SCFR3

[jdevorak]

Day 5: Task 5 was 28k to the south, ten to the north east, 25k to a big circle north of the motel, then a 6k leg to goal. It took me four days to figure out I could set the truck GPS to kilometers. I no longer had to do the math in my head! Every day they swap around the ordered start. I haven’t been able to keep track but today it was in the order of overall position. My guys (and Kraig) were toward the back. The rigids were about 2k over us and not doing very well. The day started with some unexpected mid level clouds that were shading the course line to the south. The lead pilots were reluctant to take off. Kraig and Ken and some others figured out that it would only work to their disadvantage so they pushed the start. Conditions had improved little by the time they were in the air but only a few landed for a relight. Ken went on task from just over 4,000 on the third clock. Greg was in better position but outside the circle. He went back a kilometer for the third clock but it cost him a thousand feet. The lift pattern has been the same the whole comp. The ceiling starts out low at 2 thousand AGL then starts getting higher after 2pm. It continues to rise until the lift shuts off entirely around 5pm or so. Then its glide as far as you can. Both boys were at the first turn point when climbs started to improve. Greg was with Dustin and Patrick Kruse. Ken was with Matt Barker and Jeff O’Brian. Bill Soderquist and his group were approaching turn point 2. They went off across the bush at that point and I had to back track to stay on the roads. By the time I got to the second turn point Ken had passed Greg. There was one really really tall gaggle with a significant tilt away from the third turn point to the north. They both went on glide from about 9 thousand, Greg, Dustin and Patrick first. Before they reached the Casa Grande Mountains Greg had dropped Dustin and Patrick behind. A little after that Greg got a good climb but a little further back Ken got a better one. He used it to pass Greg. Later at the third turn point Matt left first. Ken worked the climb some more uncertain if he had a glide to goal 6 km away. He was right in doing so. He made goal with five hundred to spare. That gave him enough time to circle around, check out conditions and set up an approach. He wacked anyway. No matter he made goal. Greg hooked up with Larry Bunner. They were scratching around before the third turn point even trying low passes along the power lines looking for lift. Greg dropped Larry too. Greg ran out of luck making the third turn point just as he flared. Larry somehow made goal. It must be frustrating. The next day at the pilots meeting David Glover gave Ken a special award of a Flytec cap for making his first goal in a couple of years. Ken was 15th for the day.

[jdevorak]

Day 6: It was predicted hotter with better lift. Same early inversion pattern breaking around 2pm. The course was a basic triangle with a little jog to the north shortly after the second turn point. Ken and Greg were toward the back of the ordered start so they opted to take the early launch window. The selection for that went back to interested pilots put their names in a hat. Both my pilots got in. Kraig traded gliders with Ben Dunn so Ben could test fly an RX. All pilots got in the air quickly. It was even harder to stay up than in the previous days. Several pilots landed back at launch. So did a rigid, Ben, and even a Swift. Soderquist broke a harness zipper and landed back to fix it. Greg landed back too. First turn point was 39km to the south. I went down the freeway and found a shady spot on the side of the 2nd turn point. About the time Greg flew overhead I saw one of the rigids land nearby. Ken was trailing 10km behind. After Ken gave a positional report in front of me I started up the truck. My navigational GPS had a dark screen. I started navigating by map and a hand held. I bit my tongue and hoped they wouldn’t land off road. I got to the second turn point about the same time as the main gaggle of 30 or more gliders. Ken saw one glider come in from the side and push out to climb over him. Then he heard somebody yell DIVE. Ken did and saw a shadow walk across his wing. Greg was a little off to the side and headed for turn point 3 at 8 thousand partly because of the congestion. Ken climbed to 10 thousand and left because he felt he needed a little bit of a jump on the faster gliders. Turn 3 was a relatively short leg to the WNW to get a line home that wasn’t over cotton crops. That big climb back at turn 2 was basically the last one. How far you got depended on how high you climbed there. I found a shady spot and tried to figure out how to enter coordinates into my hand held while they glided to the ground. I could select downloaded waypoints but, for the life of me, I couldn’t enter a new one. I had a manual in the glove box but it was for an old unit. Finally I was texted coordinates first from Ken and then from Greg. Greg was 5 miles toward goal and Ken was 7. I plugged lat long into my vario and followed the pointer west. When the needle went 90 degrees right, I turned on the next road. When it flipped 180 I knew I passed him. Greg was on the other side of the trees. Same process for Ken. Heading back to the motel we tried to guess how many made goal. Greg said he saw eight passing high overhead when he was breaking down. It was a long way to Francisco Grande so I guess five. Back home we heard it was only two. I saw Kraig in the lobby and asked if he was one of the two. He said no but his glider was. I said look on the bright side. Maybe he sold an RX. He said he was looking on the bright side. He wouldn’t have to set up in the morning.