32.881678,-111.854982,Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona,
USA

The bow tie task:

The forecast was for a little lighter lift, top of lift around 9,000', no cu's,
winds out of the southwest around 6 to 8 mph.

It turned out that we had a strong inversion and it was quite difficult to get
above 7,000'. The lift below 5,000' was good, but above that it was very weak.
This made for a difficult task, especially coming back into a head wind. Only
Brian Porter on the Swift made it back in.

The launching went very quickly as pilots were sticking right away and many got
off early as I did in good lift. The lift was consistent but not that strong
with bits of 300 and 400 fpm. Not nearly as strong as the previous four days and
we didn't get above 6,000'for an hour.

Given the height limit and the weak lift the gaggle sucked. We were just going
round and round in zero to 50 fpm.

Maybe a couple of pilots took the first clock. I was at 4,500' so saw no good
reason to do that. Most pilots took the second clock but four minutes before it
opened I headed west back to the south of the Francisco Grande to wait for the
next clock. Joe Bostik, Larry Bunner, Krzysztof Grzyb, and Robin Hamilton went
with me and we were able to get a bit higher than previously to 6,400' before
heading out.

We spread out and worked together. I found the first thermal that got us to
6,200' over Casa Grade and Joe found the next one that got us to 6,800', much
lower than the first four days here.

Then we went for a 15 kilometer glide. Joe and either Kris or Robin were in
front. I was following Joe. He started turning and I came in under him at 1,500'
AGL. There was lift there but it kept disappearing after one turn. Larry found
300 fpm and then it disappeared.

I searched all over and could not find a core. Joe and others, including pilots
from the second clock that we came under were doing well enough to get up.

Larry and I did not do well and did not get up and soon landed.

Joe was able to make it past the first turnpoint. Zac and Tyler made it back to
near the third turnpoint. Pilots were scattered along the course line.

Results will be here:
http://soaringspot.com/2013scfr/results/flex/daily/day5.html