Since no one in open class has made goal, the task committee
decided to shorten the task once again to the point where we could make it. And
they were very clever making the task over the dry uncultivated and unirrigated
fields (Indian territory), and they sent us to hot black hills. Combine that
with a good day for lift with light winds and it turned out to be a very short
task. No cu's, of course.

I was pulled up early with the early bird group after yesterday's fiasco. I
pinned off early at 1,300' AGL just because it seemed like it was possible to get
up even if the lift was light. I climbed at 120 fpm to 2000' AGL. I then pushed
upwind to find better lift at 167 fpm to 5,800'.

After half an hour below 6,600' and hanging out with half a dozen pilots, I went
off on my own and found 270 fpm to 7,600' and brought a lot of friends over to
me. Twenty minutes later I and a bunch of us were able to climb to 8,500' on the
eastern edge of the 5 km start cylinder. The task was to the south and there was
a southwest wind of 4 mph so we were not in the best spot. I had been in the air
for a little over an hour.

Jonny headed out to the south-southwest as the the lift gave out. I headed west
and Zippy headed a bit to the north of me toward the west also. We watched as
Jonny circled up slowly to our south but continued to the west-southwest, the
off ramp for I8. It was 15 minutes before the window opened.

To the northeast of this off ramp are alfalfa fields for the nearby feedlots.
It's dry to the west and south. I had been there before and was quite willing to
head in this direction. Larry joined Zippy and I and we found good lift of 200+
fpm that got us back to 8,600'.

Half a dozen pilots behind us saw us turning and came in under us. They found
even better lift below and came up to us just as the window opened and we all
were off and heading south.

We found 333 fpm seven kilometers out, and 400 fpm just before the first set of
hills and then another 400 fpm between the hills. We climbed to 9,500' just
before the second set of hills and used that altitude to get to the Baker
turnpoint south of the hills and then back. It was a twenty kilometer glide, 11
kilometers back to the north to the next thermal again between the hills. The
lead gaggle kept forming and breaking up.

About six or seven of us headed north toward goal from 7,300'. I shaded to the
left to head for the north-most set of hills that have provided me with good
lift on previous days. The rest of the gaggle stayed to the east of the hills.

I found some lift, but it didn't seem to be enough. My compatriots starting
tuning to my east and I joined them at 245 fpm to 5,800'. They got out in front
of my a little and then found 400 fpm. It was 14 kilometers to goal and getting
to 6,500' was plenty. It was a fast glide into goal.

Not all the pilots had joined us to the south-west for our start. Jonny and
Bruce started much lower to our west. We ran into the second gaggle on our way
back from making the turnpoint.