Team 200
(Stuck In Lodi)

Bill Chase
Mike Leggett

Team 273

Dean Gradwell
Ron McElliot
Roger Hebner
Jeff Jarvis

Team 424

Jim Rolle
Bruce Moore
Steve Henke

Team 461

Greg Norsworthy
Mike Parlang
Domonic Byani
Tim Copp

Team 647

John Ellias
Rick Shelby
Marquita Ellias

Team 778

Rick Johnston
Doug Edwards
Brian Glover

This year’s Fall Cal Valley XC was a two-day event held on September 29th and 30th. The accommodations were slightly different this year, because no rooms were available at the lodge where we typically stay. There are nearby solar plants under construction, and the workers had reserved all rooms at the lodge. Therefore, some teams elected to stay in Atascadero, and other teams camped at nearby Doug’s ranch. Both accommodations worked out well, and we were still able to stage the racing from the usual location behind the lodge restaurant. The weather for the contest was ideal with temps in the low 90’s and light winds.

While the political controversy rages over the cost to the government for the solar electric generating plants, it was unanimous among the pilots that solar plants were fantastic thermal generators. Sunday’s task took teams over one of the solar arrays and pilots reported huge lift in that area. Let’s see, I think it adds up to about $10,000,000 per thermal!

Saturday’s task called for by Contest Director Ron McElliot was a 36 mile out-and-return flight starting at turnpoint A, heading south to turnpoint H, and finishing back at turnpoint A. Three of the six teams completed the course with Team 461 fastest with an average speed of 15 mph, Team 424 second at 14.6 mph, and team 647 at 11.3 mph. Unfortunately Team “Stuck in Lodi” had an in-flight problem and crashed, knocking them out of the competition.

Sunday’s task was 18.5 mile course that included a stretch over one of the solar plants. Team 647 won the day handily with a speed of 24.9 mph. They actually completed the task twice, with their first run slightly slower. Team 461 finished second with a speed of 20.3 mph and team 273 was third at 19.6 mph. On their first attempt around the course Team 424 had a heartbreaking land-out. They were blazing around the course at record speed, unfortunately they cut their final glide too close, landing out just a few hundred feet short of the finish line. They had to settle for their second run which was much slower. Had they actually finished on their first run, they would have won the day and the entire contest.

In the end team, 461 hung on to finish first overall, team 647 was a close second, and team 424 finished third.