http://skyout.blogspot.com/

http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com/

http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com/

http://hang6.blogspot.com/

http://gottafly.blogspot.com/

http://lucasridley.blogspot.com

After three days of waiting in windy conditions, we finally got the opportunity to get hauled into the air without too much drama in the first 500'. It was only about 2 mph less, 17 mph vs. 19 mph, but that was enough to make everyone feel that we would be safe enough.

The task was a short one with no fixed start time. Your time started when you crossed the cylinder. The cylinder was 15 km, and we figured with all the wind it would be hard to stay inside the start cylinder, but the wind wasn't all that bad. Still it would have been hard to stay inside it.

This gave a big advantage to the earlier launchers which is a bit unfair, and we will put start times and intervals back in again tomorrow.

The task was short at 75.7 km, with a cross wind component of 48 km. It was short as we called it when the winds were high and it looked like it might be tough to go cross wind. Tomorrow there may be a task 147 km cross wind. With maybe a little less wind tomorrow, it should be doable.

Once I got in the air I got to feel again why I love coming here to fly. The air is just so soft and sweet. It didn't matter that it was blowing at 17 mph, the thermals were still there and it was certainly possible to find them and stay in them.

I had to go cross wind right after getting off tow to get under a cloud. The lift on that line was weak, and after turning in it for a while and not getting high or climbing well I plowed up wind to give it another try as I didn't want to keep drifting downwind low. Zippy who was just above me in that weak lift stayed with it and hooked up with Andre, Dustin and Glen.

I found much better lift just west of the field and climbed to 5,200'. Carl, Jeff Shapiro and Phill Bloom were just upwind of me and came and joined me. We would fly together after that.

The sky was full of cu's. Dustin was to our north with Andre, Glen and Zippy as Carl who was on top headed to the southwest to a dark cloud. The lift was light up near cloud base and we were just kind of staying up and staying together as we drifted. This was not too bright, a left over from timed starts. We needed to get downwind and get an early start (while staying high).

Andre and his crew crossed the cylinder line at 1:41. We went across at 1:47. We had a six minute deficit already, but we didn't know that.

The lift was weak heading for La Belle but there were only orange groves ahead so we had to take what was given to us just east of the airport. Carl was high as was Phill. I was on the bottom below Jeff climbing in weak stuff that finally got stronger as I got over 4,000'. I was still circling as the others headed off to the turnpoint. Jonny and James Stinnet came in just under me but I was climbing well enough to stay above them.

Finally, I headed out at 5,500' and the lift really got good as the cloud suck took over and it was now 1000 fpm. I just pulled the bar in as I wanted to get to the edge of the cloud. This extra lift made it easy to catch up with Carl, Phill and Shapiro coming in over all but Carl at the edge of an area that we were nervous about going over as there weren't any roads.

We all dawdled around at the edge of the not so friendly area trying to get as high as possible allowing Jonny and James to catch up with us. Phill was low but headed out anyway and he would end up taking up additional time to make goal.

The new crew headed out with Andre and his crew not that far ahead. Phill saw them, but I didn't. The lift was good over the no man's land and we now knew that we'd make it to areas that were friendlier.

There was even better lift ahead and I headed for it, keeping an eye on the many cu's in the vicinity. James stayed high and just kept going toward goal in his rigid wing. After a short climb the lift ahead looked to be provided by the cu's above the brush fire whose smoke I was heading for. I wasn't worried about turning any more as there seemed to be plenty of lift and I was plenty high eighteen kilometers out.

The winds had decreased as we were now on the west side of the state. It was still a fast and easy glide into goal. The air was just as great as you can imagine.

Results here:

Open: http://soaringspot.com/rkm2009/

Rigid: http://soaringspot.com/rkmr2009/

Sport: http://soaringspot.com/rkms2009/

I can't imagine a better place to fly if what you appreciate if wonderful soft lovely air to fly in. Lots and lots of puffy cu's, high winds are not a big deal.