Day 1

We wake up to breezy (although somewhat less) conditions from the SW. Phill and I eat breakfast at the hotel buffet that will serve to be my main meal for the day until dinner. I found that to work well in Texas and decided to continue the same here. I think the only other health related thing on the agenda was to eat some aleve (pain re levers) right after the flight. After breakfast the wind hasn't shown any signs of slowing. Dustin (meet organizer) joined us for breakfast and was confident that the wind would cooperate but we may not be making it back here.

I went into town around 8:30 to pick up some AAA batteries and other provisions (beer). While shopping was made aware that alcohol sales aren't allowed before 10 am on Sunday, so we'll have to go without today. Since I was in town I decided that a little WAR driving would be appropriate since no Internet was available in the hotel room. The town is pretty quiet on Sunday morning so I could drive slowly down a few streets looking for a good WIFI signal. In short order I picked up a Netgear router that was unsecure and got connected. I did my posting and weather briefing quickly and signed off probably within 5 minutes.

On the way back from town I could see the wind had decreased significantly, so it looked like it might work out for a triangle task. At the pilots meeting they call for a 70 mile zig-zag task to the SE but not back to the hotel. The task would end up taking us about 57 miles away parallel with Tuson, AZ.

Since our gliders aren't setup we do not have to take the half a mile shlep to the runway (I think that's a bonus after seeing just how far it really was. During setup dust devils would roll through and one time picked up several unattended gliders. Like many times before I suited up late (probably spooked a little from seeing a lot of weak link breaks (Phill told me he got the rope up high, meaning the weak link broke on the tug side giving him the rope in his face). So I was one of the last guys in the long line to tow. Tom Lanning was helping on the launch, I asked him why he thought there were so many weak link breaks. He said most were popping out of the cart to get above the dust the tug created during power up. So when it was my turn I just made sure I picked up the cart and flew through the dust. It was like flying blind but I got a smooth one and was up really quick.

I got a powerful tug and he had me up top quick. I pinned off before being waved off and promptly started looking for friends (others marking thermals). No one was in the vicinity but there were a few pilots just east of the hotel marking what looked like good first climb. I pulled the VG on and ran for them. I got the climb right away but it started out about 250 up. Later we were about 6k and then moved towards the edge of the start cylinder. Interestingly even though the day was a right turn day others that joined the thermal above me started thermalling left, so much for the turn direction. Making the start cylinder was easy enough as we found a climb right at the edge of it. Myself and another pilot I think that was flying a T2C made way pretty well and stopped to top off midway to the first TP but the climb was weak compared to earlier climbs so we left it and climbed in the next thermal 3km from the 1st TP. I was on my own at this point and angled right of course line seeing how the wind was from the west. I also wanted to stay away from the swampy area on course line. I was watching one pilot get drilled and it looked like he would put it down in the pastures below. Too bad he didn't hang on because to the left of his track was a nice big fatty going up 600'/min. As I was climbing anyone else around that saw that climb came in and joined. Most were above me but I soon met them at about 8k. Most left angling right of course line. I took a more direct route but did not get as good of a line as others.

About this time I started to struggle to stay high and began to slow my pace. Other pilots kept on pressing on. Some didn't fair as well as others. I was maintaining and kept my patience and climbed in to the top of whatever I could find. As I made my way towards the 2 TP I was keeping and eye on the dust devils that kept popping off the backside of the mountain we would eventually fly over on the last leg into goal. I thought if I could get there it would be the ticket into goal. But back to the matter at hand, short of the 10 interstate I found a good strong climb that would take me back to 8k and plenty of altitude to make the 2nd TP and start the last leg into goal.

The next problem was the irrigated fields we had to cross, but they ended up not being a problem at all. I was flying mostly by myself since the 1st TP, so I was pretty surprised when a pilot closed on my position. We topped out (8k) in a thermal just shy of the irrigated fields. From there I thought the glide to the lee side of the mountains on course line would be a breeze, and in fact they were. But the dust devils that were there before no longer coming off. Matter of fact the wind had switched , and was now blowing from the NNW. Crossing the mountain nothing was working and I kept looking but not much activity was evident. Still at 4k I could see goal about 15km away. I started to hear gunfire, guess that was because I was over 2 shooting ranges. Just west of the shooting ranges I found a light thermal but it was climbing, and I hadn't had anything for almost 10km. I took it but it was drifting faster than it was climbing. At some point I decided to take my chances and move toward goal after reaching 4k. But it wasn't to be. I ended up landing 11k short but had made a good effort and was satisfied with my performance. I would end up 27th for the day in a field of about 60.