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Normandy-area pilot glides to victory

Monday, May 2, 2005
By CLINT CONFEHR

A Normandy Lake-area man won the A class race of glider pilots flying Sunday from Russell Puckett Field at Rover to Lebanon, Tullahoma and back to the gliderport south of Eagleville.

Dick Butler, an engineer who's retired from a military contracting business near Arnold Engineering Development Center, said he averaged 59 mph during the two-hour flight when racing from cloud to cloud.

An increasing number of cumulus clouds -- formed by rising columns of warm air used by gliders for lift -- made Sunday "a good soaring day," Eagleville Sailplanes proprietor Bill McFarlane said. "There was good lift. These guys were flying at 7,000 to 8,000 feet."

Rain late last week continued with gray skies Saturday, thereby canceling the first of two days of sailplane racing coordinated by Mike Poe of Franklin who won the B class race from Rover to Tullahoma, Shelbyville and back to the gliderport.

"As predicted, the lift got stronger as the ground dried off and the sun was doing its job," McFarlane said.

Because of the weather, the number of sailplanes, pilots and chase crews was cut to eight instead of the dozen to perhaps 20 anticipated for the two-day event.

Sunday began as a "blue sky" day, meaning there were few clouds, so pilots looked for other clues on where to find thermals, the rising columns of warm air needed to stay aloft. Birds circling with little effort was a clear indication.

Birds, however, raise other issues, as Bruce Fox of Chattanooga explained the reason for his rear-view mirrors in the cockpit.

"They help you see the gaggle behind and below," Fox said of birds and other sailplanes which may be using the same column of rising air. "Eight to 10 airships in a thermal increases the chance of contact."

Fox was one of three pilots starting in the B class, but a battery for his electronic equipment failed, so there was no black-box recorder data to download and compare to other pilots' records of their flights.

He finished the course anyway, explaining, "I still know how to read a map, [but] we had good thermals. I never got much below 4,000 feet."

John Murphy of Lewisburg, another pilot in the races, said "There were a few cumulous clouds around today. On a blue sky day like today, they're hard to find."

McFarlane further explained thermals and cumulous clouds. The sun warms the earth. Typically, darker areas become warm more and faster than light colored areas. From those places, warm air rises and on a day like Sunday, the rising are included more and more humidity from rain puddles left from Saturday. As the warm air rises higher, the moisture becomes a cloud at the dew point, a temperature at which invisible humidity condenses into a cloud.

Butler and Poe were seen by the pilots at Puckett Field as the winners on Sunday evening, but their flight record data was downloaded to a computer owned by Chris Ruf of Marietta, Ga. who will compare their records to pilots in each class. That computation is expected later this week.

Butler's win was anticipated. He's recognized as a national champion among gliders. Butler is designing and planning to build his own glider which he may use during competition in Europe.

With more than the usual one or two visiting gliders at the airport Sunday, family and friends arrived to watch the takeoffs and two early landings.

Among those was Tony Ray of Ashland City who arrived on a Harley-Davidson Road King Classic motorcycle, complete with windshield and adjustable rear shock absorber.

Ray came to see his friend, Scott Myers of Franklin.

"He's tried to talk me into flying," Ray said. "I want him to ride a motorcycle. He says it's too dangerous."