• 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


• http://ozreport.com/tweets.php

Results here:


• flex wing: http://soaringspot.com/flytec2009/


• rigid wing: http://soaringspot.com/flytecr2009/

It didn't look good the night before, but the forecast looked pretty good in the morning, although out the window it wasn't too inviting at 8 AM, completely dark with low cu's streaming by fast. The thunder storms and front were supposed to stay to our north, maybe again sending down a wave of cirrus. The winds were supposed to be 14-18 mph out of the south southwest. Cloud base at 4 to 5 thousand feet.

The low clouds cleared up quickly and soon it looked like we would indeed have another good day of flying. Frankly we were amazed that we could fly at all. We were thinking that Wednesday and Thursday would turn out to be rest days.

We were at the Moultrie airfield, a huge county airport, with a very friendly airport manager who let us camp out there. The task was 119 km to the north northwest to Americus, Georgia and the air field (Souther) just to the south of town, the airport where Lindberg first soloed.

Launch time was 1 PM, and the start time was 2 PM. We were assigned an apron to launch off of and we set up on the grass next to the apron. The only GA traffic was Jim Prahl flying in his Cessna. The airport is huge and they are very nice to us.

I was first off again with Ollie in his ATOS just behind me. I felt a little lift at 1,300' and pinned off. There was lift and Ollie joined me and we climbed up to 4,000'. The lift was good and pilots were launching,. There were a few cu's around and there were more all the time, so it was time to get going.

The wind was coming from 210°. Our task was at 343°, so it was a pain to get upwind of the course line. Every chance I got while I was flying in the 15 km start cylinder I pushed to the west to get upwind of the line. Then when circling up I would be blown back across the line to the northeast.

On my fourth jump over to the west just before the first start time I got 5 km west of the course line but I was down to 1,300'. I had been finding strong lift previously but now I had to search all around and stay in anything I could find. I was in this area for fifteen minutes trying to get back up. Carl and Jonny came and joined me. Jonny was a couple of hundred feet higher, but then a few minutes later he came back below us as he apparently didn't find any thing away from us.

The three of us circled up and finally found something that got us to 2,000'. Dustin came by but headed north. Carl chased after him. Jonny headed upwind and I decided to stick with him. He found some good lift and we climbed up to 3,700' and took the last start clock seven minutes late.

Jonny and I found some good lift a few kilometers past the start cylinder and then jumped over to where Zippy was climbing. Dustin and Carl were just a bit further north climbing. I hung with Zippy but my radio wasn't working so I didn't hear him encouraging me to hang with him some more.

I saw Dustin, Jonny and Carl circling and I headed toward them finding even better lift just as I left Zippy. I made the key mistake of going for the hot pilots and not staying in the good lift. The lift they were in was terrible.

We headed out searching and searching and being driven further away from the course line. Dustin went off fast and low so I ignored him. Carl and Jonny were more conservative but I got 100 feet below them as we headed for a forested area. It wasn't looking good. There were lots of cu's, but the lift had been poor under them unlike my first four thermals in the start cylinder.

There was lift over the forested area and we climbed from 1,800' but I only got to 2,800'. Jonny and Carl headed west a thousand feet higher than me. I couldn't see what happened to Dustin, but he was downwind of me further off the course line.

I climbed back again to 3,000' but wasn't able to get over the forest and landed further to the north, not to the northwest.

Carl and Jonny were able to get up after crossing the forest and much later were able to work it back toward the course line and get under (south of) a lake that blocked others. Dustin was further downwind by himself and wasn't able to get around the lake nor was Zippy.

Linda Salamone suffered a broken arm on landing. She didn't have cell coverage at first, but was finally able to call 911 and also get her coordinates. Mark Frutiger and Alex Cuddy landed to help her out.

A few pilots had a difficult time getting out of the tow paddock from weaklink breaks and not finding lift at the airfield.

No one made goal. The storm was coming in from the north and the cirrus wiped out the lift to the south of the storm. It was dark in Americus when we arrived and the ground had been shaded for many miles to the south. It started raining at 8 PM.

BTW, there is/was a little paragliding competition happening near/at the Florida Ridge starting on the first day of the Flytec Race and Rally. Dave Prentice is/was running it. He had a collapse at 200' yesterday and got banged up. Pins in the arm and shoulder and compressed vertebrae.