For the last couple of months there have been two traveling trophies in North Carolina. The Boomerang was located at the Harnett County airport where the North Carolina Soaring Association is based. (I am a member there.) The Kittyhawk trophy was located at Ball airport, 60 miles to the north and home of the Harrier Soaring Club.

Sunday morning I managed to escape the house to go flying for the second day in a row. As expected only one other pilot was there. I never did figure out where the rest of the club was. But he suggested exactly what was on my mind - fly to Ball and claim the Kittyhawk trophy. Then take another tow from Ball and fly back to Harnett and claim the Boomerang. He wanted to fly in that direction, but was not planning to land. And the unspoken agreement was that we were crewing for each other.

I launched first, got off at 1500' and climbed to cloudbase, which was 2500'. Not exactly an inspiring start, but there were lots of clouds and they were streeting in about the right direction. In fact, the sky was very pretty. So I headed out until 10 or 15 miles or so when I stepped in a hole. I flew under several clouds with no lift and finally got into that position of "either there is a thermal coming off that parking lot, or I am going to land in the field next to it." Fortunately there was a thermal there and I got to almost 3000'. Things were more normal after that with the cloudbase rising fairly quickly to 4000' and most of the clouds being honest. The only other hard part was about 10 miles out I decided to grab a few hundred feet over the Franklin county airport since there was nowhere to land between Franklin County and Ball. It took me forever to find the thermal (it wasn't under the cloud) and I spent a lot of time in sink, so I had a longer climb than planned. Then it was on to Ball, fly the pattern, land long, and come to a stop within 100' of the take-off point. I had the Kittyhawk Trophy.

After greeting the towpilot and other members on the ground, I got back in and they launched me again. I got off in lift at 2500' and climbed back to 4000' and then flew back to Ball to cross the start gate. The minimum distance for the Boomerang is 100 Km, so I had declared a turnpoint over Johnston County Airport. But it was still only 102 Km, so I couldn't cut any corners. Once through the start gate I flew under a cloud with my friend parked under it. Turns out he had lift up high, but all I could find was sink. So it took me a while to finally find something with a reasonable climb rate and get back up. Then it was off to Johnston County. I stayed between 3500' and 4000' the whole way and flew many miles at 4000' as the clouds were streeting again. Around the turnpoint, one more thermal, and I was on final glide. Except there was a lot more sink than lift and my reserve was eroding badly. So I took a few more turns and then continued on. Then it was straight into downwind, a short landing on the end of the runway, and I had claimed the Boomerang Trophy. Except I was going to have to take it to Ball after I had my name engraved on it.

For those interested, Heinz McArthur flew the flight with me and you will see his flight at the top of the OLC page since he didn't land. He also beat the pants off me going both ways.

One final note. Dave Postelwaite flew down from Garner Field in Virginia on Monday to claim the Boomerang. One of the members saw my e-mail and called his crew enroute via cell phone. They finally got him on the radio just before he started his final glide into Harnett and redirected him to Ball. You will see his flight on OLC Monday.

If the stars, planets, moon, and weather line up correctly again this weekend this saga may not yet be over. I have a crew ...

Roger Fowler