http://www.cucco2011.org/

Jamie Sheldon blog /task tweets
here

Jamie's tweets

Jonny Durand's blog
here.

Corinna's Sky
here

Results:

Day one:

USA results, day one:

Another great task up and down the range with a little kicker that has been
deemed unsafe as there were few if any good landing areas near the second
turnpoint. The forecast was for southwest winds at six knots at 4,000' with
moderate lift to 6,000' to 7,000'. There were supposed to be some cu's and there
were a few scattered here and there, but not as many as the day before, when the
forecast was for none.

We launched from the main Montecucco launch facing southwest. The launch
conditions were again superb and there was lift out front right away so it was
easy to get up a little ways at least and then go searching for better. I was
quickly able to climb to 5,800' and then head south to get to the edge of the
start cylinder which was twelve kilometers from the launch.

Getting there was a bit difficult and getting in place in time was a chore. None
of us (US team) were ready by the 2 PM first start clock which turned out to be
a mistake as the first eighteen pilots in took the first start clock. We should
have launched earlier and not waited for half an hour before suiting up and then
launching with only a half hour before the first start time.

Going south down the ridge was a piece of cake. When we got to the end we raced
out into the valley to get the turnpoint thirty eight kilometers south of
launch, then raced back to the ridge to find the lift. Like yesterday it was
weak once again at the hill side on the return and we had to hang on in light
lift for a pretty long time to get back up. Once up it was racing back to the
north to try to get within striking distance of the fast guys.

Julia came in under me after the turnpoint and I flew with her the rest of the
way almost back to the launch, thirty six kilometers. She is easy to spot with
little outlined rabbits on the top of her sail.

Dustin got on the radio and said that the turnpoint was in an unlandable canyon
so get high before going over to it. Later Shapiro got on the radio and said
that he was low in front of a ridge west of the turnpoint. I was back at launch
and working my way up Montecucco itself. It had good lift but I was worried
about being under airspace (I 'wasn't). I pulled out at 5,850' and headed north
toward the turnpoint. Shapirio said that he was up and going for the turnpoint.

I headed north keeping the valley on my left side and hoping that I wouldn't
lose too much height before jumping over to the turnpoint to the northeast. I
didn't get any lift and was not willing to go back to the turnpoint with no
landing areas beneath me. I went to the same ridge that Shapiro climbed up at
but it was fifteen minutes later and the lift had died.

Numerous pilots complained that the task was unsafe due to the call for the
turnpoint in unlandable area. Of course, if you found lift on the mountain side
which was the turnpoint, then it was no problem.

Manfred won again with Alex second and Elio third. See the results for the
second task at the official web site.