The task has many different areas of strong lift and then weak
lift.

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

The task and the flight
here.

http://santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/

Today was the forecasted coolest day at a top of 97 degrees, and that is
actually how hot it got today. The rest of the week until Saturday (where the
forecast is for 98 with a slight chance of thunderstorms) should be in the low
hundreds.  Light winds today, tomorrow and the next day, it looks like
maybe all week. Blue days with good lift and light winds. Perfect competition
weather.

The forecast today was for 600-700 fpm lift on average, top of the lift to
9,000' to 10,000', but the lift would slow down significantly before the top of
the lift. Temperature of 54 degrees at 9,000'.  It appeared to be a day
where you didn't have to bundle up.

We left an hour and fifteen minutes from the first launch time to the first
start time and gave pilots five start times so that they could have more time to
prepare on the first day. Still pilots did not get ready to go in time to launch
at noon. They wasted almost half an hour. The day has only so many hours here in
September.

The task committee (Dustin, Kraig, Larry) called a triangle task given the light
winds, with a 40+ kilometer leg to the southeast to an intersection south west
of Picacho Peak, then a 20+ kilometer leg north northeast to a way point west of
a small north south mountain range (I advise pilots to go to the range to get
up) and then west northwest back 40+ kilometers to the Francisco Grande 
(110 kilometers total). They gave the pilots a one kilometer goal cylinder to
make for safer landings. The start cylinder was the usual five kilometers used
for light wind days.

With the slow launch I was about the seventh pilot off launching at 12:56, 56
minutes after the launch window opened. Pilots were just not ready to go on this
first day. I found lift on tow at 1,000' AGL and pinned off in 200 to 300 fpm. I
was at 7,000' AGL twenty minutes later. Pilots had been turning to the south but
they saw my thermal and came and joined me in it.

I would have been happy to take the 1:30 PM start time (the second start) but
Dustin and O'Brien weren't ready to go so we waited with almost everyone else
and took the 1:45 slot. The task committee thought that this would be a three
hour task, so that was pretty late in the day, meaning that we would get to goal
a little before five PM. I was hoping that we could fly the task between one PM
and four.

I was at little less than 7,000' when I crossed the start cylinder at 47 seconds
after the start time. Almost everyone else was behind me. I quickly hit two four
hundred fpm thermals climbing back to over 8,000' and it looked like the day was
a strong one. I pulled the bar in and raced at 44 to 48 mph heading for the next
thermal leaving everyone that I could see behind me. I was on my own and would
be for quite a while.

I passed up 200 fpm just before Arizona City assuming that there was better out
there further on in the dry desert. Nothing over Arizona City so I kept going.
After sixteen kilometers I finally found 300 fpm at 1,600' AGL and climbed back
out. Apparently Stinnett and Volk were somewhere around or soon would be, but I
never saw them. Volk would shadow me from above.

In front of me were green cultivated and very wet fields (rice?). I had to work
my way through them jumping from dry field to dry field to now stay up in light
lift. I found weak sink five kilometers from the first turnpoint and then headed
north to the dry fields hoping to find something going up. Next to a small
prison and down to six hundred feet, which would mean I might land on the prison
grounds, I started working weak lift that slowly turned on. After a while a dust
devil formed just upwind to the east of me and I went over to it to find 400 to
500 fpm. As I got high all the guys that had started with me came in far under
me (other than Glen and James).

I climbed back to 4,900' AGL and headed north north east toward the mountain
range and the next turnpoint just to the west of it. The lift improved as I
escaped the green fields and I was able to stay high racing toward the
mountains. I dove into the mountains but didn't find anything and proceeded
further north. Just before the turnpoint I started working 150 fpm as I was down
to 1,500' AGL. Dustin and O'Brien came by and for the first time since soon
after the start I was no longer alone.

Jeff flew back into the mountains as did Dustin and I went after them hoping for
better lift. O'Brien finally found it and I joined him. Dustin missed it going
for some birds on the leeside and had to struggle to get up as Mitch joined us
and we climbed to 8,400'. It looked like James Stinnett was a couple of thousand
feet over us earlier. Glen had already climbed up on the peak and was headed for
the goal.

Mitch, O'Brien and I headed out together toward the west and spread out. It
looked very dicey getting back to the Francisco Grande. It was already almost
five o'clock. We spread out and were willing to work 100 to 200 fpm lift. And
not just for a minute or two but until it quit.

Glen didn't find lift after leaving the mountains and landed and had to watch us
come over his head ten minutes later.  We were very cautious. We crept
along and used each other to find the lift.

As we got closer we headed for the hills just south of Casa Grande to get a
little more lift before going on final glide. Mitch was now a bit behind Jeff
and I. I had climbed a few hundred feet higher than Jeff (his vario wasn't
putting out any noise) and then we went together on final glide. Jeff raced in
just ahead of me. James Stinnett was the first to arrive, fifteen minutes before
us.

Next came Mitch then Dustin, than quite a bit later Robin Hamilton, Dave Gibson,
and finally Larry Bunner. It looks to me like seven of the eight finishers were
Wills Wing T2C's. The rigid wings and the Swift and Millennium didn't launch
until a bit later and didn't make it back.

The scores should be up in the morning. First day it takes a little longer.