The winner for the day was the Arcus flown by Rick Walters & Pete Alexander. The task was to fly from Minden to Hilton Ranch to Benton and then a free turnpoint.  They flew 283 miles at an average speed of 81 MPH. Rick reported that they were slow to make it to Hilton Ranch, as the conditions were weak, but after that it was good. Blue thermals all day, and they were never below 13,000 feet MSL. They continued to Boundary peak. He said the best soaring was from Mount Grant to Lucky Boy Pass.

The day started early as weathermen Doug Armstrong & Stewart Tattersall predicted that afternoon winds could to break up the thermals, but the wind did not cause as much trouble as feared. Rick Indrebro in the 15 M ASW-27 took second place with 291 miles at 77 MPH. Chip Garner in the 440 lb 15 M DuckHawk took third place with 260 miles at 74 MPH.

Forty years ago Minden hosted its first national championships. Ray Gimmey was the winner of that contest; although his day one performance this year was not great, there are still many days of soaring remaining.

Launching the gliders (click to enlarge)