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

The one hour task.

The task committee set a 100 km task to Picacho Peak southeast along I10 and
back to the Francisco Grande. As weatherman I pointed out that unlike on the
previous five days there was a forecast for a very strong inversion in the
morning. This would indicate that we needed to start things later, but the task
committee didn't go along with that.

When the open launch window opened at 12:30, the Swifts, the Millennium, and the
Atos got into the air as did a half dozen flex wing pilots. All of them soon
landed except for Stan Roberts on the Atos. He was about to land when he found a
little lift and worked his way back up.

Jonny went up and found no lift.

We decided to push the task back an hour with the first start window at 3 PM.
Pilots were making noises about going to the pool instead. We also changed the
task to make it 56 kilometers instead.

The open launch window opened again for its third try and we got  few
pilots into the air and sticking if low.

I was anxious to get launched but at first no one in front of me in the ordered
launch other than Olav Opsanger was ready to go, then as I got suited up and
started walking to the launch, Zippy said that he would go, but he didn't. I was
ready to launch at six minutes after the ordered launch window opened.

I got pulled up to right next to the small low gaggle of Brian on the Swift,
Steve on the Millennium, Larry Bunner on the the T2C 136, and Olaf Olsen on the
RX. Mitch, who was behind me in the ordered launch, got pulled up next to us and
we all climbed up slowly to 2,000' AGL.

When the lift stopped, Olaf and I headed east toward the gravel pit. This is
usually a reliable source of lift, but not today. We were soon on the ground.
The other pilots with us in our little gaggle went back toward the launch and we
able to stay up in light lift. This was obviously a smarter move as it you can't
get up, you can at least get another tow, if later.

Other pilots slowly started launching and working the light lift low. It wasn't
until a quarter to 3 PM that the day finally turned on and they were able to
actually climb to 6,000'. At 3:20 PM the lead gaggle took off for Chambers,
twenty three kilometers away.

The lift was better once they got away from Francisco Grande and they were able
to climb to over 7,000' near the turnpoint. They were back in about an hour. I
think that Robin Hamilton won the day.

Personally I've got to get over my superman complex, i.e. that I don't need any
lift to fly.