Jonny Durand writes:

Another great day here in Big Spring getting over 11,000ft and
climbs up to 1,000 fpm. A 130km dogleg was set with a 70 kms cross-tailwind last
leg. Zac Majors won the day ahead of Bob Filipchuk and I was in 3rd in just
under two hrs.

I had a hard landing today after not coming out of my downwind turn with enough
airspeed and hit the wind gradient. I did a high speed stall into the asphalt
but managed to slide it in destroying my harness, knees and hand before coming
to rest. I was happy to be able to walk away, but am feeling pretty sore right
now.

Hopefully I can get everything sorted and get to fly again tomorrow. For the
overall results after two days check out the link below.

Http://soaringspot.com/2012bsc/results/flex/total/day2.html

Http://soaringspot.com/2012bsc/results/flex/total/day2.html

Although I am the forecaster here at the Big Spring Championships,
I still have to say that the forecasts (with the help of the National Weather
Service, XCSkies, Dr. Jack, etc.) have been spectacular. Today the call was for
a south wind up to 15 knots with the best chance of getting away from the Over
Development to go to the northwest.

Thanks to the flexibility and willingness of the task committee to actually pay
attention to and go with the forecast we had a very nice little dog leg task to
the northwest (while it rained in Big Spring). I'm using three separate weather
models and they all basically agreed on the call to go away to the northwest
from Big Spring (although they disagreed on the wind direction going from
southwest to south to east southeast).

We went to the ordered launch system used at the Race and Rally and that proved
very popular (as pilots didn't have to suit up until their turn came). The only
issue was that there wasn't enough time to get everyone in the air before the
second to last clock. We are down to three tugs. We'll have to expand the launch
period to first start window period. There was a fifteen minute open window.

The cu's started at 1 PM , right on schedule and because you have to launch when
your number comes up every one just got going. I was way back in the order due
to stopping the task (personally) yesterday and didn't get into the air until
half an hour before the last start time. (BTW, I spoke with Jonny and he had
thought that of course the first task was stopped and that is why he raced so
hard and got so low at the second turnpoint).

None the less I was able to climb up in good lift (all the pilots experienced
the great lift) and to get the last start clock while at cloud base right at the
edge of the ten kilometer circle.

There were plenty of cu's  on the course line, having started so late, so I
just started connecting the dots, zig zagging a bit to find the best lift. The
first turnpoint was 60+ kilometers to the north of Big Spring, and there was a
cloud street going north from it in the south wind. The next leg was to the
northwest, but it was blue in that direction so I stayed under the clouds and
climbed to 10,700'. I had told folks that they would get to 11,000' today.

It was easy to get back on course from that altitude and I made a bee line for
some wispies fifteen kilometers away through the blue. I went over to the area
where it seemed that the wispies were and given that there were no other clouds
that were within a reasonable distance, carefully searched around the area until
I hooked it. I soon saw Ricker just above me.

After climbing up we flew west to again get south (upwind) of the course line.
We found ratty but strong lift to 9,300' and then went further west toward some
wispies, again the only clouds that we could get to.

The lift was quite broken and weak and we were low. We searched all over. Ricker
decided to head up wind, but it didn't look to me like he was getting anything.
I had seen a few cu's just downwind of us and went down wind to find 350 fpm,
while Ricker landed.

I stayed in that thermal drifting north getting upwind of the course line and
watched my 6030 to see if I had enough altitude to make it to goal. When it
showed 2,000' over best glide and 9.3 L/D to goal I went go it heading cross
wind toward the air field at Brownfield.

Of course, the sink totally sucked as I got an L/D of 7, going cross wind, but I
had made my choice knowing that there was good looking cu on my path and that I
assumed would help out. Down to 1,000' AGL and five kilometers southeast of the
goal, I found 40 fpm under the cu. Very broken and drifting quickly to the north
past the goal.

I hung on because I had to as I kept a close eye on the goal. I didn't want to
be in the situation of having to fly back upwind to make the goal. The wind was
16 mph at 201 degrees. The lift stayed broken but finally increased to almost
100 fpm. When I came even with the goal, 3.5 km to the east and 2,000' AGL I
stuffed the bar and made goal with 500'.

The place was packed with pilots who didn't dawdle.