SPOT Tracker for the meet
here.

The results and SPOTS and teams will be up here:
http://ozreport.com/2013USNationals.php

Today's flight
here.

Jonny's video
here.

The Open Task was 198.4 km straight north to the airfield at Floydata. The Sport
Task was 110 Km north to Tbar. Eleven Open Class pilots made goal and one Sport
Class Pilot made goal. I was first into goal at Floydata with Attila three
minutes behind me.

The wind was a little lighter than the first day and there were no cu's. There
was an obvious strong inversion at 7,500' going up to over 9,000' later in the
day.

I pinned off early at 1000' AGL in 300+ fpm.  I climbed out by myself to
7,200'.

The other pilots were milling about back at the airfield as I drifted a few
kilometers to the north during my climb and as it was a bit early yet for the
first start clock at 2:40 (there are four, twenty minutes apart), I decided to
join them. The lift was pretty weak and we just drifted again back to about
where I can climbed out to originally.

We had a gaggle of about ten pilots with Mike Bilyk, Zac Majors, Larry Bunner
and others slowly climbing to 7,800'. At 3.5 minutes before the first window
opened and five kilometers from the edge of the 10 kilometer radius start
cylinder I decided to head north to take the first clock on my own. I knew that
most of the rest of them would hold back and wait for a later clock but I saw no
reason not to go. Others were waiting for the day to get better before starting,
as they hadn't experienced the good lift that I pinned off in.

Seven kilometers outside the start cylinder I found 340 fpm and saw Olaf come
into the thermal well below me. This was the last pilot I would see for a long
time. While there were no cu's ahead to guide to me to the lift and no pilots
around to help, I was happy to be on my own and not worrying about the decision
making of other pilots.

The route took us off the cultivated lands and over the rougher areas with fewer
roads and many locked gates but I was plenty high and didn't get low over these
areas. I found strong lift with one thermal averaging 550+ fpm. Most thermals
averaged 350+ fpm and some were over 400 or 500 fpm. I was soon climbing to over
9,000'. The country was climbing to 3,000' elevation.

I passed over some cultivated flat land areas and found bits of lift on the
cliffs rising from the canyons up to them but nothing spectacular. On the first
patch of flatlands about half way up the course line I found a couple of dust
devils that provided some nice smooth lift. In fact the lift had been smooth all
along and I was really appreciating how great it is to fly here in north Texas
even on a high pressure day.

As I topped out at over 8,000' I saw Attila come in about 4,000' below me
searching in the area to the east of where the dust devils had been. This was
the first pilot I had seen and I assumed that he had taken the second clock. I
didn't see another pilot the rest of the day.

As the day got later I started looking for west facing formations in the canyons
and found a bright looking cliff area that really turned on and got me back to
9,000', after a slow and low patch, and up onto the flats south of Ralls.

After that nice climb the going got tough as the fields turned circular and
green filled with irrigated cotton. I snaked my way through them concentrating
on the dry patches but I was not getting high and I had to work 100+ fpm
thermals. I was being very careful after falling down on the first day,
recognizing when I was out of an area with the strong lift and realizing that I
had to stay with much weaker stuff.

I got lower and lower as I moved west of Ralls to stay over dried areas and they
were getting fewer and fewer. I was looking for any buoyant area and moving east
or west to get out of any line of sink. The wind was about 13 mph out of the
south southwest so there were definitely lift and sink streets.

My left shoulder had been acting up and I was doing my best to ignore the pain,
but I began to notice that it had gone away. I was quite grateful that I could
keep my mind on flying and not have to multi-task dealing with suppressing the
pain.

Finding myself between circular cotton fields and down to 700' AGL, I moved back
and forth from west to east searching desperately for any sign of lift and
checking out possible landing areas. Finally I felt a trickle just to my west
and started turning. It was mostly sink but less sink than I had been
experiencing, with a hint of lift.

I searched for the core and finally found 100+ fpm. Belinda was in the truck on
the highway next to me watching as I slowly climbed out an drifted north. I was
30 kilometers from goal.

I stayed in the weak lift for 35 minutes climbing to 7,500'. I was checking out
the Flytec 6030 to see how I high I needed to be to get to goal. Then I
remembered that I still had the instrument set with the Falcon polar. Yikes,
time to pull in and go to goal. I arrived first into goal with 2,500' of extra
unneeded altitude.

Three minutes later Attila came in at a proper altitude trimming the trees over
the town on the way to goal at the airfield north of town. Olav who also took
the first clock was in next twelve minutes after Attila, followed by additional
pilots making eleven at goal. Jonny Durand went down early as did other pilots
who did well on the first day.

The team scoring is up for the first day here:
http://ozreport.com/2013USNationals.php. Click on Team Scoring and then
click on the Totals tab for the second page.

Dan Jones was the only Sport Class Pilot to make goal and of course he won the
day. The Sport Class goals have been quite a distance but a Sport Class pilot
meets with the Task Committee every day.

Mike's landing.

The hangar.