Hello Sailplane Racing Fans,
Leah and I arrived here in Moriarty on Friday night, with Kate the Std. Cirrus in tow. This is my first time flying at this world class soaring site and I was looking forward to all the wonderful soaring that I’ve been hearing about. The practice day on Saturday was looking like a decent day so we got the glider ready to go. Leah doesn’t have much experience crewing with the Cirrus since I’ve only owned my share in it for about a year. We still have some practice to get as proficient with it as we are with YYY the Cherokee II.
The flight on Saturday was interesting. Tom set a turn area task taking us first to the north and then down to the south at Manzano Peak, then a bit southeast and back home. I never was really able to get up and going and spent most of the flight in survival mode. It didn’t take long for me to realize that 2000 ft is somewhat low around here. My lifetime of flatland flying does not apply. As one friend mentioned today, if you aren’t legally required to be on oxygen, you aren’t high enough! I did find one thermal of 8 knots that I took to over 13,000 feet but otherwise I was generally flying between 9 and 11,000 MSL. For reference, field elevation here is at 6,200. I basically nicked the southernmost circle, trying not to let that 8 knot thermal allow me to get brave, and finished about 15 minutes early. I was happy to be home and Leah was glad to see me! It turned out that i was 3rd for the day in Sports Class, but Michael Westbrook (UN) beat me by 20 mph!!
The general forecast for today was not inspiring. Thunderstorms, microburst, and all kinds of bad stuff was mentioned at the meeting. Tom set a short 2 hr TAT which would keep us in close and give us a chance to get a flight in before things went crazy. A few of us launched off the new Runway 18 here, avoiding the legendary Moriarty crosswinds, but many of us (including me) were promptly shot down. Most of the Air Force Academy cadets who landed back relaunched, but I decided I had had my fun for the day and instead proceeded to my trailer. Club-mate Lauren Rezac (5YA) managed to actually make it around the course but most others just got out of the start 10 or 15 miles and made the good decision to land back and get boxed up before the storms hit.
We enjoyed watching a couple of advancing outflow boundaries with walls of dust getting kicked up. Plenty of lightning and even some rain fell too! The locals were trying to identify this strange wet stuff falling from the sky. The safety meeting was great along with a good supper served up by the club. Tomorrow the green flag drops and the last forecast I saw shows that it should be a great soaring day.
