Willy Burhen Cup 2010
Fred Hermanspann
October 10 was the last day of the 2010 OLC and thus also concluded the 2010 Willy Burhen Cup, our own low key competition for West side XC flying. This year saw another significant increase in XC flying from Arlington – 18 pilots posted 101 flights for a total of 12,844 handicapped km (compared to 16 pilots with 66 flights and 7, 482 km in 2009). And this does not even include Darrington (9 flights) and Concrete (2 flights). Arlington moved into the no.4 spot in Region 8 (behind Ephrata, Hood River and North Plains) and is now firmly established as a major XC soaring base. Fortunately the newly agreed rules for glider operations in Arlington allow us to continue this kind of activity close to our front doors.
Ron Clark – the WBC winner in 2008 and 2009 – made good use of his “new” LS-3 and achieved the first 400+ km flights entirely on the West side but was surpassed by 2 of our relatively new XC pilots. On May 8 Paul Adriance made an outstanding Out & Return flight to the south side of Mt. Rainier, in one of our lowly L-33s no less, to claim the lead in the WBC 2010 – for one day.
Because on May 9 Dan Housler took his 17.7 m Cirrus all the way to Coeur d’Alene for a distance of 416 km or 258.5 miles. This flight is the best flight yet out of Arlington and secured first place for Dan in the WBC 2010.
2010 Willy Burhen Cup winner Dan Housler (2006 photo in his new-to-him Open Cirrus)
So here is the listing of the best flights of each participating pilot in the WBC 2010. The flights are evaluated according to the OLC Classic rules (handicapped adjusted distance) and only flights with over 100 points are listed.
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Best WBC flights |
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for each pilot |
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2010 |
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name |
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date |
sailplane |
index |
points |
dist.-km |
dist.-mi |
rank |
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Dan Housler |
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9-May |
Cirrus 17.7 |
100 |
418.0 |
416.0 |
258.5 |
1 |
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Paul Adriance |
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8-May |
L-33 |
86 |
401.4 |
346.28 |
215.2 |
2 |
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Ron Clark |
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9-Apr |
LS-3 |
108 |
368.7 |
402.0 |
249.8 |
3 |
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Tony Wiederkehr |
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8-Jun |
ASW-27 |
114 |
326.8 |
378.0 |
235.0 |
4 |
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Fred Hermanspann/ Kathleen McCrary |
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8-Jun |
Chinook |
98 |
325.9 |
327.8 |
203.7 |
5 |
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Brad Hill |
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9-Apr |
Apis 13 |
92 |
304.7 |
294.3 |
182.9 |
6 |
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John Gilbert |
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9-May |
Std. Cirrus |
98 |
300.5 |
301.7 |
187.5 |
7 |
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Brian Hood |
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9-May |
DG0303 |
106 |
273.9 |
298.7 |
185.6 |
8 |
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Dan Teifke |
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9-May |
ASW-19 |
100 |
197.0 |
208.7 |
129.7 |
9 |
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Dave Reusch |
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8-May |
Std. Lib. |
98 |
164.8 |
173.4 |
107.8 |
10 |
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Travis Brown |
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7-May |
Std. Astir |
94 |
160.8 |
156.3 |
97.2 |
11 |
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Noel Wade |
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25-Apr |
DG300 |
106 |
160.7 |
177.3 |
110.2 |
12 |
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It is interesting to note that all listed flights were made in the April to June time span. While some pilots flew the rest of the year at other airports and the annual EAA Fly-in in July made us move temporarily to Darrington, we also had some unusually mediocre weather in August and September, that did not produce any significant XC flying. Whatever we may have learned this year, the WBC 2011 is on now (together with the 2011 OLC), so let’s see whether we can improve on the 2010 results!