P7 and I had a good day yesterday and are currently tied for 2nd Place  overall.  Brad Edwards (JS1) and Jerzy Szemplinski (XG) are close behind.  You can view the results here.

The weather yesterday brought us considerable consternation as there was a cirrus deck to the the north and east and Dan Gudgel said something about a Meso-scale Convective Complex to the north that would likely have cool air outflow which could shutdown the Uvalde area before we got back.  Huh?  What did he say?  Not sure what that meant but it did not sound good.

At the US Team Pilot’s meeting, P7 and I agreed that we would start around 2:30 or later.  On the grid, the cirrus was getting worse so the CD changed to Task B which was a little shorter than Task A changing the final turnpoint.  We flew GPS Start E, Yancy, Big Wells, Los Angeles, El Jardin Ranch, and back to Uvalde.  This task had us zigging and zagging across the wind line and then set us up for a 131 km run home with cloudstreet.

Route for Day 7

We stayed with the better clouds west of the start cylinder for quite some time while DL reported to us what the “Armada” was doing.  The cirrus thickened even more but to our surprise the Cu continued to form.  It was agonizing watching the high cirrus coming in and not starting, but it was the right thing to do.  We got into position and carefully worked all the lift we could and finally made a good start close to 5,000′ MSL and started down the first leg–P7, DL, and WE.

Our first climb was 4 knots and then we hit 5 knots.  An interesting alto cumulus field was ahead and certainly looked inviting but it was obvious that this cu field was not coming from lift from the ground.  We continued on with good climbs and made the first turn with several gliders struggling low at the turn.  We were doing good.

Good clouds were now ahead of us on course line and many more to the south.  We pressed on towards Big Wells and found a 5 knot thermal and then a 6 knot thermal (my averager was showing 7 knots most of the time.)  I was about 500 feet lower than P7 and DL so I continued to climb in this thermal while they went on to the turn.  At the turn, I was back with them at the same altitude as we climb together in a good one.

A

Barogram for Day 7 (click to enlarge)

More good clouds ahead and we worked right of course line staying high.  There was a small Cu field about 10km before the turn and then we made our way left of course line after the turn to another good Cu field and a short street.  We topped out at over 8,000′ MSL before the final turn home at El Jardin Ranch.

The first 40 km towards home was rather weak and I had to take a 4 knot thermal for a few turns and then push on to a forming Cu.  This next Cu provided 6.5 knots to 8,500 feet and had me on final glide.  P7 and I started for home, some 90 km out with high cirrus above but good Cu and streets ahead.  I took a slightly more westerly course to what I thought were better clouds and P7 went directly on course.  He proved to have taken a better line as he beat me home by a minute and I hit significant sink at Batesville and on into the Uvalde causing me to slow down from 130 mph cruising to 90 mph for the last 10 km or so.

We had a good run together and DL was with us most of the way.  Our team flying seems to be working out well.

The stats below look odd, I think because I changed the logger to record at 1 sec intervals rather than the usual 4 second interval recommended by the SeeYou guys.

Stats for Day 7 (click to enlarge)