We Arrive

Arriving wasn't without it's drama. Just south of Phoenix we run into traffic that costs us nearly an hour. Otherwise we were on track to get into Casa Grande within 5 1/2 hours. As soon as we arrive we see many gliders set up. It's really hard to believe anyone flew today since it was so windy. Later we find out that several did but the wind proved to be a factor to staying up.

Talk about wind, we had strong winds from the Arizona border to right before Phoenix where it just pretty much stopped. 25 miles south of Phoenix the wind returned. Probably 20mph from the SW.

Anyway as we arrived the pilots meeting was just getting started so we barely made it for that, but got the basic details and then got the waypoints for the comp. Saw many pilots that I've met in Texas, Oregon, and elsewhere. The resort grounds are really nice, the rooms aren't. Small is a bit of an under statement. The beds are pretty close and not all very big, but I guess we didn't come here for the accomodations either. No internet in the rooms so most of the updates will happen from the phone (no audio blog this year) during the day and flight updates the day after.

At the pilots meeting Davis said the wind is supposed to back off, but at 10pm it's still breezy. If I had to guess I would say we got another day of breezy conditions. Rumor has it that we're not flying back here tomorrow, but going long. How long will be the question, but with such an international crew we'll likely see something like 70 miles or longer. The furthest waypoint in the list is Blythe but with the wind from the SW I think we can count that one out. The number a layout of the available waypoints really works for triangles but not for downwind tasks.