We wake up to a cloudy day with thick mid level scud, low level
cu's and just a few patches of blue with the sun hitting the ground. It looks
very unpromising. I have a hard time believing that we will fly today.

We head up the hill at 8 AM, they start early around here. We are the first
pilots on launch. The launch is just above the ton on the western mountain
range, facing east. It is an early launch.

The windy paved (most of the time) road up the hill connects scattered houses
that abut shaved hill sides that support some cattle that make hundreds of
little ridges. It looks like a landslide in the making to me. With the hills
bereft of most of the trees that would normally populate these hillsides.

Streams coming out of the mountains flow over the road as we guide ourselves
around small land slides next to the road. Coffee trees and banana trees replace
some of the previous vegetation here and there.

Near the top of the ridge we turn right into a two track rocky and muddy road to
launch. No room for anyone to get around so there is essentially one time to go
up and you go down later. The road ends at a green knob facing northeast. This
is the good new launch that doesn't have the problem of the wind coming over the
back later.

I'm renting/borrowing a Wills Wing T2 144, made a few years ago, the
stealth/gray sail model. It turns out to have an aluminum base tube, so I have
to find some duct tape to attach my Dustin pod (normally fitted for the Wills
Wing carbon base tube) to it. The sail is in like new condition (so I guess you
can say that this cloth does indeed hold up).

It's a T2, so I miss the carbon sprogs. It also has the old style VG line. It is
hard as hell to pull, and the keel isn't Teflon coated like the 2011 model. I'm
already missing the newest version that I left behind at Quest Air, and I
haven't even flown the thing yet.

When we got to launch cloud base was below launch. Launch is 5,900' and the
valley floor is 3,300'. Soon the launch is completely enclosed in cloud as we
set up. It looks like we'll have a low cloud base in addition to thick upper
level clouds, and little sun today.

The cloud base rises above launch and now we can see the valley and the higher
level clouds. There are spots of sunlight along the hillsides and out in the
valley.

They call a short task, 56 kilometers, with the first start at noon, an hour and
ten minutes after the pilot meeting. We are supposed to go north up the western
range, the one that we are launching from, then to a turnpoint way up the
valley, then back south to goal along the foot of the eastern range. The normal
pattern is that the west wind kicks in later in the afternoon, but with this
cloud cover that "sea breeze" may not happen.

Daniel Velez is the first to launch at about 11:45, with Raul, Mike Glennon, me
and then Mitch Shipley, with another pilot or two stuck in that order. The
launch is quite steep and there is a light breeze coming in on the north facing
side. It is easy to get off the hill.

The lift on the ridge is quite weak, around 50 fpm and broken (at least
inconsistent). The first pilots off work it, so I do also and slowly, ever so
slowly climb up above launch to cloud base which is now 6,400', 500' over
launch. Of course, we pretty much knew what temperature it would be as we were
at cloud base on the ground not too long before.

The start cylinder radius is four kilometers and after getting to cloud base I
follow other pilots over to the next east west ridge line which has actual
sunshine. The ridge line is at 2.5 kilometers so it is a snap to get up there
and stay inside the start circle and outside the clouds. Daniel, Raul, and Mike
have already taken the first start clock at noon, so I wait around in good lift
and take the second one at 12:15 with another pilot or two. Many pilots are
still struggling with the launch conditions.

The lift is weak past our nice little sunlit ridge and I have to work weak
stuff, I hear from Mike out ahead that they are struggling. I stopped for poor
broken lift but that is all we are getting.

We are flying north on the east side of the ridge line. Not high enough to get
over the top as the cloud base is too low. Ahead is a really shaded area and the
north south ridge line descends into the valley as the east edge of the ridge
line gives way. I'm gliding with a couple of other pilots and they and the Black
Vultures find a nice thermal coming from the east just off the hillside as it
comes to an end. I join them and we climb out from not that high.

I can't get as high as the two pilots that I'm flying with which is not a
pleasant feeling. I just can't get back to cloud base. I hear from Raul and Mike
that they have landed and lost track of Daniel (who also lands). We are turning
out into the valley now to get to the other side and to the turnpoint. It looks
weak ahead but there are plenty of thin fluffy cu's around that do hold some
promise of lift. Below us we see half a dozen pilots landing as they didn't get
the last thermal that we were in.

Out in the valley its an east wind, so it doesn't make that much sense to head
for the eastern mountain range. I try to connect the dots and watch the other
two pilots out with me and over me. Down to almost 1,000' AGL I see the Black
Vultures and one of the gliders turning. I join them, and climb well over the
river and flooded lands happy not to be landing there so far from any real road.

I again can't get to cloud base so push forward getting back down to 1,000' AGL
before I find lift that sometimes gets as strong at 400 fpm. The lift is smooth
and fun to fly in, and I'm drifting pretty strongly to the west. I get up and
then I see Mitch Shipley and David from Brazil coming in under me to join me in
the light thermal that I find.

I make a crucial mistake here and don't stay with these guys. I had thought that
I was flying earlier with Mitch and that somehow he had already made it to the
turnpoint and was heading back. I was completely mistaken as that was another
pilot in Mitch's colors. All I really had to do at this point was stay with
these two and that would have increased my chances.

Instead I head for a fire to the northeast. By the time I get to it the first is
almost out and there is no lift under the cu that it formed. I land nine
kilometers from the turnpoint.

I found the glider to be not nearly as nice as the new one, the T2C - 144. It
flew straight. But it was not as easy to control as the new glider. Of course,
the VG sucked. This could be fixed easily enough. I had an okay landing but it
wasn't as nice as the ones I've been having on the new glider.

Mitch and David made goal as did three other pilots.