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

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We flew the big mountains for the first time here in Casa Grande. We've flown
the Newman range to the east before but the mountains north of the Estrella
sailplane port are quite a bit higher and they were pumping. You just have to be
careful and not go way too far north and get into airspace.

The forecast was again for light winds and strong lift at 700 to 900 fpm to
15,000'. Just a normal day here in the Fall. It was supposed to be six degrees
warmer than normal though.

The task committee was very innovative calling a task that took us to the
northwest out over a pretty desolate area served by dirt roads but along the
mountain range and then back to the hotel. We figured that the lift at the
mountains would be good enough to keep pilots from landing out in the valley far
from the paved roads. 125 kilometer out and return.

The launch sequence was relaxed and I got in the air fifty minutes before the
first start time at 1:30. But the lift was quite weak. We all ganged up on each
other and huddled together in one thermal after another getting barely above 100
fpm, if that. Slowly climbing to a little over 5,000'.

No one took the first start clock and we continued to bother each other for the
next half hour. It was a total waste of time, and daylight, as we just didn't
get that much higher. We had hoped that like on previous days the inversion
would break, suddenly the lift would turn on and we would get high before the
start. It didn't happen.

Finally at two o'clock we headed northwest toward the waypoint at Bon. I found
weak lift at the airfield to the north of Bon after tagging the waypoint, but
while the climb was a little better, it was still less than 200 fpm and again
everyone was in everyone else's faces.

We crept along for two more weak thermals not getting above 6,000' moving up the
highway to the northwest toward Estrella. A few of us left the gaggle behind and
headed off on our own finding more of the same as the gaggle held back and
worked weak lift. Larry found a good line to my north and suddenly was quite a
bit higher as we approached the sailplane port where we could see a sailplane
flying upside down. The sailplane was apparently being piloted by the US
National Aerobatics Champion.

I headed out leaving yet more weak lift and tagged the Estrella turnpoint out in
front and then finally ran into some good lift west northwest of the air field.
I was climbing well when Larry said that there was some 700 fpm to the west a
little. The gaggle behind us was coming overhead high and that was a source of
distress as I had run away from them for a little peace and quiet and obviously
missed some of the better lift that they had found.

I couldn't find the 700 fpm that Larry mentioned so raced toward the mountain
range north of Estrella not really as high as I would have liked given that
there are no roads up that direction. I was low against the hill sides and given
the fact that I had to get up or land a long ways from maybe a dirt road meant I
was willing to take 100 fpm on the rock faces to get high enough to get over the
top and find better lift.

Meanwhile the gaggle was super high and finding 600 to 800 fpm over the top of
the range. Even Larry was getting up well just ahead of me. It took me a while
to get high enough to find the 600 fpm that everyone else was thermaling in and
then wait in it until it turned into 900 fpm.

From my weather forecast I figured that we would get high, but I just couldn't
bring myself put on an extra undershirt shirt when I was in the heat before
launch. I didn't even have my gloves on and had to put them on in the thermal as
I passed through 8,000'. I left at 11,400' to go get the turnpoint at the edge
of the thirty kilometer radius cylinder to the northwest and it was no problem
going out into the valley to get the turnpoint. The gaggle was way ahead now.

I could hear O'Brien, Dustin, Ricker, and Larry back on the mountain range
getting back up in good thermals. I immediately headed back to the mountains and
found 700 fpm back up to 12,300'. I could have gone much higher than that but I
was already cold. Pilots who were willing to stand the freezing temperatures got
much higher. It looked to me like 17,000' might have been possible.

Shivering even at my low altitude I headed south for the last turnpoint forty
kilometers away. I heard from Larry that the hills ahead weren't working so I
took a straight line course except for one slight detour to check out a couple
of hills that didn't produce anything. It was soon pretty clear that the valley
had switched off and that we weren't going to get another thermal. I had started
out sixty kilometers from goal.

I could hear Jeff and Dustin ahead sweating it out thinking that they were not
going to make it to goal heading east down highway 84. Larry went searching in
the foot hills to the west of the last turnpoint eighteen kilometers from goal
but didn't find anything. I was flying at best glide speed in super smooth air
starting at 4:40 and like everyone else I wasn't hitting a bump of lift.

I could see that I would make the turnpoint with about 700' so I wasn't too
worried about where I might land. There was lots of open fields around. I sure
wasn't thinking that some thermal would suddenly appear and save us all.

Larry went and tagged the turnpoint and soon landed. I tagged the turnpoint and
headed toward goal. I saw a pilot in front of me turning to set up an approach
at a nice clear area, but I saw some green fields beyond and they looked to me
like alfalfa fields for the feed lots to the north of the highway so I kept
going.

As I got over the fields, low, I could see that they weren't corn, but I wasn't
sure just what they were. I kept gliding and could see myself making the dirt
road through the fields up ahead. The light winds were supposed to be out of the
north and this was a north south road. I figured getting to it would make for an
easy retrieve as I was just south of highway 84. I came over the road and turned
to the north and put it down gently between the fields which turned out to be
very thick cotton which was quite high and would not have been pleasant to land
in. I was very happy that I was able to make such a nice landing away from a
field that was much worse than I suspected.

Dustin and O'Brien were shocked to make it in to goal having excellent final
glides . Seven pilots made goal with Mitch in first.

If I had been willing to get a lot colder and a lot higher I would have been
able to make goal, but I can't recall a time when we've flown sixty kilometers
without a thermal, but that was the case late in the afternoon on this day.

The mountain conditions were excellent with the very light winds and the
thermals there were the best that we've had throughout the competition. As I got
higher the lift got smoother and stronger, so that it was easy to put my gloves
on and thermal at the same time.

I had Gaggle on and running again today, but while the phone recorded the whole
flight, Livetrack24 didn't record anything after 21 kilometers into the task.