The results: http://soaringspot.com/2009ecc

Tweets: http://ozreport.com/tweets.php

http://skyout.blogspot.com/

http://gottafly.blogspot.com/

The task (39 km), to the north west:

The forecast was for seventy percent chance of rain and thunderstorms. It cleared up in the morning and looked at first like it would be a reasonable day. The RUC/XCSkies called for 400-500 fpm lift at 2 PM with cloud base at 2,500' and a light southeast wind at 3 knots at 2,000'. Very light lift before and after that.

But by noon the sky was completely overcast with mid level clouds. Of course, the ground was completely shaded and there were a cu's nearby dropping virga. At one it was even darker although way to the northwest we could see a sliver of blue. Six pilots launched and all of them came down.

Then at about 1:30 Terry Reynolds and I decided to launch just to check things out and see if we could stay up. There was a dark thick mass to our south and it looked like the day was about to be over. We were getting sprinkles in the staging line.

Jim Rooney hauled me over to Terry at 2,500' AGL and I got off after a perfectly smooth tow that indicated 200 fpm down every where. None the less I soon found 13 fpm which I stayed in for the next 11 minutes as Terry searched around, then getting low went back to land at the field.

I could see that the sun was coming to the north from the northwest. I wasn't sure that it would get to the airstrip as it looked bad from the south and actually looked worse than when I launched. No one else was launching. I was waiting in the light lift hoping that other pilots would soon join me as I showed them that they could stay up, but no one wanted to get hauled up.

After 11 minutes it began to rain on me and as the sun lit ground was now nearby, I headed over to the sunny areas to see if there would be any lift. I could have easily gone back and relaunched but I was betting that the day was over and I'd get the longest flight of the day with everyone else stuck at launch.

I glided for 10.4 km.

The sun was out now at the launch and at my LZ. I quickly broke down with Belinda's very kind help and headed back to the airstrip. I knew that my second flight wouldn't count for the competition, but I still wanted to fly the task if that was possible.

Belinda put all the battens in while I took care of all the other setup tasks back at the airstrip. There were still ten pilots to launch when I got back at 2:45 PM, the last start time. I got in at the end of the line and was pulled up at 3:00 PM.

There were a few pilots in the air and I quickly found lift under a wispy cu ignoring the pilots who seemed to be climbing slowly. I headed out at 3:16 at 2,400'. John Simon followed me at 3:18.

There were now plenty of cu's ahead. The sun and blue sky had come in from the west and north and the cu's had formed not too long after I headed for the sun lit ground on the first flight.

Other pilots had left the start cylinder 23 minutes before us so we were alone on the task. Being the first out I found the next lift and climbed to 2,700' as John joined me.

Using the cu's ahead as a guide I went to their west sunny side over the sunlit fields below. John went off to the east chasing something in the shade while I skimmed along looking for lift under the darkest clouds but over the warmest fields.  I found 280 fpm to 3,200' and after a while John found me and came in under.

I headed off on my own following the clouds and the course line, but making an error going a little too far west (still quite a bit east of the course line) and getting to an area where ahead it was cloudless. I had to run back to the east away from the course line to get back under the clouds. John had stayed to the east and was higher now having stayed in an area with better lift.

We were now searching for lift and John almost down to my level headed out searching while I worked poor lift. He found a good one ahead 15 km from the goal at the corner of a plowed field. I came in under him at 1,000' and finally found the tiny core. This one took him to 3,300' and me to 3,000' at 200 fpm.

The Flytec 6030 showed me making goal with 300'. But it was 15 km away and I was not that high, so any bit of sink could easily sink me. There was a line of clouds to my left which looked like a convergence line. They were along the course line. John saw a line of clouds to the right, the east and went for those. They were also a convergence line.

I skated along the right side of the clouds just losing altitude at 150 fpm as I headed for the goal. My 6030 still showed I had goal made with 300'. I just had to keep going hoping for buoyant conditions going into goal. That's what they were and as I got close I could see that I was just going to make it before a power line. I was able to turn before the power line and land.

John Simon hit strong lift and got above the clouds going to goal to my east in his convergence line. He had the fastest time to goal. I could see four pilots at goal but I didn't land with them.

Here are the times to goal:

Pilot	Start	End	Duration
John Simon	15:18:27	16:11:43	0:53:16
Davis Straub	15:16:12	16:14:25	0:58:13
Paris Williams	14:55:27	15:56:29	1:01:02
Greg Dinauer	14:56:08	15:58:18	1:02:10
Tom Lanning	14:55:40	15:58:23	1:02:43
Terry Reynolds	15:01:20	16:13:17	1:11:57
John Chambers	14:49:54	16:16:58	1:27:04

Results:

#	Pilot	Glider	Time	Total Points
1.	Paris Williams	Aeros Combat L 13	01:11:29	749
2.	Greg Dinauer	Aeros Combat L-13	01:13:18	719
3.	Tom Lanning	Wills Wing T2C 144	01:13:23	718
4.	John Simon	Aeros Combat	01:26:43	607
5.	Terry Reynolds	Wills Wing T2C 144	01:28:17	597
6.	John Chambers	Aeros Combat	01:31:58	575

Sunny, who won the day before, landed in the start cylinder. From zero to zero to hero to zero in four days. That's the East Coast Championship for you.