http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=-1436600459

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/getScoring.html?scoringId=319

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1133582

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20150304&gliderclass=hg1

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/11.4.2015/16:40

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/ranking-hg-open/

We had a forecast of a 40% chance of rain. We could see on the forecast maps
that a front was coming our way. When we looked to the north we could see the
milky colored sky. The idea was to have a task that was valid but was short
enough that we could get everyone on the ground before any rain showed up.

The visible satellite photo for 12:30 PM. You can see the lack of cu's to our
north.

At noon the task committee changed the task because while there were plenty of
cu's, there were none then to the north and the milky coloring seemed to be
coming a lot nearer. Now the task was to the south to 474 and 33 and then back
up to the northeast to the Sawmill turnpoint and back to Quest. The sky to the
north filled in with cu's a bit later.

We had expected 7 mph westerly winds, but they were a little stronger, 9 mph to
11 mph and south south westerly. The task committee had abandoned the plan to go
to the north to the Grass Roots airfield, so we didn't have a down wind leg to
start the task off (the next leg would have been 20 km into the wind), but a 14
km leg into the wind (from the edge of the start cylinder to the north edge of
the 3 km cylinder around the turnpoint).

We put a bigger cylinder around the turnpoint so that pilots wouldn't be flying
over fields where the owner is less than pleased to have us landing. The edge of
the turnpoint cylinder was just east of the Seminole glider port. Right on
highway 33.

We started early at 12:30 PM because we felt that the day could end early with
rain showers and thunderstorms and we wanted to give pilots the best chance of
staying safe. That turned out to be a good call, not that we had any rain.

The first couple of pilots who were towed up didn't stick. I was next and was
pulled toward and then flew to the southwest edge of a reasonable looking cu but
found no lift. Heading back to the field, down wind, I saw a pilot turning just
west of the field and that was 200 fpm. It was early and none of the pilots were
getting very high or climbing very fast. We got up to cloud base at 3,800'.

With the south wind we kept drifting back to the north. Finally I had climbed to
3,900' and was at cloud base so I headed south. There was perhaps one pilot out
on the course at that point. A few came with me and joined me in thermals to the
south of Quest, but as it turned out, still inside the start cylinder (at least
at the top of the lift).

I found 200 fpm at 2,600' just outside the start cylinder and drifted back into
at 4,100', again at cloud base. Cory was following me and I saw one pilot a
little out in front of me lower.

I was on the radio to my team calling out the climbs. Cory was listening. I had
turned down the volume on the radio because of some early obnoxious transmission
so I wasn't hearing anyone. I forgot that I turned it down, which caused some
consternation as I would be the one to stop the task as meet director if there
was a safety issue and I needed to hear pilots comments. Turns out there were no
safety issues during the day.

There were plenty of cu's along highway 33 and just needed to be sure that I
could get to the next one with enough altitude to find the lift. I came in to
the lift at 2,000' next to the Seminole field and worked 150 fpm up a little
more than a kilometer from the edge of the turnpoint. I needed to get higher
before getting the turnpoint. I had to do another thermal to get to 3,500' and
high enough to actually get to the turnpoint given that the wind was strong
enough to make that difficult.

The sky was still full of cu's and turning around to go back and downwind made
things much easier. I found 300 fpm and got to over 4,000'. A 150 fpm thermal 6
kilometers to the north that had three other pilots working up wind around it
allowed me to climb up to 3,500', before shooting to the east to get the Sawmill
turnpoint.

That looked like enough to make it in so I just kept on gliding and enjoying the
tailwind to goal.

About forty minutes later Mick Howard came first into goal on his Wills Wing
T2C. The topless gliders are heavily handicapped. David Lopez was next over
goal, then Cory and finally Spinner, the Quest Air tandem pilot. That's everyone
who made it to goal of the contestants.

Larry came in with David and said let's go back and do the course again but in
the opposite direction so he and David did that and were successful.

The first leg was just too much of a headwind for the Sport 2 pilots. So that
was a bit unfair. We, of course, try to make each task fair to all the pilots,
including the Falcon pilot, so we would not usually include an upwind leg,
especially not the first leg.

The cu's were cleared out at about 3:30 or 3:45. It was a good thing that we
started early as the end ended so early.

http://soaringspot.com/gss2015/results/club/daily/day7.html

http://soaringspot.com/gss2015/results/club/total/day7.html

Replay the flights here:
https://airtribune.com/2015-green-swamp-sport-klassic/blog__day_7

Dana, in eleventh, is the leading points person in contention of the US women's
national sport class champion. There were three women in the competition.

Cory Barnwell did not have to fly the last day as Mick Howard could not catch
him as the most points that he could have scored would be 800 given his
handicap. Because of the difficult first leg, the day was not worth 1,000'. Too
many pilots landed quite short.

Because this is a sport class only competition the sport class pilots were the
focus of the competition and it was very friendly. Because we have a handicap
system, we allow in topless gliders and pilots with lower NTSS points and
ranking. We just have to keep it fair with an appropriate handicap to allow
everyone a chance to do well, but not rely on the glider to give you an edge.

Kim Frutiger raised about a $1,000 for the Cloudbase Foundation with a raffle.
Pilots had a great dinner at the Redwing restaurant and a local band played
great music.

The winner:

Photo by
Adam
Bain

Larry and his new glider: