Zac writes:

Laying in the grass just past the 2nd turnpoint, watching the
gliders fly overhead. Not how day 1 is supposed to go.

Looks like either Jonny or Oleg won the day. Oleg was in first
then Jonny (who took the second clock) and it was a long wait for the next
pilots to make it in.

The task was a triangle to the north:

There were cirrus clouds about all morning and when we started launching but
there was good lift under them and over shaded ground right on tow. The lift
area seems to last at least for the minute on tow so I pinned off in it and it
was easy to climb to 5,500' and then do it again all while staying right at the
edge of the 8 kilometer start cylinder centered around Sawmill.

The altitude that was lost getting to the edge of the start cylinder was very
quickly made up at 460 fpm on average to 6,000' 4 kilometers to the north on the
first start. The day appeared to be quite strong.

Larry and I headed out very quickly pushing hard to the west northwest along the
course line and toward what we thought would be good lift over the Green Swamp.
I saw a pilot or two head on a more northerly course over the nursery north of
highway 50 but hung with Larry until we saw that we were not going to be
rewarded with any lift and the pilot to the north was turning.

We had headed into a dark shaded area with thick cirrus overhead. It was darker
and thicker than what we had been in over Quest and we just didn't take that
into account.

We headed for the nursery but found nothing useful there. Zac and Anna had
joined our radio frequency (and Zac was very clear on the radio) so I heard form
him that he was climbing in 150 fpm 20 kilometers from the first turnpoint. I
was 27 kilometers out at 3,300' and I really wondered if I could make it there.

I headed his way as there didn't seem to be many options. Down to a little over
1,200' I came in under the small gaggle that Zippy must have been in. There was
a six mph wind out of the north.

I was able to climb 900' at an average of 75 fpm, but at 2,100' it
gave out and while I looked around I apparently didn't look in the right places.
Heading west northwest to another gaggle I came it at 800' and found strong sink
which brought me down.

Meanwhile Larry was circling from even lower in weak lift and then barely
getting up moving over to the west to the lumber mill at highway 50 and 471
where he worked for an hour to get up from 600' to 6,000'. Zac was ahead and
Jonny was catching up with pilots from behind having taken the second clock. He
apparently caught everyone by the first turnpoint.

The cirrus went away about a half hour after I landed and the day looked a lot
better. Pilots had been circling low over my head for at least half an hour and
were now able to head west toward the turnpoint. The whole area was now brightly
sun lit and the day looked a lot better. There were even a few stray cu's.

Results:
https://airtribune.com/qao22016/results/task1438/day/open-class

Lots of exciting action with a meth head shooting at Kelly Myrkle
while he was at the bottom of a gaggle. Jonny saw him aim at Kelly. The guy will
probably be in jail by tonight as he has been identified. We very forcefully had
Kelly go to the sheriff. He threatened Kelly later on the ground as well and
Kinsley Sykes.