He's going faster than Dustin did two weeks ago.

http://tinyurl.com/jonzapata

http://tinyurl/timzpata

http://tinyurl.com/petezapata

http://www.facebook.com/timothy.ettridge/posts/10151958605735438

Gary Osoba writes:

We have yet another excellent Zapata day here- possibly best
launch conditions this year.

I went up in the Woodstock light sailplane to check conditions early and
reported the good results. Jonny was not set up yet, having returned from his
recent World Record flight last night. He assembled quickly and was off at
10:04, about 19 minutes later than his launch time on Tuesday for the Goal
record. I think launches at 9:30 am would have worked today as we had good
clouds that were working at 2000' agl with 200-400 fpm lift. I measured winds at
cloudbase at 157 degrees, 17 knots.

Pete Lehmann launched his earliest in a long time at approximately 10:19 am.
Pete has an excellent strategy for the day, and has declared Sterling City as
his goal. If he achieves it, his flight will exceed Jonny's on Tuesday since his
release point is approximately 2 miles further away. I think if Pete exercises
patience through any difficult areas and early, he has a very good chance of
recapturing his World Record.

Jonny declared his goal where he landed two weeks ago on the flight with Dustin.
He will be trying to make it, then overfly it more than 3 miles plus another
kilometer to set a new Free Distance record. The day does not appear to have
quite the potential that the record day two weeks back did, but Jonny is a
gifted pilot who knows how to push to the extremes of circumstances. I have 14
World Records under my belt and know that this is what is required- not
necessarily the best day or forecast all the time.

I did a full weather synopsis this morning, as I have on each record attempt
day. The average winds today will likely be less than either the Free Distance
day two weeks ago, and similar but slightly less than past Tuesday. The
direction is not quite as favorable either, particularly up on the Edwards
Plateau. Starting clouds and airmass that moved in overnight looks better to me
than either of the other two record days, although the cloudbases will be lower
than on the Dustin/Jonny day two weeks ago- similar to this past Tuesday. Lift
strengths will be similar to both prior record days from Zapata to Uvalde,
possibly improving and better after the Hill Country. Its hard to predict when
and where streeting will set up but I expect it over some if not a significant
portion of the flights today.

Both Jonny and Pete have landed. Jonny just east of Crystal City and Pete at Catarina.