This article by Bree Luciani, Sharon Glennister, Mick Hogan, David Flitton and Sue Alt was first published in the Australian Gliding magazine, August 1994.
Our club, the Wimmera Soaring Club has a small problem. Every February we run a very successful gliding competition called Horsham Week. That's not the problem. The problem is that, no one writes a report on the week for AG. Actually there were two reports in AG on last year's competition that were written by visitors to the club. There have even been reports in other club newsletters.
In this report we will not worry about a list of tasks, weather details and daily and overall competition winners. After ail, we are a bit late. Instead we will relate some of the highlights of the week.
On the first day the club's recently acquired, new to us, Janus C flew its first major cross country in the hands of WSC pilots. It was rumoured that FQT jumped the start line for open class. this was however hotly disputed by Michael Hogan who quoted an article from the front page of the Wimmera Mail Times which showed Ken Sheldon saying "FQT GOOD START".
Many commentators asked how much it cost Mick for that article in the local paper - which was ruled as invalid by the judges.
Day 2 dawned on last nights predictions by the Met Man and his dad, The Ops Director, of really huge big tasks. An extra early-dawn-briefing was called. Tasks were set, and the grid assembled.
Many pilots' eyes were looking anxiously westward as the only gap in the scud narrowed. Then the air ambulance requested that the runway be cleared and the displaced threshold cancelled.
It was fantastic how fast the gliders were removed from the strip on such short notice, as the air ambulance was coming in. About 45 gliders were off the strip in 3 minutes. It was a good effort by everyone there.
After waiting approximately 45 minutes for the air ambulance to depart before commencing the launch, the gap in the 'scud' had completely disappeared. Conditions were overcast with occasional showers and totally unsuitable. A collective sigh of relief greeted Ops Director, Max Hedt, announcing the cancellation of the day.
The closest duel during the week was between the weather and the Met Man, Rolf Hedt. It is reported that the weather may have won by a narrow margin.
It was disappointing that only four out of eight days were flyable. The Met Man did have an interesting technique of accurately predicting the wind direction forecast all four directions for the same day, and then not taking his own advice and outlanding on a sniffer flight. Congratulations on the winning the "Turkey Trophy" for '94 for this effort Rolf.
THE GODS WERE NOT PLEASED!!!! - at least not the ones from GCV Benalla. Max and Rolf confused even the Gods with the weather predictions and as a result were sentenced to drink the traditional hemlock (a modified brew consisting of 11 secret herbs and spices including heaps of coffee and tea as well as disprin) - and Rolf even flew the day. It was interesting to see how Max and Rolf apportioned the blame.
Visiting pilots were impressed with our local version of trial by video. A Photovix machine that displays turnpoint photos on a television screen, makes turn point verification a very public and easy to complete process. The films can be recorded on video and replayed for the benefit or embarrassment of the pilot.
It was good to see some new faces at the contest, and a total of 50 gliders present. The ASH 25 motor glider must nearly rate as the greatest wing-span aircraft to fly out of Horsham. On the last day after almost all of sports class had returned to the airfield and the sniffer outlanded, as mentioned above, the ASH took a normal launch, contacted wave off the Grampians and flew to Port Fairy and back, via 18,000 feet - on a no contest day, not using the engine! (Where did we go wrong?)
Well for those who wish to know, the overall winners were:
Open class: Darcy Hogan GCV
Racing: Gary Pearce GCV
Standard: Jack Hart Beaufort
Sports: Brian Wood Grampians
We will try again next Year. See You there from Saturday 4 to Saturday 11 February 1995.