32.881678,-111.854982,Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona,
USA

http://soaringspot.com/2010scfr/

http://www.santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/

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

http://www.willswing.com/blogs/PilotBlogs/tabid/38/Default.aspx

http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/

After the forecast yesterday which called for strong lift to maybe 9,000', and
we come up with weak lift and we don't get high, I'm a little gun shy about
believing the models for this area even when the RUC and the NAM agree. The
forecast is for strong lift and a high top of the lift, but we discount this in
the task committee meeting and assume that the lift will be like the previous
day.

The forecast does call for 7 to 10 knot northwest winds, which we take as
probably reliable. These models do seem to get the wind value pretty much right.
Given the wind, and the feeling that the lift will be weaker than forecast and
the top of the lift less than we had hoped for, the task committee calls a
downwind task to the RC field west of Tucson with a turnpoint at Picacho to
supposedly keep us over cultivated fields and not in no man's land.

We push back the start time to 1:20 (launch opens at noon) for the first start
giving us eighty minutes to get everyone up in the air if they want to take the
first start clock. Of course, this just means that pilots will wait around even
longer (be realistic about human behavior and don't wait for the "new" man).
Three pilots do take off soon after the window opens, but everyone else is
content to watch them from the shade of the RedBull tent that shows up this
morning and is placed next to the launch. This makes it much more comfortable to
be on the ground (and therefore pilots aren't as eager to get into the air).

Dustin is the second or third pilot to launch and we all wonder why. He doesn't
get up and after a while lands. He reports that the lift is weak which we can
see as he and the other pilots climb very slowly. No one is at all ready to go
after the first three or four pilots, waiting around for others to go or for
better conditions. Dustin launches again and then we have a forty five minute
lull.

Dustin and the other pilots stay up if not get high so finally around 1 PM, one
hour after the launch window opened and one hour before the last start time (and
twenty minutes before the first start time) pilots begin in line up. I'm usually
among the first to launch, but I'm sixth or so in this second line up for
launch. I'm hoping to have some markers out in front if me.

I get hauled up to 2,400' without much lift, but better than the no lift launch
on the second day. I am hauled to the northwest into the wind, but I can see
Dustin turning two kilometers downwind of the launch. I can't see any of the
five "markers" that were pulled up before me, except Jim Yocom, very low by
launch.

As soon as I pin off I head downwind toward the tower and toward Dustin and
don't find lift until I am down to 1,000' AGL and two kilometers downwind (7
mph) of the launch. The lift averages zero for about three minutes until I find
a bit better core and climb up to 4,400' with Dustin and Zippy, getting within a
kilometer of the edge of the start cylinder.

I have to go back upwind to stay within the start cylinder and get the timing
right for the 2 PM (last) start window. This puts me back down to 1,400' AGL but
it is possible to find more lift and I climb slowly back up again to 3,500',
just 2,100' AGL, but every one else is at about this altitude also when it is
time to take the last clock.

A bunch of us head out, maybe fifteen pilots and find better lift, 183 fpm, just
outside the start cylinder. As this is a race start so no one is ahead (maybe
there is a pilot or two down the course line that we don't know about) and
because we are low and need some altitude, we all huddle together and climb up
to almost 5,000'. We are climbing and drifting downwind down the course line so
we are relaxed.

It is an eight kilometer glide to the next thermal which is an improvement at
320 fpm. It is at the south end of a very small range of hills southeast of Casa
Grande, usually a good thermal location. We are pretty much all together and I'm
continually cutting off Kraig Coomber as he relaxes in the thermals. I can see
Jonny with his arms just draped across the base tube.

We climb to 6,000' in the good lift and then head out together. It's a nine
kilometer glide to the next thermal and with so many pilots spread out and
flying as a team to optimize the search, we have no problem finding the next
thermal. It's less than 100 fpm, but who cares? Well, we do leave it after a few
turns, go another couple of kilometers and find 200 fpm than gets us back to
5,000'.

Six more kilometers of gliding and we find a strong thermal, 340 fpm on average
that gets us to over 7,000'. When it starts to get weak I'm ready to leave, but
no one is leaving. I'm not at the very top, although plenty high in the stack,
but finally Shapiro leaves and I go with him, 300' below him.

The turnpoint is only eight kilometers away and we get to it at 5,000' (or at
least that is my altitude). I'm even with Jeff now but 500' below him. Everyone
else is just behind us.

The turnpoint marks the edge of cultivation. Further down the course line is
wild territory with Saguaro cactus, a dirt road or two (no telling if they are
behind locked gates) rocky outcroppings, and a long retrieve. Still we are high.
I head for the first rocky outcropping and don't find anything. I then turn east
follow a low ridge line over more black rocks, still nothing, I then head into
the gut of no man's land going for a pilot circling low over a rocky hillside,
eight kilometers past the turnpoint. I'm now down to 2,000' AGL over bad landing
areas.

Jeff and Craig and a couple of other pilots are heading deeper in the territory
that they don't wish to land in. I stop before the pilot and take 100 fpm up
just to assess the situation. It is still possible to scoot out to a semi
cultivated area if things get worse. I'm climbing near a hill side, so it's okay
for now.

Jeff and Kraig search a couple of kilometers further in and finally find strong
lift which keeps them happy and in the air. I'm working weak stuff further back
on the course line. This is the first time I get separated from the main gaggle.

Chris Zimmerman, Robin Hamilton, and Glen Volk are near me and heading back
toward the cultivated areas. I leave my thermal, join up with them, and work
weaker lift (77 fpm) for twenty minutes off another more comfortable hill side
further along the course line but closer to cultivated areas. Jeff, Craig and
others are working much better lift just out of sight ahead of us.

I finally get back to a comfortable altitude at 4,800' and head down wind along
the course line as I watch Mark Bolt scoot along the ground below me very low
and heading for an isolated air field out in the middle of this waste land. Jim
Yocom has landed just east of the airfield.

Mark gets down to 200' but finds a thermal and Chris and I watch him as we
circle up in the next thermal. I go over Mark, find some lift at 89 fpm, but
figure that there is better ahead. At 5,000', even though the ground elevation
has gone up 1,000' since we started, I'm feeling secure.

The wind has picked up significantly since I came over Mark and is now seventeen
mph, a ten mph increase. My glide ratio is much higher. I climb to 2,400' AGL
ten kilometers from goal and go on final glide. I'm the tenth pilot in. You can
see the results on the scoring server at the URL above.