SOAR UTAH has been an important Slope Soaring event, run by
the InterMountain Silent Flyers (IMSF) club roughly every other
year since 1995. A visit to the Great Salt Lake area has elements of
a vacation-destination trip, so it’s not a surprise to see traveling
slope pilots spend a few days in town before and after the event.
Soar Utah 2008, the seventh in the series, was held August 28-
September 1 near Salt Lake City, Utah. Last year, the IMSF hosted
64 registered pilots from California, Georgia, Colorado, Idaho,
Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, New York,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Wyoming, Canada, and Switzerland.
The mountainous topography near Salt Lake City is well suited
for Slope Soaring, with three notable flying sites in particular, the
first of which is Point of the Mountain (POTM) ridge (a sandbar
formed in prehistoric Lake Bonneville). It projects westward from
the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains out onto the plateau
between the Great Salt Lake to the north and Utah Lake to the
south.
POTM itself, rising 400 feet above the valley floor, makes an
excellent slope-flying ridge on both the north and south sides, not
only for RC sailplane pilots, but also for hang glider pilots and
parasailing pilots. The north side of the POTM ridge features a City
of Draper flight park, and the south side has a State of Utah flight
park. We don’t see this much government support of RC flying and
other airsports in every city and state.
Second is Francis Peak, which is traditionally a Soar Utah flying
site farther north in the Wasatch Range. It is soarable in west
winds, which blow most afternoons as the high desert to the east of
the ridge heats up.
Francis Peak’s elevation is 9,000 feet, nearly a mile higher than
the Great Salt Lake at 4,000 feet, and it features an incredible view
of the lake and the lands on both sides of the Wasatch Range.
Third is Antelope Island State Park in the Great Salt Lake,
which features antelope and buffalo herds, along with a few roads
and hiking trails to get around the island. In addition to the museum
where there is evidence of human habitation on this island going
back more than 10,000 years, the road to Buffalo Point leads up a
ridge that is flyable on both sides, with winds from both the north
and the south. In previous years I’ve seen Dynamic Soaring flown
on the north side in a south wind.
02sig4.QXD 12/22/08 1:02 PM Page 126
February 2009 127
Fred Maier’s EPP-foam Fw 190 from LEG: Soar Utah 2008’s
premiere sponsor. Jack Cooper’s EPP warbirds are becoming
increasingly popular with PSS fliers.
Phil Herrington’s Leading Edge Gliders EPP-foam Kawasaki Ki-61
“Hien” (Swallow) flies in the brisk lift on Saturday in Utah.
Four New York Slope Dogs made the trip to Soar Utah 2008: Joe
Chovan and Fred Maier by automobile, and Jim Harrigan and I by
airliner. I’ll share a brief chronology of our trip, including the
scheduled RC Soaring events.
Wednesday August 27 was a travel day for Jim and me, and
the big silver bird got us to Salt Lake City International Airport by
11 a.m. The Southwest Airlines flight, Thrifty car rental, and
UPS’s shipping our models were flawless, so the trip got off to a
good start.
We are indebted to Russ Young of the IMSF club for handling
our large-box shipping needs, and we got our airplanes unpacked
in time to fly Wednesday afternoon from the western ridge of
POTM. Jim flew a Dream-Flight Weasel, and I flew a SkyKing
RC Products DAW Schweizer 1-26.
On Thursday August 28, with a forecast for 5-10 mph north-tonorth-
northeast winds, Jim and I headed up to Antelope Island,
where we met up with Joe Chovan, arriving by car. We shared a
pleasant afternoon flying a Leading Edge Gliders Fox and
SkyKing RC Products DAW Schweizer 1-26s.
In the early evening, we met up with other early arrivals for a
reception at Erik and Candice Vogel’s home. It was great to spend
time with old and new flying buddies, and the reception made for
a great start to the weekend.
Event Day One, Friday August 29, was Aerotow Day at a drylake
site in Grantsville. Conditions were excellent for Aerotow:
bright sun and little wind.
We saw perhaps 40 big Scale sailplanes and maybe 10 tow
models. It was great to see these large sailplanes flying with the
Utah mountains as a backdrop. Registration was held at POTM
Friday afternoon and evening, where Steve Reed and Clarence
Ashcraft served fried turkey on the slope.
Event Day Two, Saturday August 30, dawned mostly sunny
with a 10-15 mph south wind building—great conditions for
flying on the south side of POTM. An agreement with the hang
gliding club gave the RC fliers the entire slope face for two full
days.
The Scale flight judging held during the day provided an air
show for pilots and assembled onlookers. Judged flight scores
were added to Scale judging and pilots’ votes to determine the
winners.
Modern Scale sailplanes flown included Larry Bennington’s
DG-8005, Everett Smiley’s Schempp-Hirth SHK, and Sam Cook’s
ASW-28. Vintage Scale flights were made with George Joy’s
Habicht and Ian Frechette’s Red-Tailed Hawk.
PSS (Power Scale Soaring) flights were made with Fred
Maier’s Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Phil Herrington’s Kawasaki Ki-61
“Hien,” Vic Trucco’s Bell P-39 Airacobra, Greg Johnson’s Bede
Aircraft Company BD-5, and others. Highly memorable were
flights with Mike Neal’s English Electric Canberra and Dave
Nash’s huge Lockheed P-38 Lightning—an amazing building and
finishing project.
Clarence Ashcraft completed his League of Silent Flight (LSF)
eight-hour slope flight Saturday with an MM Glider Tech
Marauder XC. Mark Howard and George Joy were official
observers.
The LSF Soaring Accomplishments Program includes
progressively more challenging tasks, both slope and thermal,
culminating on Level V, with an eight-hour slope flight and a twohour
thermal flight. This is impressive sailplane flying, and I
enjoyed talking with Clarence during the day and being there for
the landing and successful completion of the LSF task flight.
Friday evening included the awards barbecue dinner,
presentation of awards, and raffle at Falcon Park. Many thanks to
the makers and manufacturers who contributed generously to
make the raffle a success. The sponsors are listed at the end of the
column.
Event Day Three, Sunday August 31, saw more slope flying on
the south side of POTM, with even higher winds of 20-25 mph
sometimes reaching 30. Fred Maier measured 35 mph, gusting to
40 in the early afternoon. Yippee! It doesn’t get much better than
that.
The IMSF staff cooked lunch again for us on the hill. I spent
most of my time with a SkyKing RC Products DAW Schleicher
Ka-6 and an experimental “fat fuselage” DAW Schweizer 1-26.
Saturday was the day for half pipes. Although we saw some
traditional Slope Scale fiberglass warbirds, even more Leading
Edge Gliders (LEG) 60-inch-span EPP-foam warbirds were
tearing up the sky.
The lift was epic on Sunday. I’d have the 120-inch Ka-6
parked way up high at the top of the lift, only to have a warbird
streak by on a ballistic climbout to a stall turn in the classic
“Slope Scale Party” pattern.
For event Day Four, Monday September 1—Labor Day—we
were scheduled for Alpine Soaring at Francis Peak, north of Salt
Lake City near Farmington. The morning skies were full of
lightning and thunder, rain, and hail, and Jim and I stayed indoors
most of the morning.
Near noon, we saw on radar the last band of storms crossing
the lake. With a forecast for south winds at 10-15 mph, we headed
again for Antelope Island.
Ian Frechette, Cody Remington, and Nick Strong were at
Buffalo Point, grabbing a last flight before heading home to
Colorado. Joe Chovan, Jim Harrigan, and I flew an LEG Arctic
Fox and DAW Schweizer 1-26s until after sunset—a relaxing end
to a great trip to Utah.
The IMSF did a great job of planning and presenting Soar Utah
2008. Among many others in the club, we are particularly
02sig4.QXD 12/22/08 12:45 PM Page 127
indebted to Tom Hoopes for CDing the
contest, Everett Smiley for registration and
administration, Tom Bean for T-shirts, Russ
Young for carving trophies and handling
shipping, Brent Woods for honchoing the
Saturday dinner, Dick Bean for contacting
vendors and securing the flying facility, and
Steve Reed for taking care of impound duty.
And credit goes to Clarence Ashcraft for
the fried-turkey dinner and Erik and Candice
Vogel for the Thursday-evening social
event. Thank you folks for another great
Soar Utah to remember.
Soar Utah Scale Event Winners:
Scale Sailplane
1. Larry Bennington: DG-8005
2. Everett Smiley: Schempp-Hirth SHK
3. Sam Cook: ASW-28
Power Scale Sailplane
1. Phil Herrington: Kawasaki Ki-61
2. Mike Neal: English Electric Canberra
3. Vic Truco: Bell P-39 Airacobra
Vintage Sailplane
1. Ian Frechette: Red-Tailed Hawk
2. George Joy: Habicht
3. Pete Petrowski: RFD 1931
Soar Utah Premiere Sponsor:
Leading Edge Gliders
(785) 525-6263
www.leadingedgegliders.com
Soar Utah Sponsors:
Eagle Tree Systems
(425) 614-0450
www.eagletreesystems.com
Hoopes Designs
Box 2504
Sandy UT 84091
www.hoopesdesigns.com
JR Radio
(800) 338-4639
www.jrradios.com
MM Glider Tech
(562) 927-2583
www.mmglidertech.com
Peak Electronics
(800) 532-0092
www.siriuselectronics.com
Radio Carbon Art
(888) 834-2261
www.radiocarbonart.com
Skip Miller Models
(303) 442-6454
www.skipmillermodels.com
SkyKing RC Products
(612) 605-1128
www.skykingrcproducts.com
Soaring USA
(626) 967-6660
www.soaringusa.com
Tower Hobbies
(800) 637-6050
www.towerhobbies.com
Wyoming Wind Works
(605) 431-4773
www.wyowindworks.com
M.R.S. Hobby
(801) 572-6082
http://mrshobby.ypguides.net
Some Dude’s Hobby Shop
(801) 233-6565
www.somedudeshobbyshop.com[dingbat]
Sources:
InterMountain Silent Flyers
www.silentflyer.org
Sour Utah discussion, photos, videos:
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php
?t=804646
League of Silent Flight
www.silentflight.org
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/02
Page Numbers: 126,127,128
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/02
Page Numbers: 126,127,128
SOAR UTAH has been an important Slope Soaring event, run by
the InterMountain Silent Flyers (IMSF) club roughly every other
year since 1995. A visit to the Great Salt Lake area has elements of
a vacation-destination trip, so it’s not a surprise to see traveling
slope pilots spend a few days in town before and after the event.
Soar Utah 2008, the seventh in the series, was held August 28-
September 1 near Salt Lake City, Utah. Last year, the IMSF hosted
64 registered pilots from California, Georgia, Colorado, Idaho,
Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, New York,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Wyoming, Canada, and Switzerland.
The mountainous topography near Salt Lake City is well suited
for Slope Soaring, with three notable flying sites in particular, the
first of which is Point of the Mountain (POTM) ridge (a sandbar
formed in prehistoric Lake Bonneville). It projects westward from
the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains out onto the plateau
between the Great Salt Lake to the north and Utah Lake to the
south.
POTM itself, rising 400 feet above the valley floor, makes an
excellent slope-flying ridge on both the north and south sides, not
only for RC sailplane pilots, but also for hang glider pilots and
parasailing pilots. The north side of the POTM ridge features a City
of Draper flight park, and the south side has a State of Utah flight
park. We don’t see this much government support of RC flying and
other airsports in every city and state.
Second is Francis Peak, which is traditionally a Soar Utah flying
site farther north in the Wasatch Range. It is soarable in west
winds, which blow most afternoons as the high desert to the east of
the ridge heats up.
Francis Peak’s elevation is 9,000 feet, nearly a mile higher than
the Great Salt Lake at 4,000 feet, and it features an incredible view
of the lake and the lands on both sides of the Wasatch Range.
Third is Antelope Island State Park in the Great Salt Lake,
which features antelope and buffalo herds, along with a few roads
and hiking trails to get around the island. In addition to the museum
where there is evidence of human habitation on this island going
back more than 10,000 years, the road to Buffalo Point leads up a
ridge that is flyable on both sides, with winds from both the north
and the south. In previous years I’ve seen Dynamic Soaring flown
on the north side in a south wind.
02sig4.QXD 12/22/08 1:02 PM Page 126
February 2009 127
Fred Maier’s EPP-foam Fw 190 from LEG: Soar Utah 2008’s
premiere sponsor. Jack Cooper’s EPP warbirds are becoming
increasingly popular with PSS fliers.
Phil Herrington’s Leading Edge Gliders EPP-foam Kawasaki Ki-61
“Hien” (Swallow) flies in the brisk lift on Saturday in Utah.
Four New York Slope Dogs made the trip to Soar Utah 2008: Joe
Chovan and Fred Maier by automobile, and Jim Harrigan and I by
airliner. I’ll share a brief chronology of our trip, including the
scheduled RC Soaring events.
Wednesday August 27 was a travel day for Jim and me, and
the big silver bird got us to Salt Lake City International Airport by
11 a.m. The Southwest Airlines flight, Thrifty car rental, and
UPS’s shipping our models were flawless, so the trip got off to a
good start.
We are indebted to Russ Young of the IMSF club for handling
our large-box shipping needs, and we got our airplanes unpacked
in time to fly Wednesday afternoon from the western ridge of
POTM. Jim flew a Dream-Flight Weasel, and I flew a SkyKing
RC Products DAW Schweizer 1-26.
On Thursday August 28, with a forecast for 5-10 mph north-tonorth-
northeast winds, Jim and I headed up to Antelope Island,
where we met up with Joe Chovan, arriving by car. We shared a
pleasant afternoon flying a Leading Edge Gliders Fox and
SkyKing RC Products DAW Schweizer 1-26s.
In the early evening, we met up with other early arrivals for a
reception at Erik and Candice Vogel’s home. It was great to spend
time with old and new flying buddies, and the reception made for
a great start to the weekend.
Event Day One, Friday August 29, was Aerotow Day at a drylake
site in Grantsville. Conditions were excellent for Aerotow:
bright sun and little wind.
We saw perhaps 40 big Scale sailplanes and maybe 10 tow
models. It was great to see these large sailplanes flying with the
Utah mountains as a backdrop. Registration was held at POTM
Friday afternoon and evening, where Steve Reed and Clarence
Ashcraft served fried turkey on the slope.
Event Day Two, Saturday August 30, dawned mostly sunny
with a 10-15 mph south wind building—great conditions for
flying on the south side of POTM. An agreement with the hang
gliding club gave the RC fliers the entire slope face for two full
days.
The Scale flight judging held during the day provided an air
show for pilots and assembled onlookers. Judged flight scores
were added to Scale judging and pilots’ votes to determine the
winners.
Modern Scale sailplanes flown included Larry Bennington’s
DG-8005, Everett Smiley’s Schempp-Hirth SHK, and Sam Cook’s
ASW-28. Vintage Scale flights were made with George Joy’s
Habicht and Ian Frechette’s Red-Tailed Hawk.
PSS (Power Scale Soaring) flights were made with Fred
Maier’s Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Phil Herrington’s Kawasaki Ki-61
“Hien,” Vic Trucco’s Bell P-39 Airacobra, Greg Johnson’s Bede
Aircraft Company BD-5, and others. Highly memorable were
flights with Mike Neal’s English Electric Canberra and Dave
Nash’s huge Lockheed P-38 Lightning—an amazing building and
finishing project.
Clarence Ashcraft completed his League of Silent Flight (LSF)
eight-hour slope flight Saturday with an MM Glider Tech
Marauder XC. Mark Howard and George Joy were official
observers.
The LSF Soaring Accomplishments Program includes
progressively more challenging tasks, both slope and thermal,
culminating on Level V, with an eight-hour slope flight and a twohour
thermal flight. This is impressive sailplane flying, and I
enjoyed talking with Clarence during the day and being there for
the landing and successful completion of the LSF task flight.
Friday evening included the awards barbecue dinner,
presentation of awards, and raffle at Falcon Park. Many thanks to
the makers and manufacturers who contributed generously to
make the raffle a success. The sponsors are listed at the end of the
column.
Event Day Three, Sunday August 31, saw more slope flying on
the south side of POTM, with even higher winds of 20-25 mph
sometimes reaching 30. Fred Maier measured 35 mph, gusting to
40 in the early afternoon. Yippee! It doesn’t get much better than
that.
The IMSF staff cooked lunch again for us on the hill. I spent
most of my time with a SkyKing RC Products DAW Schleicher
Ka-6 and an experimental “fat fuselage” DAW Schweizer 1-26.
Saturday was the day for half pipes. Although we saw some
traditional Slope Scale fiberglass warbirds, even more Leading
Edge Gliders (LEG) 60-inch-span EPP-foam warbirds were
tearing up the sky.
The lift was epic on Sunday. I’d have the 120-inch Ka-6
parked way up high at the top of the lift, only to have a warbird
streak by on a ballistic climbout to a stall turn in the classic
“Slope Scale Party” pattern.
For event Day Four, Monday September 1—Labor Day—we
were scheduled for Alpine Soaring at Francis Peak, north of Salt
Lake City near Farmington. The morning skies were full of
lightning and thunder, rain, and hail, and Jim and I stayed indoors
most of the morning.
Near noon, we saw on radar the last band of storms crossing
the lake. With a forecast for south winds at 10-15 mph, we headed
again for Antelope Island.
Ian Frechette, Cody Remington, and Nick Strong were at
Buffalo Point, grabbing a last flight before heading home to
Colorado. Joe Chovan, Jim Harrigan, and I flew an LEG Arctic
Fox and DAW Schweizer 1-26s until after sunset—a relaxing end
to a great trip to Utah.
The IMSF did a great job of planning and presenting Soar Utah
2008. Among many others in the club, we are particularly
02sig4.QXD 12/22/08 12:45 PM Page 127
indebted to Tom Hoopes for CDing the
contest, Everett Smiley for registration and
administration, Tom Bean for T-shirts, Russ
Young for carving trophies and handling
shipping, Brent Woods for honchoing the
Saturday dinner, Dick Bean for contacting
vendors and securing the flying facility, and
Steve Reed for taking care of impound duty.
And credit goes to Clarence Ashcraft for
the fried-turkey dinner and Erik and Candice
Vogel for the Thursday-evening social
event. Thank you folks for another great
Soar Utah to remember.
Soar Utah Scale Event Winners:
Scale Sailplane
1. Larry Bennington: DG-8005
2. Everett Smiley: Schempp-Hirth SHK
3. Sam Cook: ASW-28
Power Scale Sailplane
1. Phil Herrington: Kawasaki Ki-61
2. Mike Neal: English Electric Canberra
3. Vic Truco: Bell P-39 Airacobra
Vintage Sailplane
1. Ian Frechette: Red-Tailed Hawk
2. George Joy: Habicht
3. Pete Petrowski: RFD 1931
Soar Utah Premiere Sponsor:
Leading Edge Gliders
(785) 525-6263
www.leadingedgegliders.com
Soar Utah Sponsors:
Eagle Tree Systems
(425) 614-0450
www.eagletreesystems.com
Hoopes Designs
Box 2504
Sandy UT 84091
www.hoopesdesigns.com
JR Radio
(800) 338-4639
www.jrradios.com
MM Glider Tech
(562) 927-2583
www.mmglidertech.com
Peak Electronics
(800) 532-0092
www.siriuselectronics.com
Radio Carbon Art
(888) 834-2261
www.radiocarbonart.com
Skip Miller Models
(303) 442-6454
www.skipmillermodels.com
SkyKing RC Products
(612) 605-1128
www.skykingrcproducts.com
Soaring USA
(626) 967-6660
www.soaringusa.com
Tower Hobbies
(800) 637-6050
www.towerhobbies.com
Wyoming Wind Works
(605) 431-4773
www.wyowindworks.com
M.R.S. Hobby
(801) 572-6082
http://mrshobby.ypguides.net
Some Dude’s Hobby Shop
(801) 233-6565
www.somedudeshobbyshop.com[dingbat]
Sources:
InterMountain Silent Flyers
www.silentflyer.org
Sour Utah discussion, photos, videos:
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php
?t=804646
League of Silent Flight
www.silentflight.org
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/02
Page Numbers: 126,127,128
SOAR UTAH has been an important Slope Soaring event, run by
the InterMountain Silent Flyers (IMSF) club roughly every other
year since 1995. A visit to the Great Salt Lake area has elements of
a vacation-destination trip, so it’s not a surprise to see traveling
slope pilots spend a few days in town before and after the event.
Soar Utah 2008, the seventh in the series, was held August 28-
September 1 near Salt Lake City, Utah. Last year, the IMSF hosted
64 registered pilots from California, Georgia, Colorado, Idaho,
Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, New York,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Wyoming, Canada, and Switzerland.
The mountainous topography near Salt Lake City is well suited
for Slope Soaring, with three notable flying sites in particular, the
first of which is Point of the Mountain (POTM) ridge (a sandbar
formed in prehistoric Lake Bonneville). It projects westward from
the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains out onto the plateau
between the Great Salt Lake to the north and Utah Lake to the
south.
POTM itself, rising 400 feet above the valley floor, makes an
excellent slope-flying ridge on both the north and south sides, not
only for RC sailplane pilots, but also for hang glider pilots and
parasailing pilots. The north side of the POTM ridge features a City
of Draper flight park, and the south side has a State of Utah flight
park. We don’t see this much government support of RC flying and
other airsports in every city and state.
Second is Francis Peak, which is traditionally a Soar Utah flying
site farther north in the Wasatch Range. It is soarable in west
winds, which blow most afternoons as the high desert to the east of
the ridge heats up.
Francis Peak’s elevation is 9,000 feet, nearly a mile higher than
the Great Salt Lake at 4,000 feet, and it features an incredible view
of the lake and the lands on both sides of the Wasatch Range.
Third is Antelope Island State Park in the Great Salt Lake,
which features antelope and buffalo herds, along with a few roads
and hiking trails to get around the island. In addition to the museum
where there is evidence of human habitation on this island going
back more than 10,000 years, the road to Buffalo Point leads up a
ridge that is flyable on both sides, with winds from both the north
and the south. In previous years I’ve seen Dynamic Soaring flown
on the north side in a south wind.
02sig4.QXD 12/22/08 1:02 PM Page 126
February 2009 127
Fred Maier’s EPP-foam Fw 190 from LEG: Soar Utah 2008’s
premiere sponsor. Jack Cooper’s EPP warbirds are becoming
increasingly popular with PSS fliers.
Phil Herrington’s Leading Edge Gliders EPP-foam Kawasaki Ki-61
“Hien” (Swallow) flies in the brisk lift on Saturday in Utah.
Four New York Slope Dogs made the trip to Soar Utah 2008: Joe
Chovan and Fred Maier by automobile, and Jim Harrigan and I by
airliner. I’ll share a brief chronology of our trip, including the
scheduled RC Soaring events.
Wednesday August 27 was a travel day for Jim and me, and
the big silver bird got us to Salt Lake City International Airport by
11 a.m. The Southwest Airlines flight, Thrifty car rental, and
UPS’s shipping our models were flawless, so the trip got off to a
good start.
We are indebted to Russ Young of the IMSF club for handling
our large-box shipping needs, and we got our airplanes unpacked
in time to fly Wednesday afternoon from the western ridge of
POTM. Jim flew a Dream-Flight Weasel, and I flew a SkyKing
RC Products DAW Schweizer 1-26.
On Thursday August 28, with a forecast for 5-10 mph north-tonorth-
northeast winds, Jim and I headed up to Antelope Island,
where we met up with Joe Chovan, arriving by car. We shared a
pleasant afternoon flying a Leading Edge Gliders Fox and
SkyKing RC Products DAW Schweizer 1-26s.
In the early evening, we met up with other early arrivals for a
reception at Erik and Candice Vogel’s home. It was great to spend
time with old and new flying buddies, and the reception made for
a great start to the weekend.
Event Day One, Friday August 29, was Aerotow Day at a drylake
site in Grantsville. Conditions were excellent for Aerotow:
bright sun and little wind.
We saw perhaps 40 big Scale sailplanes and maybe 10 tow
models. It was great to see these large sailplanes flying with the
Utah mountains as a backdrop. Registration was held at POTM
Friday afternoon and evening, where Steve Reed and Clarence
Ashcraft served fried turkey on the slope.
Event Day Two, Saturday August 30, dawned mostly sunny
with a 10-15 mph south wind building—great conditions for
flying on the south side of POTM. An agreement with the hang
gliding club gave the RC fliers the entire slope face for two full
days.
The Scale flight judging held during the day provided an air
show for pilots and assembled onlookers. Judged flight scores
were added to Scale judging and pilots’ votes to determine the
winners.
Modern Scale sailplanes flown included Larry Bennington’s
DG-8005, Everett Smiley’s Schempp-Hirth SHK, and Sam Cook’s
ASW-28. Vintage Scale flights were made with George Joy’s
Habicht and Ian Frechette’s Red-Tailed Hawk.
PSS (Power Scale Soaring) flights were made with Fred
Maier’s Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Phil Herrington’s Kawasaki Ki-61
“Hien,” Vic Trucco’s Bell P-39 Airacobra, Greg Johnson’s Bede
Aircraft Company BD-5, and others. Highly memorable were
flights with Mike Neal’s English Electric Canberra and Dave
Nash’s huge Lockheed P-38 Lightning—an amazing building and
finishing project.
Clarence Ashcraft completed his League of Silent Flight (LSF)
eight-hour slope flight Saturday with an MM Glider Tech
Marauder XC. Mark Howard and George Joy were official
observers.
The LSF Soaring Accomplishments Program includes
progressively more challenging tasks, both slope and thermal,
culminating on Level V, with an eight-hour slope flight and a twohour
thermal flight. This is impressive sailplane flying, and I
enjoyed talking with Clarence during the day and being there for
the landing and successful completion of the LSF task flight.
Friday evening included the awards barbecue dinner,
presentation of awards, and raffle at Falcon Park. Many thanks to
the makers and manufacturers who contributed generously to
make the raffle a success. The sponsors are listed at the end of the
column.
Event Day Three, Sunday August 31, saw more slope flying on
the south side of POTM, with even higher winds of 20-25 mph
sometimes reaching 30. Fred Maier measured 35 mph, gusting to
40 in the early afternoon. Yippee! It doesn’t get much better than
that.
The IMSF staff cooked lunch again for us on the hill. I spent
most of my time with a SkyKing RC Products DAW Schleicher
Ka-6 and an experimental “fat fuselage” DAW Schweizer 1-26.
Saturday was the day for half pipes. Although we saw some
traditional Slope Scale fiberglass warbirds, even more Leading
Edge Gliders (LEG) 60-inch-span EPP-foam warbirds were
tearing up the sky.
The lift was epic on Sunday. I’d have the 120-inch Ka-6
parked way up high at the top of the lift, only to have a warbird
streak by on a ballistic climbout to a stall turn in the classic
“Slope Scale Party” pattern.
For event Day Four, Monday September 1—Labor Day—we
were scheduled for Alpine Soaring at Francis Peak, north of Salt
Lake City near Farmington. The morning skies were full of
lightning and thunder, rain, and hail, and Jim and I stayed indoors
most of the morning.
Near noon, we saw on radar the last band of storms crossing
the lake. With a forecast for south winds at 10-15 mph, we headed
again for Antelope Island.
Ian Frechette, Cody Remington, and Nick Strong were at
Buffalo Point, grabbing a last flight before heading home to
Colorado. Joe Chovan, Jim Harrigan, and I flew an LEG Arctic
Fox and DAW Schweizer 1-26s until after sunset—a relaxing end
to a great trip to Utah.
The IMSF did a great job of planning and presenting Soar Utah
2008. Among many others in the club, we are particularly
02sig4.QXD 12/22/08 12:45 PM Page 127
indebted to Tom Hoopes for CDing the
contest, Everett Smiley for registration and
administration, Tom Bean for T-shirts, Russ
Young for carving trophies and handling
shipping, Brent Woods for honchoing the
Saturday dinner, Dick Bean for contacting
vendors and securing the flying facility, and
Steve Reed for taking care of impound duty.
And credit goes to Clarence Ashcraft for
the fried-turkey dinner and Erik and Candice
Vogel for the Thursday-evening social
event. Thank you folks for another great
Soar Utah to remember.
Soar Utah Scale Event Winners:
Scale Sailplane
1. Larry Bennington: DG-8005
2. Everett Smiley: Schempp-Hirth SHK
3. Sam Cook: ASW-28
Power Scale Sailplane
1. Phil Herrington: Kawasaki Ki-61
2. Mike Neal: English Electric Canberra
3. Vic Truco: Bell P-39 Airacobra
Vintage Sailplane
1. Ian Frechette: Red-Tailed Hawk
2. George Joy: Habicht
3. Pete Petrowski: RFD 1931
Soar Utah Premiere Sponsor:
Leading Edge Gliders
(785) 525-6263
www.leadingedgegliders.com
Soar Utah Sponsors:
Eagle Tree Systems
(425) 614-0450
www.eagletreesystems.com
Hoopes Designs
Box 2504
Sandy UT 84091
www.hoopesdesigns.com
JR Radio
(800) 338-4639
www.jrradios.com
MM Glider Tech
(562) 927-2583
www.mmglidertech.com
Peak Electronics
(800) 532-0092
www.siriuselectronics.com
Radio Carbon Art
(888) 834-2261
www.radiocarbonart.com
Skip Miller Models
(303) 442-6454
www.skipmillermodels.com
SkyKing RC Products
(612) 605-1128
www.skykingrcproducts.com
Soaring USA
(626) 967-6660
www.soaringusa.com
Tower Hobbies
(800) 637-6050
www.towerhobbies.com
Wyoming Wind Works
(605) 431-4773
www.wyowindworks.com
M.R.S. Hobby
(801) 572-6082
http://mrshobby.ypguides.net
Some Dude’s Hobby Shop
(801) 233-6565
www.somedudeshobbyshop.com[dingbat]
Sources:
InterMountain Silent Flyers
www.silentflyer.org
Sour Utah discussion, photos, videos:
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php
?t=804646
League of Silent Flight
www.silentflight.org
