The Blogs and Tweets:

http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/

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

http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com/

Wills Wing pilots - Jeff O'Brien, Jeff Shapiro, Dustin, Zac Majors

http://rich-lovelace.blogspot.com/

http://skyout.blogspot.com/

http://gottafly.blogspot.com/

Scores on-line: http://soaringspot.com/2010frr/

The forecast for Moultrie, Georgia was for a thirty percent chance of
thunderstorms before 2 PM. To me that meant that the conditions would improve
after 2 PM, and that if we could wait that long we would be rewarded with good
conditions. The wind forecast was for twelve to sixteen knots the average wind
throughout the boundary layer, out of the south.

It had rained hard the previous day and night and there were low clouds
throughout the morning as we prepared the task of 120 km to Americus, Georgia.
We could tell from the satellite photos that the overcast clouds were to our
west so that the sky was blue above the low cumulus clouds. That held out a
promise of better conditions if we could only wait.

The wind was brisk on the ground but not overwhelming. The field is huge and the
tree line almost half a mile away to the south. We all were waiting for the
clouds to rise and for breaks to appear between the cu's so that we could have
some sun on the ground.

I got into the launch line and was quickly followed by Daniel Velez and Jeff
O'Brien. We weren't willing to launch just yet as we would be blown outside the
10 km start cylinder before the first start time, and the clouds hadn't broken
up quite enough yet, and there was a promise of better conditions. The launch
opened at 1:30 PM with the first start time at 2:30 and the last at 3 PM. As we
waited I was hoping that we were pulling a squeeze play forcing the pilots to
launch by waiting for the time before the last start time to get too close.

Then the task committee wrecked that play adding two more start times as pilots
weren't willing to even join us in the launch line.

Derreck joined us in the line and moved to the front to tow. Jeff O'Brien set to
go after him then Daniel and me. Derreck was pulled up and the tow was rowdy. He
also pinned off low. Then Jeff O'Brien took off and had even a rougher tow,
flopping around quite a bit under his glider. But he held on and the tow
smoothed out.

Daniel seeing the first two tows didn't want to tow next. I went instead. I had
a perfectly smooth tow and the tug pilot and I went racing after Jeff. Jeff was
towed up way above cloud base, maybe over 3,000', but I pinned off at cloud base
at about 2,5000' and went to a nearby cloud to find light lift.

The air was quite pleasant and the lift nice. I could see that the winds were
about 20 mph out of the south. Jeff came back to join me after not finding lift
above cloud base and turned in the weak lift that I was in.

Having not really gained anything and drifting quickly, I headed west for about
600 meters to a forming cu and found 400 fpm to cloud base. Jeff was a kilometer
down wind under a dark cloud but not climbing well.

While Jeff and I were drifting away from the airfield, Derreck was on the ground
after a difficult landing. He reported the difficult conditions that he found.

The safety committee suspended launch after watching our three launches. Then
they stopped the task.

At cloud base and enjoying the air and having some of the best lift that I had
experienced in the competition, I checked out the fields down wind. Cloud base
was only 2,500'but there were plenty of cu's ahead and it looked good to me. I
was feeling confident as I would be flying with Jeff. Then Belinda called with
the news about the task being stopped.

I could understand why that would be a case given the strong winds and the two
launches that didn't look so good (although the pilots did well and controlled
their launches). I flew back to the airfield and had an exciting if uneventful
landing.

Joe Bostik and Yulia launched after the task was stopped to get in a little
flight. Joe landed back at the field next to the gliders. Yulia got tossed
around in the back side of the thermals and was excited when there didn't seem
to be any air for her glider to fly in. Then she noticed that she was going
backwards below cloud base at 12 km/h when her air speed was 40 km/h into the
wind.

She couldn't make it back to the airfield and landed in a big open field on the
way toward town.

We held the prize giving at a restaurant at 4:30 PM and Jonny won his seventh
out of seven meets in 2010. Dustin was a mere nine points behind and Zippy not
far behind him. Check out the scoring page above.

The Flytec Race and Rally was a competition that tested the pilots' skills and
decision making. Not a single task was easily made. Filippo Oppici stated on the
day that he almost made goal going south toward Avon Park, that this was the
first time that he had flown 100 km without finding a thermal.

We flew the first day toward a massive front under gray skies and only Dustin
and Jonny made goal. Jonny had to save himself from 800' over a swamp.

The second and third days I flew but the winds were too strong for a real task.
On the fourth day, four flex wing pilots made it to goal with many top pilots
dropping out in weak conditions along the way.

On the fifth day there were no cu's, a low top of the lift (except at a large
fire), very weak thermals inside the start cylinder, and a cross wind there. The
lead gaggle stayed together until the very end as everyone needed everyone else
to be able to get to goal.

On the sixth day, the clouds predominated except right at launch and there was
sunshine only for a small part of the race. Grey clouds, shade, and approaching
rain cut the task in half. And on the last day, well it was too windy to safely
carry out a task.

I did get to fly everyday and for that I was thankful.

All the pilots had a good attitude and no one whined or complained about the
conditions. They all knew that it was a very good test of pilots' skills and we
all had fun together. Jamie Shelden did a great job as the meet organizer and
meet director.

We started the Flytec Race and Rally from the Florida Ridge and right from the
get go we had to deal with difficult to forecast (and deal with) weather
conditions. I worked very diligently to be able to have us make the right
decision and that turned out to stay at the Ridge and run the task and still
have the time to make it to Quest Air with the tugs before the front hit. And it
hit hard.

We didn't have the option of continuing on to Moultrie that night as the tugs
wouldn't be able to make it from Quest Air to Moultrie Georgia the next morning.
We didn't have the option to go to Williston as we can only tow out of there in
a south or north wind and the wind was forecasted to be strong west and even
stronger west up at Moultrie.

On Monday the task committee called at task to the northeast. Our plan was to
fly the task and then drive to Moultrie to fly in the west winds that were
forecasted to be a little lighter than the previous day in Moultrie. We had
everything packed up to go to Moultrie. It would still be tough for the tugs to
get there in one hop, but with two they could get there in time to tow the next
day.

We were not able to hold a task on Monday at Quest Air given the high winds.
Three of us flew, but the day was called due to difficult launch conditions.
Once we were back (or still) at Quest Air, going to Moultrie didn't seem like a
good option. It was now much later in the day and no one was pushing for that.

The next day the task committee called an impossible task given the west winds
(which turned out to be as strong as on Monday), and we were committed as a
group to going to Moultrie or to Greystone 100 km to the north if we could get
permission to launch out of there. We already knew that the next day would
require us to fly to the south given the northwest winds.

After we were again not able to hold a task at Quest Air given the west winds,
we all met again and there was about a half and half split about whether to now
drive to Moultrie. We didn't make any decision given this impasse, but soon
found out that one of the tugs was down, so that indicated that we should stay
at Quest and get it fixed.

The next day the task was to the south, which meant that we would again be stuck
at Quest Air if we wanted to head north as again the drive would be difficult
from Avon Park.

On Thursday we took off from Quest Air and had a great task to Williston where
we spent the night. With a south wind predicted for the next two days we had
laid out a task from Williston to Moultrie and another from Moultrie to
Americus. It looked good.

After a blue day all day and all the way from Quest Air to Williston it was an
unpleasant surprise to see all the clouds blackening the sky at Williston and
the rain the next morning. Then after we got to Moultrie and set up for the last
task we found that the winds were too high for a task, on a day that forecasted
much lighter winds at Moultrie than were forecasted for Moultrie back on Monday
and Tuesday. That is, even if we would have gone directly to Moultrie on Sunday
night (almost impossible driving from the Ridge), we would not have been able to
fly at Moultrie Monday and Tuesday, if the forecasts were accurate.

Did we do the best that we could under the circumstances? Did we make the best
decision given hindsight? Maybe someone has some evidence either way.