http://ozreport.com/13.110#0



What can I (we) learn from yesterday (see description) above? What easy to use
(in the air) rules come out of what happened?



First, the day was forecasted to be weak. 100 fpm less on average than the day
before, which was a good average day. Also in the forecast, no cu's. Height of
the lift 3000' to 4,000'. So we knew in advance that we had to be careful.



Second, as soon as I came off the ground on the tow I knew I was in good lift,
not the weak stuff that had been forecasted. After I got off two I was in 200
fpm (on average) which is good lift around here. I was more than happy to be in
13 fpm on Wednesday.



Larry joined me and for the next 45 minutes we enjoyed plentiful lift where ever
we wanted as we stayed inside the start cylinder. Now often the lift was a lot
less than 200 fpm, but every time I went back toward the flight park I would
find lift along the way. Wherever we looked we found lift, weak, but plentiful.



Just before the first start time we found good lift again, 150 fpm to get us to
the stop of the stack. We didn't get as high as we had been in the first
thermal, but we were feeling good. We were on top, the start window was open,
there were twenty pilots around and below us.



In addition, we had run fast and got to goal on the previous day. We had a
recent memory of heading out into the cloudless sky in front with two pilots
following and finding lift 2.5 km out. So we were perfectly set up.



We had just experienced reasonable lift and the admonition to be careful because
the lift was forecasted to be weak was now a weak emotion compared to how good
we felt about our recent experience in the start cylinder. We were full of
ourselves. It seemed like there should be lift out on the course also, just like
in the start cylinder, as, after all, there was nothing special about this 5 km
cylinder and we had already been in lift outside it.



Now Sunny had bombed out the first two days. Five minutes before the start he
saw us hitting good lift and was below us feeling poorly because we were in the
lift and he wasn't. He wanted to get the altitude that we had. He came in under
us as we climbed up and hung on to the lift.



Larry and I left the lift and left the start cylinder one minute after the start
time going out in front. Instead of concentrating on the lift and trying to get
as high as possible we left because the lift seemed weak (for one turn) and "it
was time to go." Instead Sunny, needing to climb stayed with the thermal and
kept turning and drifting with the thermal.



Instead we headed more toward the course line which was a bit to the north
leaving the line that the thermal was in (it was drifting due east). By staying
in the lift Sunny climbed up as we glided down.



2.5 km out I found a weak (62 fpm) thermal. This was the average thermal
strength inside the start circle, but I wasn't satisfied with this. Larry
mentioned that there were pilots turning behind us. We could have easily gone
back to Sunny. Sunny was turning in 6 fpm.



We didn't find any lift after that. Sunny worked -30 fpm after leaving 6 fpm,
then found 80 fpm. That got him to 3,000' while we landed.



Rules: Given the forecast for weak lift, we had to be very careful and take any
lift we found. We had to ignore what we found in the start cylinder and take
weak lift outside the start cylinder.



There is no need to rush out in front on a weak day. Keep thermaling in the
start cylinder if everyone else is even if you are higher than them. We were out
in front alone while the folks behind us could watch us and decide to stay in
their thermals.



Follow the thermal drift and ignore the course line especially when you are low
(2,800' is low when there is little chance of finding he next thermal) and there
are no markers (like cu's) out ahead.

http://OzReport.com/1244081640