https://airtribune.com/2018-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results

https://airtribune.com/2018-green-swamp-sport-klassic/blog__day_2

The forecast was for 10 mph west northwest winds on the ground with higher winds
aloft. Not a great direction and strength for a king-posted competition. None
the less we persisted.

The forecast also showed no cu's but Larry Bunner, our weather guy for the
competition, dismissed that as nonsense and sure enough at 11 AM during the
pilot task briefing the cu's started showing up just to our north and soon the
sky was full of them.

Given the forecast for moderately strong westerly winds with a north component,
the task committee set a task to Wallaby Ranch to our southeast, but to keep
pilots away from landing in areas with locked gates (Branson Ranch south of
east/west highway 474), they set a 3 kilometer turn point at the round-a-about
at the intersection of Dean Still and highway 33. Making this turnpoint would be
difficult for king-posted gliders because of the wind.

We had two launch lines setup at the east end of the east/west runway. This
required that the Dragonflies land to our southeast and then taxi across to the
launch area, which slowed things down a bit. None the less the pilots were off
in an hour. There were a few reflights, but given the conditions they were pretty
minimal.

This wind direction and strength makes for rowdy conditions below 500' and
pilots really need to be on top of the situation while on tow to make sure that
they don't get knocked off to one side or the other. I was very happy to see
that pilots responded well and all launched safely. All the pilots with reflights
also landed in the designated area and were picked up and hauled back to launch
by David Finn.

With Eric Williams directing tug traffic and after an initial hesitation pilots
moved off the staging lines and into the launch line quickly. Each line had
numerous official helpers with yellow safety vests on, who made sure that the
pilots were ready to go before they got to the launch box. Safety of the launch
is a major concern here at Quest Air.

The lift conditions were strong. I was going up at 1,300 fpm on tow with Zhenya
towing me and pinned off at 1,400'. The lift was right at the west end of the
runway. I was seeing 700 fpm on the 20 second averager on the Flytec 6030. My
team launched almost last at 5 minutes to 3 PM. The thermal averaged 360 fpm.

With the wind averaging 12 mph I was quickly drifting to the east southeast as I
climbed to 4,200'. I launched first with my team, but I was quickly losing track
of them as we would not be able to get together in this wind. Andrey was below
me and climbing.

Our tactic was to go west to get upwind and to the southwest "corner" of the 5
km start cylinder which was centered 3 km west of Quest. Given that we all knew
our plan I headed upwind in that direction hoping to meet up with the rest of
the team assuming that they got towed high. Unfortunately, while the lift was
great over Quest and to the east, downwind of the course line, there was little
lift upwind to the spot that we had designated. I had to drift back in light
lift still in the start cylinder and hope to find my guys. No luck.

There were a number of competitors and mentors in the air and combined with the
prevalence of cumulus clouds spotting the lift was not that difficult. 
With the 12 mph west northwest wind, staying in the lift was more of a chore
than on light wind days. The thermals were broken and choppy with quickly
varying locations. Combine that with the fact that they were relatively weak and
it made for cautious flying on my part at least.

The tactic that we agreed upon was to stay upwind of the course line west of
highway 33, but that was soon abandoned given the need to stay in lift and the
wind. I was calling out my location and climb rates, not that it necessarily did
any good for my team members, but I could hope. I was only able to get to 3,500'
or lower so that added to the thrill.

I was climbing up from 2,700' just south of the glider port when Zippy and Owen
with two other gliders came in under me, Zippy was easy to spot flying an all
red glider. I had climbed about 500' and then decided to leave when the lift
stopped, but said to myself, "wait a minute, why don't I stick with these guys
and try to help them out?".

I went back over them and promptly lost 500'. Owen would later tell me he was
not aware of any lift that they were circling in.

Down to 2,600' I headed south southwest toward a reasonable looking cu about a
kilometer away. I saw those guys going to the south southeast, which did not
look that good to me. That next thermal provided 270 fpm to 3,200'.

I looked over to the east as I drifted in that direction and there was a red
glider on the ground. The remnants of the four person gaggle that had come under
me was circling in the neighborhood. That thermal seemed weak so I head further
downwind to better looking cu's and found 240 fpm to 4,500'. I was still
nineteen kilometers from goal at Wallaby Ranch, still had to go 8 kilometers a
bit upwind (13 mph) to get the turnpoint and the Flytec 6030 displayed me not
quite having enough altitude to make goal.

I headed for a lone cu that looked okay half way to the turn point. That got me
back to 3,900'. Two kilometers from the turnpoint and I watched one of the
competitors turning just to the south of Dean Still. The lift looked good ahead.
As soon as I made the turnpoint my 6030 showed I had goal by 1,600' from 10
kilometers out at 3,000' with a 13 mph tail wind.

I had seen scattered gliders down along the way in friendly looking fields.
There was a green king-posted glider circling ahead of me over two gliders down
in the last field before Wallaby. Looks like they just didn't have quite enough
altitude to make it.

A good number of competitors made it to goal. We are scoring the sport class
pilots flying topless gliders separately from those flying king-posted gliders.

King-posted task:

Topless:

The Monday task was cancelled due to forecast for no lift and 50%
chance of rain this afternoon. It is sunny now at Quest but dark clouds just to
the north. Greg Dinauer got this shot at around 7:30 AM before the gust front
came through:

North clouds about here now.