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/

Today is Wednesday and today was the fourth task of the 2010 Santa Cruz Flats
Race. The forecast was for the strongest lift of the competition (700-900 fpm),
and while we have been a bit skeptical when looking over the forecasts (dropping
the lift numbers in half), we liked the direction that they are taking. The
winds were also predicted to be a bit lighter than Tuesday which made us think
about closed tasks or close to closed tasks.

The winds were forecasted to be four to seven knots northerly unlike yesterday
where they were forecasted to by seven to ten knots northwest (but got to
eighteen mph down near goal), so it was a bit tricky guessing what they would
do. If we guessed wrong we would have a struggle.

We came up with a task that wasn't universally appreciated. Pilots thought that
we could make it a closed task and get back to the hotel instead of landing out
east of Casa Grande after rounding two turnpoints.

A section of cu's were forming over the hills to the west as we gathered in the
launch area west of the hotel. Dustin, who is on the task committee and is the
local here (and the guy who got this meet going), wanted to have a task upwind
to the west northwest to get under those high cu's. So we changed the task to
take us to the west northwest to the sailplane port at Estrella (with a first
waypoint at Bon), south south east to an intersection and then back to the
Francisco Grande. A somewhat short eight two kilometer task. BTW, the task is
shown at the scoring URL above.

The launch opened at noon but no one was ready to give it a go as the last start
clock was changed to 2:20 PM. Around 1 PM the line filled up, but there was a
slight tail wind from the southeast so that kept a few pilots from launching
right away, clogging up the launch line. I was about the tenth pilot off with
Shapiro right behind me.

I pinned off early and climbed at 300 fpm to over 6,000' right over the launch.
Shapiro was next to me getting up a little slower. There was one pilot a few
kilometers to the north way high, but most pilots were either at our altitude or
much lower.

I went northwest to try to get near the edge of the start cylinder but found
sink and had to start working weak lift from 1,500' AGL. Slowly I climbed back
up watching other pilots milling about to the north northeast of the launch area
and not yet to the northwest edge of the start cylinder toward our first
turnpoint at Bon.

The wind direction was switching indicating that the general winds were being
over powered by the nearby thermals. It went from no wind, to northwest to west
southwest. As the third (of four) start time approached we were at the northwest
edge of the cylinder, with little or no wind and getting higher than we had at
any time previously, now almost to 8,000'.

We were doing so well and were so well positioned that it seemed like a natural
to take the second to last start time. Jeff Shapiro headed out 500 feet below me
but then turned back and so did I when it looked like we all would wait as no
one was coming with us. Then the rest of the crew decided to head out so we both
turned back around and headed northwest to the turnpoint eight kilometers away.

I stopped for 100 fpm just before the turnpoint but after a few turns continued
on not aware that soon I would have loved to have stayed in that lift. Three
kilometers past the turnpoint down to 2,000' AGL I was working 50 fpm with a lot
of other pilots who were milling about the sky looking for anything to get them
up. It just wasn't happening. This would make it easy for the guys taking the
last clock to catch up with us.

This milling about went on for half an hour (at least for me) and I gained only
one kilometer. The average five mph west wind was blowing us back in every weak
thermal that we were in. I headed off by myself to the north to try anything
else but that didn't help at all. Finally at 3,000' AGL I headed into the wind
as Joe said on the radio that there was lift ahead, although too far ahead for
me to get to.

Six kilometers later I was down to 600' and working zero sink that finally
turned on to 93 fpm. Brian Porter joined it with me in the Swift and Charlie
Allen was just over my head. John Durand Senior showed up and then Jonny came in
just over my head, saw two birds rocketing up upwind of me, ran to it and
climbed out of there quick. He said I would hate to hear that (again).

I finally got back to 2,500' AGL and pushed out over Maricopa (the local town)
to find 400 fpm over a shopping center and climbed up to 3,000' AGL. There were
wispy cu's ahead and the western edge of the town, so I kept pushing even though
I was relatively low. Finally I came under the best cu and found 400 fpm as
Charlie landed below me. This got me to 6,800' until it got too trashy to hang
with any longer and I headed out to get the turnpoint at Estrella, which would
allow me to put the average eight mph head wind behind me as soon as I turned
south.

Unfortunately the sink to the turnpoint and past it was horrendous. I saw plenty
of 700 to 800 fpm down as I rounded the turnpoint to the west and headed as fast
as I could south toward an airstrip where Joe said he had climbed out to 9,000'.
Down to less than 600' I again found zero sink that slowly built up as I climbed
up to over 10,000'. After 7,000' I was climbing in super smooth 900+ fpm lift
that averaged throughout the thermal at over 400 fpm. I was just at the edge of
the cumulus clouds, the ones that we had seen from the launch paddock. The
twelve mph average winds were now out of the north northwest and taking me right
down the course line as I thermalled out.

The 6030 said that I had goal by 1,500' even though I was thirty four kilometers
and a turnpoint to the south away. I believed it, but I also knew that a lot of
bad things could happen in thirty four kilometers. I went on glide and made the
turnpoint and then glided to goal without ever turning, but carefully watching
my air speed and the 6030.

This was an especially difficult calculation for the 6030 to make as the wind
speeds (and somewhat the direction) varied greatly with altitude, being much
higher at high altitude. It was fifteen mph at 307 when I made the turnpoint at
7234 feet and nine mph at 335 at 2188 when I got to goal.

A little over a kilometer from goal I saw Dustin on the ground. He, Shapiro and
Zippy had gone on final glide together from about the same altitude and location
that I did later. But he took a route that didn't minimize the distance and
while he didn't make it in, Zippy and Shapiro did.

Jonny and the later crew caught the leaders from our start time when we had so
much trouble at first. You can see the results of that in the scores.

Here is what the task and my flight with the long glide looked like: