1. Contest results can be found by clicking here. The team of Ginny Farnsworth and Rick Indrebo won the overall contest. Peter Deane, a perennial high finisher in our past annual contests, placed second. And Dave Greenhill placed third. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE COMPETITORS WHO TOOK PART AND WE HOPE TO SEE ALL OF YOU AGAIN NEXT YEAR. THANKS FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION.

2. It truly was a great week. The soaring was excellent every day of the contest and everyone enjoyed the competition. It's nice when the gliders all get high and the thermals are strong each day. It was indeed one of those Chamber of Commerce days for the Avenal Contest. Let's hope that next year is even better.

3. I don't have a lot to report about the contest since I didn't cover it in detail. I was busy with demo rides and instructional flights for Friday and Saturday. I didn't participate in Sunday's contest day but it went well for all. For more detail see the contest results.

4. George Powell, once an active member of our club, came out on Saturday and we flew together for the first time in a few years. When George was active, he had earned his commercial glider rating add-on and did well enough to earn his Bronze Badge. But other priorities and a more comfortable life in Baja California, Mexico, took him away from the soaring scene. He still spends most of the year in Baja and so his great flight today may not be enough to bring him back to soaring in a more active sense. But one never knows. Our flight lasted about one and a half hours, and topped 6200 msl. He agreed it was surely worth the effort to revisit Avenal again. And each time we snagged an 8 knot thermal, I could tell he was smiling as we gained altitude in a hurry.

5. My next flight was with Peter Sahlberg. Peter wasn't sure that there would be any lift since we were going to launch after 6:00 pm. But he didn't remember the Avenal effect and how the lift actually gets better in late afternoon and early evening. Sure enough, we snagged strong thermals and ultimately reached over 6200 msl nearly an hour after George and I reached the same height. In fact the only reason we came down is that my butt was getting sore and the dinner was getting cold. If we hadn't come down then we would have missed a nice barbeque dinner, where the main course was steak prepared deliciously by Pancho Herrera.

6. Without getting into details, the pilots of this year's contest were an exceptional group of great men and women. We enjoyed them all each evening after the day's task had been completed. Those are some of the best times one could spend with a fellow pilot after the tough competition ends. We really enjoy having our annual contest just because it brings out the best in glider pilots from all over the Western U.S. Maybe next year we'll have even more than this year. Thanks to everyone who made this Annual Contest such an enjoyable time for all. The camaraderie was overwhelming.