CCSC XC Camp Day 2 – Now with flying!

Well after the morning lecture on gaggle flying we got a so-so briefing saying that there would some CU to the NW but the front would move drier air in as the day went along and the wind may break up some of the thermals. Following lunch we assembled and set up on the grid with launches starting at 2:30. My group met over the Caesar creek spill way and took a weak thermal there as high as we could go (around 5500 msl) and set off for Lebanon where there were still clouds. Running the cloud street up the Lebanon it was clear that this group worked well together, Rob Cluxton did an excellent job keeping the group moving while not separating the group much (horizontally or vertically) and as a whole everyone flew very well together. We  completed the inner loop by going to Dayton-Wright and home to CCSC. We climbed back up and pushed a bit downwind to Clinton and then followed another great street to Fricke (CU gave me an L/D of 362-1) and then back to CCSC and up to Lebanon once more. Tanked up at Lebanon and burned some altitude flying to the south and then a fast FG back to the field where I did a little practice thermalling out and finally landed right before the big rush of finishing/landing gliders. All in all it was an excellent intro to XC soaring and I had a blast, not much more you can ask for (well except for some CU…)

OLC flight from today: http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=2477570

– JP Stewart