Our wonderful weatherman, Dan Gudgel, provided us with a new weather term yesterday.  As he was summing up the forecast, he said, “We will have plenty of Cu at the start, then the few Cu my mid afternoon and then ‘Poof’!”  He then turned and walked off the stage.  Not sure about the spelling of “Poof”, but it became clear (clear blue) what that meant.

So, another day mostly in the blue.  The 18-m class was provided an Assigned Task, or a Racing Task under FAI rules; 430 km–Uvalde to Comanche Ranch to Catarina to Laredo to McKinley and then home.  The 18-m class was last to launch and I was dead last on the launch line.

Day 4 Route

First order of business was to get with my teammates so we could start.  P7 is my US Team teammate.  Al Tyler (8H) is my unofficial teammate for “Team Redneck” with a new addition of Dennis Linnekin (DL). We had a plan for getting together which worked well.  A good thermal off tow got me up quick, then we were all together shortly thereafter, followed by a “pulling of the boards” to get down from 5,000 feet to our start altitude of 4,500 feet–man, that felt low.

We had a good run to the first turn with Cu but they were drying out fast.  QV and JS1 were with us but left us quickly and moved out ahead.  By the turn, XG and P7 were getting away from me and then me from Team Redneck.

We were stretched out along the second leg to Catarina.  P7 was about 5 km ahead and calling thermals for me.  We were working a rather low height band of 4,500 feet above the ground (AGL) down to 2,000 AGL.  This caused me to stay cautious as there were now very few thermal “markers” — clouds or circling gliders.  I had a 5.8 knot climb just after the turn at Catarina that got me going again and catching up with P7.

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I really wanted to be somewhat low to make the upwind turn at Laredo but you need to balance that with the fact that you are at a busy Class D airspace airport with big jets taking off.  XG was low, too low, as he was calling us asking what the airport frequency was.  P7 was climbing northwest of the turnpoint as I cam in at his altitude so we were now back together for the next leg.

It’s hard to imagine how it can get even more blue, but it did … actually, it just got more hazy.  Thermals were far apart on our downwind leg to McKinley and we got low (2,000 AGL) twice but working together, we managed to find good lift and keep moving along well.  One Cu popped which had a 6-7 knot climb to 7,500 feet which certainly felt better and only about 2,000 from final glide altitude.

Rounding McKinley, we headed for home.  Finding a 4-5 knotter we climbed and were on final glide.  I was quite concerned about the air ahead as I could see no signs of “good air” and we had been experiencing lots of sink.  I cruised at about 85 mph gaining some but losing much more.  I was down to zero margin with a MacCready of 2 when the air finally got better.  P7 took a little different line home and needed to stop and take a couple of turns.  XG reported that he had so much sink he had to stop twice!

I finished 4th for the day at 74.38 mph (119.7 km/h); however, Bruce Taylor (QV) showed us how it is done with a speed of 135.1 km/h — a real shellacking!  Brad Edwards was right there with him.  The Aussies continue their excellent performances.

My stats are below.  Looking forward to a faster day today.  The sky this morning showed the classic Uvalde overcast created by the sea breeze front that arrives most nights around 10pm and usually indicates good Cu likely for the day.

Day 4 Stats for WE (click to enlarge)