front of the cloud and pretty soon was looking down at the TOP of the cloud. My GPS indicated a sharp increase in wind speed near cloudbase which was the likely cause. The reward was a spectacular view of a landscape of clouds and distant thunderstorms. I've heard many stories about this phenomenon, but this was my first experience."

George Powell made his obligatory Goodsprings landing on Sunday when he landed "Hawkeye"on the highway three miles west of Jean, narrowly missing two moving vehicles and a stationary road sign. Thursday, George landed Hawkeye on a freshly paved section of the Blue Diamond Highway between Las Vegas and Panimp. A Nevada State Trooper arrived and ordered him to "Get that aircraft off the road, immediately." To expedite this request, George talked the officer into hooking a tow rope from his patrol car to the glider. Just then Hawkeye's crew, David Torres, zoomed past the scene, trailer in tow, without seeing the glider. Unable to flag down his crew, George suggested that the officer go chase him down. The officer jumped into his patrol car, turned on the flashing lights and hit the throttle, George pulled the release -just in the nick of time - thus avoiding a potentially embarrassing unscheduled auto launch. Upon being pulled over, David was greatly relieved to learn he was not getting a ticket but that: "Hawkeye is back there."

Bob VonHellens, like Harry Baldwin, had visions of sugar plums dancing in his head and entertained dreams of earning all three diamonds in his beautiful 1-26. Unfortunately, Bob had to return to Phoenix just as the good soaring conditions arrived.

Al Gough flew his newly acquired 1-26 on several important missions, one of which ended up on the dry lake adjacent to the famous Cherry Patch brothel and museum. Al also faithfully performed his LVVSA duties as tow pilot, instructor, safety briefer and weatherman.

Marc Rosen normally guides a 25 meter ASW 17 called the Iwa Bird (previously Mike Eaton's "Big Turke.V') over the island of Oahu. He teamed up with Jim Zapata to form a dynamic duo dubbed "Team Snowflake." Here is Marc's report to his glider buddies in Hawaii:

"What a blast.. Eight continuous days of excellent stick and rudder time, reading new charts, navigation by GPS, looping to notch the barograph, a couple of easy landouts, and making my goal of piloting a 1-26 further than I'm able to take the Iwa Bird on Oahu.

"It's pretty inspirational to actually meet and see the guys with iron balls and paper gliders cover a couple of hundred miles per day. "

Marc's two landouts were made at airports: Sandy Valley, NV (17 mi.) and Searchlight, NV (33 mi.). The distance Marc flew to Searchlight exceeds the maximum width of his home island of Oahu.

Jim Zapata made Sweepstakes flights, flew double tows, piloted tow planes, took folks for glider rides, rode the roller coaster at Buffalo Bill's and crewed for Marc Rosen. On Friday, he made his most spectacular flight by navigating "Snowflake" southwest from Jean over a circuitous 200+ mile course to within 8 miles of home base, Warner Springs. (See story in July/August Newsletter)

Bob Hurni landed on the dry take next to Whiskey Pete's casino on his first flight and ended up hitching a ride back to Jean with "Peg Leg Pete." The story ofBob's bizaffe retrieve appears on page 8 in the July/August Newsletter. In addition to his attempts to make friends with the natives, Bob completed three Sweepstakes flights. The longest was a 208 mile flight north from Jean to Lida Junction and south to Beatty.

AWARDS
Kevin Ford, Garry Dickson and Doug Levy passed the treasured "Captain Monkey" award for the Longest Flight of the Day back and forth among themselves during the week. Merle Clements, Marc Rosen and George Powell took turns winning (?) the "Downed Duckling." - awarded to the pilot who makes the Off-Field Landing Closest to the Airport.

The award for the "Pilot Who Traveled the Longest Distance to Attend Goal Strike" goes to Marc Rosen, who came all the way from Hawaii. Kevin Ford trailered #157 the longest distance: from Austin, Texas. The "Most Dedicated Crew" award goes to Mike Farmer who flew all the way from Houston, Texas to help crew for Garry Dickson.

THANKS TO OUR HOSTS
Many thanks to the hard-working members of the LVVSA for making Goal Strike VIII possible. To President Shad Dvorchak and your club, we extend our thanks for your hospitality and for allowing us to fly with you. Please give a big pat on the back to the following members who made it happen: Ralph Biesemeyer, Al Gough, Greg Carlson, Chuck Holden, Jim Dingess, "Zink" Zinkowski, Patrick Back, and all the others who extended helping hands and made us feel welcome.

See you next year!
"Hawkeye"
(#198)