Day 7: Today’s task was a triangle to the south. A 14 mile leg south east to a point near a 2,000 foot mountain, then a 12 mile leg southwest to another point near a 2,000 foot mountain, then a 20 mile leg north to Francisco Grande motel. The task committee added an early start and a late start for a total of five. Maybe this was intended to break up some of the congestion. The weather was predicted to 104 and blue. It wasn’t. The wind was light, as predicted. The morning inversion was slow to break and slow to rise. Ken thought he might have to come back and land. I stuck around just in case. Ricker did come back and walked his glider back over to the motel, giving up. Greg got up high enough to go on course at the third start. Ken came across a gaggle and also got some altitude going on course at the 4th start. Greg got to the Casa Grande Mountains and found a climb a little better than what he had been getting. Ken headed that way then decided he would probably not get there to use Greg’s thermal so he switched back to a more direct route to the first turn point. By then he lost his gaggle and stuck with some zero to 50 per minute stuff for the next half hour. The way he described it he danced across most of the roof tops in Arizona City. Instead of going to the far point, I decided hit the return leg in the middle (and hopefully in shade) and read a book. No luck on the shade but I did get some reading in. Greg made the far waypoint and headed back. He got his last best climb to 8,000 over lava hills area next to a cotton field. Ken had made the turn point but was in trouble. He landed a few kilometers north in an unplowed area of the cotton farm. The night before I gave him my handheld GPS and he figured out how to enter coordinates. Today I forgot. I got some rough ones using the pointer on the map page. I was on the right longitude but a couple of nautical miles south. I got on a dirt road that went through a big bushy area some soft dirt and over a big berm before breaking out into the cotton fields. The farm had some decent dirt roads boxing the edges of the cultivation. I got Ken on the phone and he described other gliders that had landed around him. I saw a retrieval crew ahead and went for them. It turned out to be the wrong ones but they pointed me toward other gliders that had landed in the area. I called Ken back and he taught me how to work my GPS again. I wasn’t holding down one of the buttons long enough to get to the appropriate sub menu. I headed off again. Then I ran into Zippy walking down the road with his harness bag. He accepted a ride. We found Ken and went back for Zac’s glider. It was even further out in the sticks. By that time Greg sent his landing coordinates. He was 7 kilometers from goal. We got to him just before sunset but just after the mosquitoes started biting. Greg told a story of how he landed in a nice field by I8 freeway. He was walking his glider (still set up) over to the road. He came to a marshy area and a big fat rattle snake. The snake just flicked its tongue at Greg. He went another way.
For a seven day comp there was seven days of flying. Most tasks were55 to 60 miles. Each day the best climbs were topped out around 8-10 thousand feet. There was 5-6 hours of airtime each day. Greg made goal once finishing in 28th place out of 38 gliders (plus five rigids). Ken finished 27th making goal once. Kraig finished 15th but missed the opening day. The highest placing club member was Bill Soderquist at 8th place.
SCFR fin
Moderator: Comp Committee