The 2011 Rob Kells Meet - Third Task
http://soaringspot.com/2011rk/ http://skyout.blogspot.com/ I'll write this task up before I tackle the second day as the memory gets
flushed after a day of flying and I have to dig deep to remember the day. This competition has been fantastic for our ability to launch and fly safely in
high winds. Today again we had a forecast for sixteen to eighteen knot winds
(averaged through the boundary layer. i.e. to the top of lift) and the wind was
stronger today even that the previous two days. The local weather station showed
at times fifteen gusting to twenty mph on the ground. The Florida Ridge can take
high winds, but it did lead to a number of weak link breaks including one of my
own. The task committee wanted to toughen up the task, so called cross wind task with
legs of increasing difficulty. When a large cu-nimb appeared to the east of the
Ridge the task was delayed a half hour by the safety committee and the task was
subsequently shortened to 119 kilometers from 153. I screwed up and relayed the
wrong start times to the meet director, setting the times one hour later than
planned by the task committee. I'll have someone else take on that job and the
job of announcing the task tomorrow. Might as well spread the work around a
little. The task that we finally settled on was a leg to the northwest, the first
turnpoint from the first day. Then a turnpoint to the north northwest north of
Arcadia, then back to a small grass strip (not used any more), fifteen
kilometers south of Arcadia. Each leg was progressively more north south, more
cross wind. After the half hour delay we opened launch at 1:30 PM and pilot were soon
launching. Even those of us in the priority staging area started going early. I
was about the sixth pilot to launch and behind Russell in a 914 Dragonfly popped
a weaklink at 800'. I came back to land and found weak lift at 460' at the edge
of the field and the edge of the trees. I soared the edges for about five
minutes in the weak lift that didn't promise to get me up and over the trees
before coming in for a landing with my hands firmly on the base tube until the
last minute given the winds. Back near the front of the line I was pulled up without incident, but there was
no lift where I towed to and where I got off. Jochen radioed that they were
turning to the southwest of the field and we both went there. The "lift" was
slightly negative and after a few turns in that and now quite a ways downwind of
the field, I headed back to land and launch again in better conditions. Down to 700' I saw Jochen hit a little something to the east of the field over
the orchard. I carefully moved toward him making sure that I had the field as an
option. I saw Jeff Shapiro and others in the back of the line after landing and
a number of other pilots who had been in our gaggle were landing and I didn't
want to go down if there was a way out of it. I joined Jochen in the rough air with all the wind and just tried not to hit
anyone as we maneuvered in the broken lift that averaged 250 fpm to 3,500' in a
fourteen mph breeze. There were probably eight or so pilots who got up in this
thermal. The lift was very rough but I figured it would kill us. I saw Dustin, Larry, Paris, Jonny and other pilots above us head north
over the Caloosahatchee to get more lined up for the first turnpoint in the east
wind. Jochen, Tulio, and I followed. The higher pilots got up better than
Jochen, Tulio and I so we stayed in the weak lift just to stay up while they
headed further north. Jonny found good lift, climbed to 4,600' and headed off on the course line by
himself, one of the very few pilots to take the second start time. Dustin,
Larry, Zac and others didn't get up as well as we did when our lift turned on so
we all joined up a few minutes later and climbed to 4,400' four minutes after
the clock that Jonny took. But Jochen wanted to go back under a cu to stay
inside the start circle and wait for the next clock. The other pilots followed
the two of us. Eight to ten pilots joined up and it worked out that we got to cloud base at
4,500' a few minutes before the next start time at 3 PM and we were able to hold
it and get the third start just as we were being pushed out of the start circle
by a twelve mph wind. With lots of company it was a kilometer a minute to the turnpoint eighteen
kilometers to the northwest. Dustin was leading the fray as the eight of us
followed. Immediately after making the turnpoint we headed north (following
Dustin) over a large expanse of trees heading toward the next east west cloud
street. We would head north than drift west in the thermal to stay a few
kilometers upwind of the course line and to jump from street (broken streets) to
street. Dustin, Larry, Paris, and Julia got out ahead of us on the third thermal passed
the first turnpoint twenty kilometers out and we lost track of them. It was just
Tulio and I as Jochem realized that he had missed the first turnpoint and had to
go back and get it. He landed there. The lead gaggle dropped Julia and we picked her up just six kilometers south of
the first paved road that we had crossed since the turnpoint. This is a big open
farming and ranching area with only dirt roads and if you went down here it
would be a long retrieve. At least one pilot went down there. Tulio, Julia and I went on a nine kilometer glide over to the next cu's over a
vast orchard. I was in the middle (the donkey between two bales of hay) when
Julia found lift under small cu's. I came in under her but soon after Tulia got
light lift under a dark cu further west and more on the course line. After a
while I went to his lift but it was gone and so was he. Julia got high and
headed north. A friendly pilot spotted 300 fpm four kilometers before the turnpoint next to
highway 17 and we climbed to 4,400'. Tulio had joined him and they were just
above me. I was easy to make the turnpoint, but the clouds were drying out as we
headed south to go toward goal. I had to start working lift on my own from low, starting in 1,500' as the
thirteen to fifteen mph winds blew me downwind of the course line. Julia came in
under me and we worked the next three thermals together. I was able to climbed
to 4,200' on the northwest corner of Arcadia with Julia just a few hundred feet
below. Julia and I glided to an area south of Arcadia but didn't find any lift and
landed together fifteen kilometers short. Jonny was in his last thermal before heading to goal when he saw Dustin come in
under him. He had started fifteen minutes before Dustin but Dustin was going to
have a faster time. Jonny came in third with Paris in second. Larry, Andre, and
Zac also made goal. So far I'm the closest pilot to goal. Dustin has won all three days and has launched from the pink cart every day. The
princess loves that pink cart (from the Cloudbase Foundation). We are raising money for the foundation and getting lots of cooperation.
http://OzReport.com/1304422092
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