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Fog on the airport again on my morning run, but this time there was already some sun showing through. It was kinda neat, as I could see some of the ridgeline below the fog bank, and some of the ridgeline above it.
By meeting time, the fog had burned off and it was a nice sunny day. Weatherman Bill Thar (G8) told us we would have decent, if not great lift, but probably blue (he was right on both counts).
The task for the day was a 3-turn TAT; south 24 miles to Sussex with a 15 mile radius, then north about 70 miles to Piolis with a 15 mile radius, then south again about 40 miles to Monument with a 15 mile radius, then home. Min time for Sports was 2.5hr and 3hr for FAI.
Most people left as soon as the start gate opened for their class, but some not-so-smart types (like me) left late and had to fly alone. Conditions out on course were blue, with 2-3kt climbs to 4000-5000msl. Speeds were generally in the 40’s and 50’s. An interesting end to the day was the great conditions in the northwest quadrant of the Piolis circle. This area is quite mountainous and much higher than the valley. Its also upwind, so it is a little scary getting out there. However, the payoff was 5kt climbs to 7000-8000 over spectacular scenery.
At the end of the day, in FAI class John Seymour won the day with 58.15mph raw/49.71mph handicapped, to move him into 2nd place overall (displacing me – the rat!), and moving to within 100pts of 1st place overall Gregg Leslie. In Sports Class Ryszard Krolidowski (RW) won his 3rd straight day with 48.9mph raw/46.01mph handicapped to extend his lead to almost 500 points after only 3 days. If this continues, Ryszard will be able to fly the last day from the comfort of a lawn chair!
We had a couple of landouts, and unfortunately one of them was more of a crash than a landing. Mike Smith put his ASW-28 (newly purchased from Walt Cawby) into New Hope Farm (called Horse Head Farm in our database) and somehow managed to overrun the 2000′ x 200′ manicured grass lawn and crash through 2 split-rail fences – wow! As it turned out, I had the opportunity to examine this same field closely today before finding a saving thermal nearby, and you couldn’t ask for a better off-landing site. Mike is OK – just a minor cut on his head, but the glider is badly damaged and maybe totalled.
The popular weather forecast for tomorrow is for a 30% chance of precip – of the thunder-bumper variety, a high of 91 (wow!) and light & variable winds. Well, at least we’ll have clouds ;-).
TA
