This mentoring is harder than it looks, at least for me. I got a
new team today and my goal was to help out our star women pilot, Dana. I told
Dave Lopez that I wasn't going to help him as he made goal yesterday, and
therefore I needed to help the people that hadn't made goal yet. I told Cory the
same thing and he went to a different frequency. Maybe the guys making goal need
to get on one frequency together and not with the mentors. All the mentors
agreed that they needed to help out the pilots who weren't making goal.

I also wanted to help Fernando and Willie on the Falcon. Dave, Willie and Dana
are easy to spot in the air. Fernando is not.

Our team launched second and I was right with them. There was huge lift right at
the end of the field and I pinned off low and climbed out quickly. The launching
took all of 33 minutes, or about a minute a pilot. We've got four planes for 30+
pilots.

After 3,000' at 300 fpm the lift slowed down and the gaggle over launch filled
in with most of the pilots. We climbed to 3,900' and I had Dana and Dave with
me. Fernando I could not find. Willie had been with me but wandered off, I don't
know exactly why. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to ask him.

Dana was just above me and I said let's go toward Mascotte when we got to almost
4,000'. I could see Tom and three other pilots circling there so it was time to
get going. She seemed responsive to my suggestions.

She came in low and I could see Willie way low but working lift. Tom, Larry and
I were working better lift much higher and it wasn't long before I was at cloud
base at 4,700'. Dana was working her way up steadily so I pushed forward to the
next clouds to report on what was ahead.

The lift was less than 100 fpm under the next two clouds so after a few minutes
and at 4,000' I pushed north northwest downwind to clouds just passed small
fires. No lift over the fires but the clouds were working a little. This turned
into a general area of lift.

Dana, Tom, Larry, Dave Lopez and four or five other pilots were low and
circling. Dana further to the south with a couple of them. I had headed upwind
to the east under a cloud street and stayed high.

I went back to Dana three times where she was circling with a few others but
there was 400 fpm down above them. I'd go back to the north and tell her that as
soon as she felt comfortable she should join us further north to get better
lift.

She was finally able to get to where we were and David Lopez and I climbed to
4,800' at 300 fpm. She was about 1,000' below us. At cloud base we headed to the
prisons to the north northwest.

Got to the prisons at 4,200' and found light lift. Now the idea was to wait for
Dana. David and I were out in front and there was no reason for him to wait. I
just needed to wait to stay with Dana. I headed southeast away from the course
line hoping that he would get the idea and head off on his own. There were
plenty of cu's around.

Losing just  three hundred feet on my little glide back I returned to the
area of lift but it was not there. I went searching for it under good looking
clouds but suddenly there was sink every where.

Now racing to find the lift I lost 2,500' before I hit some weak lift as 1,700'
Suddenly there was David Lopez right next to me at my altitude. He apparently
had followed me around when I wasn't trying to climb up but wait for Dana.

A few turns that averaged 35 fpm and then I just lost it circling a little to
the east of it when it was moving northwest apparently. In 500 fpm down I was
quickly on the ground. David found it and climbed up.

The pilots and mentors behind us soon caught up with us and a good number of
them made it to goal. As I write this they haven't reported in yet.

Cory, Dave Lopez, Tom, Mick, Matt, Greg and Larry at goal.

http://soaringspot.com/gss2015/results/club/daily/day5.html

https://airtribune.com/2015-green-swamp-sport-klassic/blog__day_5

Dana continued to do well without my mentoring and undoubtedly had her personal
best.