http://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/race-of-champions/

Saturday was a day that the weather guy could feel pretty confident about
predicting the day's future. There was a high pressure centered just to the
west. The air was very dry over 5,000' and there was a very strong inversion,
therefore no cu's. There were scattered cirrus clouds that could reduce the
projected lift but they were widely spaced. The wind was out of the east at 7
mph, supposed to rise to 9 mph, then back off (as the high moved east) to 2 mph
by 6 PM, and stay that way through all of Sunday.

It looked like we could get to a little over 5,000' with the inversion starting
just below that. The surface temperature was supposed to be quite a bit cooler
than the 90 degrees from the two days before, down to 82. All and all a day with
light winds, low top of the lift, no cu's. And that's how it turned out.

There are twenty two or so of us here for the competition pilot's competition.
We were ready to fly after a day of rest after a long flight. We are paired up
(me with Richard Lovelace) for the race for the money (only the slowest pilot
counts for the team score), so the idea is to help your teammate (if your radio
continued to work) if you want the bucks. There is $5,000 on the line.

The task was an out return of only 75 kilometers to the south. There was a move
to shorten the 97 kilometer task to this one as there was a concern (misplaced)
because of the lack of clouds, which was adopted. The task was cross wind on
both legs, but the winds were supposed to die down.

The launch started at 1:30 PM to get us flying in the heart of the day on a
short task. The race start was set for 2:30 PM and everyone was in the air by
2:05 PM. Plenty of time for everyone to make the race start at the edge of the 5
km start cylinder. I pinned off at 1,200' AGL in light lift and waited for
others to come around to show me the good stuff.

We were soon all bunched up near the top of the lift at about 4,000' AGL. The
inversion layer was obvious when you looked out at the horizon. It looked like
almost everyone would start together. The wind was four mph out of the east
southeast.

Just before we started I spotted a sail plane way below us heading south along
our course line. This plane would soon mark our first thermal. It's Saturday and
the boys are out to play.

We hung together using each other to find the lift. It was a race start and as
we were climbing in the start cylinder so there was no need to rush out in front
as all our competitors were right there with us. We started four minutes after
the window opened.

Pilots had to be concerned both about their teammate and about how they were
doing. Our radios failed right away with someone's radio going on continuous
transmit. We were sharing our frequency with Larry Bunner and Matt Barker.
Richard had been up near me but I lost track of him right away. He turned off
his radio when there was a continuous transmission of static.

Coming over the sailplane we found almost 300 fpm on average and the day was on.
We were above 2,000' AGL and climbing well. The next thermal was nearby and I
was at the top just below Christian when we made a couple of useless turns as no
one else was willing to go out in front. So I did, which usually causes me
problems but didn't in this case.

The next thermal was over 300 fpm and we climbed to over 4,600' AGL. There were
ten to fifteen pilots nearby or in the same thermal. The pilots were showing
each other were to find the best lift.

We went on glide with Zippy off to east, in front and getting low. I was out in
front with Christian with Larry and Matt nearby. We found a little something but
Zippy hooked better lift and we went over to him to find 300+ fpm to 4,300' AGL.

Zippy headed out in front again and got lower and lower as he headed for the
turnpoint. I spotted the dust devil that he was heading for but it didn't
produce any lift. I was soon high above where the dust devil had been as he kept
going getting very low near the turnpoint and having to hang in zero sink. It
took him forever to climb out of there.

The rest of us stayed over 2,000' and found 300+ fpm as we took the turn and
headed back toward the airfield. The lift kept improving and there were still at
least ten of us hanging together and trading the lead. A third of the way back
we found 500 fpm.

We were cooking at that point and the race speed increased. We stayed over 4000'
AGL and kept finding lift together. We were a bit fewer than ten by this point
but Larry and Matt were right with me. I hadn't seen Richard.

At eighteen kilometers out we went on what looked like it might be final glide
at 13:1. We had a quartering tail wind of six mph which we hadn't expected. We
were flipping back and forth between the various pilots as we found lines
working or not.

I stopped for 500' to 2,500' at 10 kilometers out wanting to make sure I came
over the trees before the airfield high enough. I came into goal at 275' AGL.

I got on the radio to Richard after I landed and he was not too far out and soon
came in.

The flight
here.

Live Track here.

Spot
here.

Results
here.

Team results
here.