Day 2

Lots of carnage today. Between weak link failures, tugs hitting gliders, and pilots pounding into the launch paddock, there was plenty of excitement to be seen. The wind was very switchy and was likely instrumental in causing some of the carnage.

The task was in the shape of a rhombus and around 82 miles or 111km or so. The day was supposed to be much like the first, but better climb rates and slightly higher. That turned out to pretty wrong and led to the day being over called.

The craziness in the launch sequence was enough to make me wait a little bit. Nobody was really high and several pilots landed for a relight. So I waited again like yesterday. Finally in the launch line I heard someone pound in behind me. It was Konrad, unlucky enough to get a switchy wind during approach and landed downwind and turtled the glider and broke a downtube. I got the trike (great), but it was actually a really nice tow and I was soon joining several other gliders in a decent climb.

Greg Kendall was above me about 2km down the road so moved to his position and got to around 7k. We both took a line somewhat north of course towards gliders marking a light climb. I was plenty high so I could use the gliders below me to steer to the best part of the thermal. That kept me high during the whole start sequence. I think Chris Zimmerman and I were together on top of the stack turning the correct way (today was a left turn day), but the entire gaggle below us was turning right. I think we both knew we would eventually end up turning right as the gaggle climbed up to us. I was in a great position to take the approaching 1415 start clock, on top of the stack and the edge of the start cylinder. Zimmerman, Degtoff and I all left about the same time joined by Greg in a minute or two. The glide to the first TP was pretty good stopping to top off twice. Climbs at this point were generally below 7k and about 200 - 300 up. At some point I left the gaggle below me and tagged the 1st TP. The next one was to the SE about 28km away. We had been down this way yesterday so I felt OK about finding lift and bypassed several pilots that were in slower climbs. I saw a gaggle marking lift E of the prison and positioned myself just to the N of the gaggle and was rewarded with a decent climb. I think I had caught the pilots that took the 1400 start time so it looked like I was making pretty good time. Not following and making my own decisions of when to leave and how far to glide before looking for lift.

The gaggle above had definitely slowed down and Greg and I (Greg joined the thermal low) climbed to the gaggle above pretty quick where we stayed wingtip to wingtip for some time. Taking that climb to the south towards the 10 interstate, we could see a really big dust devil right on the other side of the 10. As Greg and I approached we really got drilled and had to stop for lift right on the N side of the 10. Greg blew right past me and I decided to take my altitude and run for the decaying dust devil. On the windward side of the dust devil the lift was strong and ratty but not so much that I was white knuckling it. Greg, Larry Brunner (the guy who had his glider destroyed the the tug) and I climbed steadily going to 7k. Greg had peeled off before 5k and took a different line than Larry and I. When I got to 7k I left for the TP 9km away. With a good line I climbed on glide to 7.5k and stopped to tank up 3km from the second TP. I was with some of the pilots that had left much earlier when we were just getting the climb in the dust devil after the 10 interstate. The drift from the W seemed considerable so I pressed on and was rewarded with a steady climb 1km from the 2nd TP. I stayed with it until reaching 6k and drove into the TP turning after I saw the GPS count below 400m. Turning towards the next TP is was very apparent that the wind from the W had picked up considerably. I pressed on towards the 3 TP while watching a glider in front plummet into dinosaur country. To the left of course line and about 2km away I saw a group of 4 pilots climbing steadily, but questioned the line they had so I decided to stay on course as much as possible hoping to drive into a good thermal. The wind was getting to be too much (or so I thought and questioned my ability to make it over the power lines into the field directly in front of me. I had already seen a glider down in a field by a ranchers house off to my left with a good paved road next to it. I threw the towel in around 5:00pm and took the left towards the field and put it down safely next to Sunny (one of the owners of Highland Airsports in Maryland.

After hiking the glider to the fence I got David Glover on the phone and told him where we were and coordinated retrieval for Greg and I since I saw him making the glide into the field that I didn't think I could make it into. Sure enough that was where he was when we found him. Phill tried to go back through the pass we had come through but ran into a strong headwind as well. All in all, a decent showing for the Kagelites / Sylmartarians. Nobody would make goal today from the flex class. Later I learned that I had missed the 2nd TP by .08km so I was only scored distance to the 2nd TP (bummer). Currently in 21st