Somehow, I managed to convince Sandi that we should once again spend a week of vacation at a soaring contest. So I signed up for the Region 9 championships at Hobbs, New Mexico. Hoping it would help me do a little better this year, I installed mylar gap seals on the ailerons over the winter, put on some new low profile wing tips, and a few more pounds of bondo.

Hobbs is located in southeastern New Mexico in the flatlands. Much of the surrounding terrain is filled with oil fields which present an extreme hazard for off field landings. To the east of Hobbs are many circular irrigation systems. The big ones allow safe landings into the corners of the square fields they serve. The irrigation also tends to kill the lift. To the west is mostly dessert, brush, cactus and rocks. All very hazardous to land in and very lonely. To the north, east, and south are a fair number of airports. The airport at Hobbs is enormous. 3 7000' + long runways, and a parking area 7000' x 500'. Located on the field is a year round commercial operation, the National Soaring Foundation. Also on the field is the SSA headquarters. It is not only a great place for a contest, but with several gliders available for rent, a great place for a soaring vacation.

On the drive down, beautiful Cu's started at Liberal Kansas at about 12:00. My trailer had a tire disintegrate just outside of Liberal providing me a great opportunity to stop and observe the clouds. I took the wheel, tread, and side walls to a Goodyear store and asked, "Do you patch flats?" The Cu's still extended as far as we could see in every direction when we got to Hobbs at 7:00 that night. On the practice day, I flew about 4 hours and covered about 150 miles without pushing hard at all. Cloud base was about 7000' agl.

42 gliders came for the meet of which 12 entered sports class. Fortunately for me Dick Johnson elected to fly open class, Billy Hill flew Standard, and several other hot pilots including my Dad and brother Steve flew 15 meter. Most of the Sport's class competitors were pilots who I thought I had a fair chance of beating.

On the grid for the first contest day I talked with Ned Wilson. He is a retired 747 captain who files a Laister Nugget. Ned told me a story about a landing he made in an LP-49. The LP-49 has a retractable gear, and has separate handles for the gear doors and the gear. Upon touch down, the awful skidding noise told him he had forgotten to put down the landing gear. He had enough speed and quick enough thinking that he managed to get back in the air, actuate the gear door handle and the gear handle before it touched down again. Ned commented that sure enough there are those that have landed gear up and those that will land gear up. The first contest day, I took my start and just headed where the clouds looked best. I went northwest to Lovington, then headed East to Hamilton. I had no real trouble staying up but was not as picky as I should have been about what I circled in and what I passed up. I went south to Jal and then turned back for home. About 20 miles out I climbed to 6000 agl and started final glide. I kept the speed down to stretch my glide over Lea County Airport's airspace. About 5 miles out I was high enough to clear Lea County comfortably, so I pushed over to about 100mph to dive into Hobbs. Realizing that I might be too high at the finish line, I put the gear down to increase my rate of descent. When I crossed the finish line and received the mark, I pulled up and set myself up on down wind for landing. As is my habit, at this point I reached down and actuated the gear handle. I made a nice steep approach and was set up to roll out right up to the trailer. As I eased the ship onto the ground, I heard the nose scrape a bit. Hmm, got the nose too low, I eased the stick back and then realized that I had put the gear up not down! I pulled back on the stick and grabbed the gear handle but it was too late, the flight was over. The glider ground to a stop in about 50 feet making such a racket that everyone within a mile new what had happened. I just sat there utterly disgusted with myself for a minute as the smoke drifted up from the bottom of the cockpit. You know, in a gear up landing, if you make a big enough flat spot, the wings stay level after the glider stops. Sandi happened to have her camera out taking pictures of me on final. All week long I had pilots come up to me and confess about the gear up landings they had made. The damage to the glider was slight compared to the damage to my ego. The glider was still fit to fly. The first day I made 136 miles at 46 mph which was good for 4th place for the day. Jo Shaw won the day in her 1-26.

On the launch line I usually found myself next to one of the Air Force ASK-21's. The Air Force Academy runs a cross country soaring program. They sent 3 officers and several cadets to participate at Hobbs. The ASK's were well suited for the weather at Hobbs, but they had some really irritating regulations to follow. On the ground, a cadet had to attend at the wingtip whenever the glider was not tied down. In the air they were not to place themselves out of gliding distance of a paved runway. None of the vehicles they were allocated had any air conditioning. They still were good company and seemed to manage to have fun at it. The second day I resolved to put my troubles behind me and have a good flight. Off tow I circled with the 1-26 and an air force ASK-21, and doggone it, they both out climbed me! I went through the gate with LY, a Mosquito piloted by Dennis Brown from Wichita Kansas. LY was also flying sports class. We got a good climb right after the start and headed south together. As we pushed south, I resolved not to stop for weak lift until I got low. As we pushed on I steadily sank below LY. Several times I took a turn or two in lift which turned out to just not be very good. 44 miles out at Jal I got a good climb and got back to cloud base. By now LY had left me behind. I turned back north and made good time to Abandoned, then went over to Hamilton for one last picture. The final glide and finish were uneventful. As I flared out for landing I just had to check the gear handle one last time. This landing was much quieter than the previous one. I made 179 miles at an average speed of 54 mph. This was 5th place for the day and I dropped to 5th overall.

The third day I once again found myself thermalling with an air force ASK-21 right off tow. From the look of the cu's and the strength of my 1st climb, I was convinced that this day would be much stronger the first two. I went through the start right behind 33V, a standard Cirrus who was then in 2nd place in sports class. We circled together in a fantastic thermal, 700 fpm+. As we circled, the start gate called out 10 minutes to opening of the standard class. 33V misunderstood the gate and thought the it was 10 minutes to the start of sports class. He headed back for another start. He missed the best cloud street of the day. The clouds looked great to the south so I headed out. I dove between clouds at 90 mph and zoomed back up in tremendous lift under cloud after cloud. With only 2 360's in lift I made 44 miles south to Jal. The sky ahead looked good so I continued south across some nasty oilfield country. 5 miles later I worked a thermal with MA, a beautiful long wing Ventus. The lift was so strong it pegged both my various for 2 turns! I continued south to Wink where I took my turpoint picture together with LY who had started 4 minutes behind. This was somewhat of a victory since his handicap required him to better my speed by 7 percent to beat me in points. I went north cruising 90 mph and only circling when the Ball showed over 1000 fpm. As I went back north I flew briefly with a Grob, U1 and several other gliders. I went back north to Abandoned, over east to Hamilton and back to Hobbs. I crossed the finish line at 600' and 100 mph right where I wanted to. At the time I felt I had made few mistakes and made a very good flight. I flew 185 miles at an average speed of 65 mph. This got me 1st for the day and put me in 4th overall. I also got to give a winner's speech at the pilot's meeting the next day. Now I was only 115 points behind the 1st place ship, 33V. Jack Schuhmacher from Houston took second place that day in U1 with a raw speed of 66 mph. He had just bought the glider and this was his first contest ever.

The fourth day brought 15-20 mph wind out of the north. Winds had been light and variable so far. The wind was bad news for the 1-26 in second place, but might give me a chance to move up. Before grid time I pushed my glider over toward the scales to get weighed. The concrete around the scales was a bit rough and I managed to break off the HP's tail wheel in a pot hole. Curt McNay helped me put on my dad's extra skid from his ASW-20 and in about 30 minutes I was ready to go. Unfortunately with the north wind the HP had to be pushed about 3/4 of a mile to the runway and I had no tail wheel dolly. I finally got out to the grid too late to take my spot so I had to go to the end of the line. My first launch I just couldn't find any up and ended up back on the runway in about 10 minutes. I managed to stay up on the second launch, but most everyone else was already out on course by then. There were no Cu's at the field or to the north but they looked good to the south. I took a start and got a fair climb to 6000 agl, then headed off down wind. By the time I reached Eunice, 20 miles south, the sky ahead looked good but behind me it was completely blue. I pressed on south working fair lift on to Wink, 60 miles out. From the time I had used I figured from here I should just head back home. As I turned back into the wind it was obviously at least 20mph. About 10 miles north of Wink at 6000 agl I headed for Jal. The clouds looked like I might find some good streeting but they were dead. Cloud after cloud I pressed on. At about 3500 agl I passed up 300 fpm lift. This turned out to be a mistake. I got to within a mile of Jal airport below 2000 agl and found a bit of lift. I radioed to Sandi that I was "Low at Jal." I circled in it for several minutes, gained about 1000 feet and drifted 5 miles to the south. I headed back toward Jal airport again, this time arriving at about 1500 agl. Again I caught a weak thermal and drifted 5 miles south gaining about 1000 feet. Once more I glided back into the wind to the airport at Jal. At 1000 agl I radioed "4J Probably Landing at Jal". On downwind I was just reaching for the gear handle when the audio gave a brief beep. I had just enough altitude for one more try. The thermal was weak and again I drifted south, this time just above glide slope for a straight in approach. Again I found myself 5 miles south and this time only about 1500 feet, but finally the thermal picked up. A few more corrections and up we went at 500 fpm to 6500 agl. With a big sigh of relief I radioed Sandi "4J High at Jal". Unfortunately there were no Cu's along the 40 miles remaining to get home. I still wondered if I would make it back. I glided another 20 miles before contacting lift at 2500 agl. This one took me to about 6000 agl and I headed for home. The final glide was a bit closer than I thought. I ran into a bunch of sink and made a straight in approach for a rolling finish. I landed a good 3/4 mile away from the trailer and haul the bloody thing over carrying the tail. I was beat tired, and terribly slow but I made it home. Several of the other sports class competitors had heard my earlier calls on the radio and gave me a cheer as I walked to the scorer's office. The 1-26 which had been in 1st place was not so lucky. The wind got her, she landed out. My 40 mph kept me in 4th overall, but now I was almost 400 points behind the leaders, LY and 33V. However, I was only 40 points behind the 3rd place glider, G6, a Grob flow by John Campbell. That evening I visited with the competition director, Phil Petmecky. He told me about a flight he made at Hobbs a few years ago. He had been trying to make it to the airport west of Eunice, and found himself caught by sink several miles short. The terrain around the airfield is mostly unlandable, so he picked a road that was just outside of town. On final he spotted one set of wires which he went just over. As he landed on the road he could see that the ditches on either side were about 8 feet deep and that his wings only had five or six feet of clearance on either side from fences. He managed to get stopped without incident, but behind him he spotted wires that he had landed under without seeing. He couldn't get his glider off the road because of the steep ditch so he settled for blocking for one lane. Soon a highway patrolman came along and asked him what had happened. Phil told him, "My engine fell off." The patrolman got on the radio and called to the dispatcher to tell them to look for the fallen engine before Phil could stop him.

The forecast for Day 5 was for good lift with cloud base around 16,000 feet. Winds were to be light out of the south. We launched off the ramp, so I was spared the long push out. On the grid I was behind Rokki Roberts and his DG-600. His ship was immaculate. After he leaned on the wing while taking his start picture he would wipe it clean. Rokki looked at my HP and laughed, "There is just something about a glider that needs Duct Tape!" As I got into the HP for my launch, I noticed a bulge in the oxygen line. Not wanting to have anything interfere with my chance for gold altitude, I pulled to the back of the line to have time to repair it. I might have pulled back anyway. There were no Cu's yet, and most of those who launched ahead of me were having a tough time staying up. A few minutes later I had repaired the oxygen line and was preparing to get in again. About then an older gentleman wearing a straw hat strolled up. "You must have moved back on purpose," he said. He then introduced himself as Wally Scott. He wished me luck and moved on. I thought this had to be a good omen. I got off tow in a weak thermal and struggled for 20 minutes trying to get 5000' agl. Finally, I went through the gate at about 4000' to keep my start time interval down. 35 minutes later I finally got up to 4500' agl and decided it was getting late enough I had better get going. I was convinced that this would be a day with a bunch of land outs. There were only 3 or 4 other gliders still around the field. I went through the gate behind G6, and we headed north. I was very cautious as there were still no Cu's and I had barely been able to stay up that first hour. As we moved north, G6 had more guts than I. He pushed the nose over and left me behind. The conditions slowly improved, but I cost myself a lot of time working weak lift and having trouble deciding where to go. I couldn't decide between Plains and Tatum. I was closer to Plains, but it was also in the irrigated area just north of Denver City. When I finally decided to go to Tatum I was almost 90 degrees off of course. Cu's were starting to form north of Tatum, and at the turn point I got up to 7000' agl. By now I had gone about 30 miles and taken an hour to do it. I noticed also at this point that the Cu's were moving south and I was drifting north as I thermalled. Cu's started to form back toward Hobbs, so I decided to be a wimp and move closer to home. I was wanting to take a turnpoint picture at abandoned but the 1500 fpm sink over the turn point seemed like a bad place to make an extra 360 so I continued on toward Hobbs. I had a devil of a time finding lift and got down to 2000 agl 10 miles out of Hobbs before finding a fair climb. It took me an hour to get from Tatum back to Hobbs. I got a really good climb at Hobbs and headed back north. This time I just hit the good thermals one after another. I took a picture at Abandoned, flew on to Tatum and glided back to Hobbs in just under one hour. Too bad the first trip was so slow. My average speed for the day was 47 mph. Though I had made a relatively poor flight, I beat G6 that day and moved up the 3rd overall. The day had not been nearly as bad as I first thought. There were only 2 landouts of the 12 sports class competitors. One of the landouts was U1, who had been close behind me. That night at the motel he told me he had gone over to Denver City and just not found any lift. I had considered going that way, but decided against it because of all the irrigation. The 1-26 gained 160 points on me which put her 140 points behind me. It would be really embarrassing to get beat in the overall standings by someone who had landed out. With one day to go I was about 400 points behind the second place glider but only 50 ahead of 4th. I hoped that on the last day I could hold on to 3rd.

The last contest day, the weather forecast was for another moderate soaring day and probably no Cu's. There was also scattered Cirrus throughout the area and it appeared to be growing. On the launch line I found myself wanting to see the day called off. By 1:00 there were still no Cu's at the field, and the cirrus seemed not to be diminishing. I finally took my tow and was surprised to find the lift quite strong. I went through the gate once and got a fair first climb. I decided that the day was going to be really good, so I headed back through the gate again. This time I got a really good first climb and headed south. A band of cirrus were moving in behind me, killing the Cu's. After my one strong climb I went 15 miles south in one glide to get a little ahead of the cirrus. I got a great climb again, but as I looked back at the Cirrus behind me I wondered if I would have trouble getting home. The clouds to the south were fantastic, and I would have to go somewhere to hold onto 3rd place, so off I went. At Jal I worked a thermal with two other gliders and actually managed to sneak in a turn point picture while thermalling. I broke off my climb 3 thousand feet beneath cloud base because I had no oxygen on board. The cirrus deck seemed to have stopped moving at Eunice, and there was a break in it to the east. I took off north east along a really nice cloud street and went from Jal to Hamilton. Now I was cruising 95 mph between clouds and making good 600 fpm + on my climbs. From Hamilton I went back toward Eunice. Half way to Eunice I reached a critical point where I was under 3000 agl and was about to turn 90 degrees off course to head for an airport. Just in time, I got a boomer that took me back to 12,000 feet. There was scattered cirrus all around, but enough sunny spots to make great lift. The thermals seemed best right along the edge of the shadowed area. From Eunice I went back to Hobbs and over to Hamilton again. I was planning to go back for a finish from Hamilton, but If I did I would be under time. I went up north to Abandoned, got one last picture and dove for home at 100 mph. This turned out to be my fastest flight ever. I made an average speed of 68mph on a course of 185 miles. I made 1000 points for the day and ended up 3rd overall. As I was finishing putting the HP-16 away, Ned Wilson came over to visit for a minute. He confessed that on landing that day he had forgotten to put his gear down, but when the nose touched, he had just enough speed to get it back in the air and get the gear down. Imagine that, the rascal got away with it a second time!