Moriarty Region 9 Day 1

Hello racing fans,

Well we had some great weather today here in Moriarty. Mike The Strike forgot his hat this morning thanks to an early wake up call to rig. Everyone had boxed the gliders up last night in anticipation of the storms that rolled through. Never fear though, there were cu here! Mike’s forecast was described by locals as a bit pessimistic but I think he was actually about spot on. I topped out at about 16,000 feet and had several good strong climbs but also needed to take a few weak ones to stay at a comfortable altitude.

The task for Sports Class was a 3 turn TAT, first northeast then south, back to the northwest towards Manzano Peak, and then back northeast to the airport. Nominal distance was about 180 miles for a 3 hour task. I, and I think most others found lift at the start a bit difficult. Moriarty was in a blue hole, which was per forecast, but the gaggles worked it out and we all eventually crawled up to the max start height of 14,000 feet. I found a nice thermal with help from Michael Westbrook (UN), also flying a Std. Cirrus, at the west edge of the cylinder just after 2 PM. I dropped down under 14,000 for what I thought was 2 minutes and headed out on course. Looking at the score sheet it appears I was a few seconds short as I got a 25 point start penalty. Doh!

The first leg was FAST. Between the true airspeed boost with the high altitudes we’re flying and a quartering tailwind it didn’t take long for me to get well into the first circle. A big huge beautiful looking cloud was about in the middle of the area and I’m pretty sure every single one of us on task was headed for it. It didn’t disappoint which was good because the terrain under it was beautiful and didn’t look very landable. However there was a nice runway at Zorro Ranch well within range so the tension in the cockpit was kept to a minimum. From there I continued north, nearly to the back of the circle before turning south. Good clouds accompanied me back to the middle of the circle but then it was a blue hole until Interstate 40. I had cheated a bit east to try to stay with the clouds but apparently not far enough. Michael went further east and had better luck I think, but both of us ended up having to backtrack a bit into the wind to get into the second circle. Back in cloud land life was good again, there were plenty of gliders out on course, and we (or at least I) was having fun jumping between thermals.

I had started to notice a few localized blow-ups on the flight south, and by the time I was turned westbound across the second circle, it was obvious that the third circle was going to get interesting. A line of virga and a pretty large area of overdevelopment was in the northeast quadrant of the circle and was going to make getting home a trick. With the help of a few gliders, especially MM the Arcus and (I think) 7AF, one of the Air Force Cadets, we worked our way west. Looking north I noticed a classic microburst pattern of dust getting kicked up near Estancia. Altitude was going to be my friend here. I found a nice line of lift on the boundary between the sunshine and the virga. Local pilot, and my landlord for this week, Pete Vredenburg thought it may have been some wave caused by a sudden elevation drop that was upwind of me. I was unaware of that at the time but was just happy for the opportunity to be able to climb straight ahead and stay high because I knew that alititude was going to be my friend for the final leg. I kept around the south side of the virga until I was able to get around the west end of it and had about 2500 extra feet over the minimum required to finish.

So i began to divebomb back to the airport when about 10 miles out a radio call and quick glance to the west alerted me to an advancing gust front to the west of the airport. I finished about the same time as 5AF and FG, and there was plenty of discussion about the best way to deal with it. My first inclination was to LAND NOW before it got there, which in retrospect was probably what I should’ve done. However there also was a suggestion of finishing and then finding some lift away from the airport which seemed like a pretty good idea. The only problem of course was that we were in the 2000 AGL range, under shadow, and weren’t really finding any lift. 5AF made the prudent decision and landed on 36. I surveyed my options and realized my choices were either to land at the airport immediately or land out in a field south of the airport immediately, giving myself enough time to tie the glider down before the front got there. Those choices, of course, were assuming that I couldn’t find lift, which I decided wasn’t worth counting. The assistance available at the airport quickly made me decide that was the best choice and out came the brakes, down the gear and I made a steep fast approach and landed right into the advancing front. With some help from the contest ground crew and my own awesome crew of Amy (sister), Leah (wife), and Pete we were able to get the glider safely off the runway and to the trailer and tied down, while yet another gust front passed through. After the second passage the sun came back out, wind calmed down, and it was just another day in paradise.

Looks like I was third for the day with the penalty, not a bad start to the contest. Weather guessers seem to think tomorrow ill be even better, lets hope so!