With the forecast for southwest winds three knots less than
yesterday we head to Mount Subassio just above Assisi an hour to the southeast
of Sigillo. The launch is even flatter than Montecucco and the hill rounder
which allows us to launch in winds that would make it difficult at Montecucco.

We get there a bit late and don't have perfect setup spots and in fact set up in
a line that will become over-crowded later.

Subassio looks south west out over a wide open and flat valley and the task is
thankfully called up and down the valley and not over the back over less
landable areas back toward Sigillo. It's a fairly long task given that the winds
will still be a factor of 120+ km. The first leg takes us thirty two
kilometers right into the wind.

I launch third in our line which turns out to be the right move as it turns into
a madhouse later with little discipline and lots of confusion. Jeff's Flytec
6030 freezes up on him after he launches and he'll have to top land and get the
loan of another vario and use his Garmin Gecko for the route. Caroline, a German
free flyer, helps him out back to launch pulling out fence posts to get him
through the fences.

Launching consists of a trot into the light winds on the flat slope and after a
few steps you are airborne. The lift is plentiful and smooth and from the 4,000'
launch it doesn't take long to get to 6,400' and cloudbase. The cloud bottoms
are dark and the ground shaded out front and we go searching in the valley to
get up wind around the 32 km start circle.

There is air space out in the valley and I turn just before it not finding much
out there and head back downwind to the hills. There are lots of pilots in the
air now, but the lift is weak. I can't make it all the way back to cloudbase
before the start at 2:30. I'm just above Zippy as we head south maybe 500' below
the highest pilots. Not a good start.

Zippy turns back to take a later clock as I keep on course shading more toward
the valley to try to stay under some nice looking clouds in the sunshine and
upwind more on course line. The ridge line is downwind of the course line.

This strategy doesn't work as pilots nearer the ridge find the lift first and
those of us out in the valley have to run to them as we aren't getting up. Even
on the hill side the lift is sparse and broken. It is a struggle, at least for
me. I'm low and at one point head back out to the valley to get under a cloud to
get back up. I'm quickly far behind the leaders.

James Stinnett and I are the only Americans to take the first clock and James is
struggling along with me. It takes a while but finally I find good lift and work
to a spot where the clouds and the hot hill side come together to produce enough
lift to get back to cloud base. I'm deep into the hills, twelve kilometers from
the turnpoint, a large castle at the bottom of the hills, directly up wind.
There are a bunch of us trying to get high enough to make the glide to the
turnpoint.

Finally we push into the wind and just keep gliding hoping to stay high enough
to get the turnpoint and get back to the hills facing west. I'm down to 3000'
when I get to the castle, but miracle of miracles there is a little bit of light
lift there. I jump on it and drift with it back toward the hills. I can see a
number of pilots low and landing beneath me.

Derreck and James are down as I leave the lift and glide to a pilot getting up
over vineyards on the hill side. It's 500 fpm and Jeff O'Brien comes in low
under me. He has just knocked his little Garmin Gecko out of its friction fit
holder and seen it fall to the valley below. No points for Jeff today.

The race back to the second turnpoint near the launch takes one fourth the time
that it did to get down to the first turnpoint. Jeff and I find 700 fpm and then
glide at 100 fpm down back to the launch. I find 500 fpm next to the turnpoint
just over Zippy. Jeff Shapiro is struggling low by the turnpoint.

Jeff, Zippy and I push out into the valley toward the turnpoint sixteen
kilometers to the south west. The headwind is eighteen mph. There is a large
mass of back bottomed clouds above us but sunshine and no cu's at all at about
half way on the course line to the turnpoint and back toward the next one.

We can find weak lift under the black clouds but the wind is so strong that we
lose almost more than we gain in height. I go back and forth twice before
getting back to cloud base and heading out from twelve kilometers toward the
turnpoint.

The wind is too much and when I see that I'm not going to make the hill top
turnpoint I find the biggest field on the flats four kilometers from turnpoint
and land in strong winds. Dustin, Jeff, Zippy and Larry landed nearby. O'Brien
decided just to land at the goal in order to be able to tell Belinda where he
was as he didn't have a GPS in English.

Twenty two pilots made goal. Primoz won the day. See here:
http://www.cucco2011.org/