The clouds build slowly so launch times and start gates are all delayed a half hour. The air is nice although there is a semi-blue hole around the airport. Courseline is 90 degrees to the wind direction with a small 5k exit circle. Picking a good staging area in the sky is tricky Gaggles get scattered and I flew alone in the middle. I tried to set up for the first start but wasn’t topped out and waiting for the second. It seemed like some pilots left from too far out. I think they got kilometers and miles confused.
Dustin ended up in my small group setting up for a good second start so we went for it. Some major overdevelopment to the east had me in a hurry to get on course. I was afraid it would make returning to goal (60 mile triangle) difficult if we waited too long. Conditions to the first turnpoint steadily improved and the climbs got easier to find and stronger as well. I fell behind Dustino while searching but we just played leap frog after the first turnpoint. This leg was into a 10-15 mph wind but the clouds were fat and strong. Dolphin flying at 7,500 feet most of the way. That all changed about 13 miles from the second turnpoint. The wind increased by as much as 5mph and the blue got really sinky. Clouds looked bad and were far away. In what seemed like no time time flat I was groveling in the dirt with no where to find lift. I struggled over a small city for a painfully long time. Dustin and some others glided in high to some lift straight west of me under a reasonable new cloud. I wanted to get there but was just so low. The torture of groveling over the city was too much for me and I darted to join the other pilots. Bad sink got me to the lift ridiculously low. Strong winds were ripping on the trees below and the dogs in the yard below wouldn’t’ stop barking at me. “Nipper, NO, Nipper NO!” I could hear their owner yelling at them. Rock and roll lift from a few hundred feet turned into 100 up and eventually fired up into 600.
Back on course I found myself diving for the last turnpoint low. A rigid wing and a swift were turning in very light lift right at the turnpoint so I grabbed it and joined up with them. They were a few hundred feet below and the climb was extremely light. Wind was strong and there were no good clouds in view. In the distance huge cells were exploding out their tops. I got 3 consecutive circles of no lift and I did (what I thought) was my only choice, and left the lift (low). A few miles later I was on the ground in a field of roses. Luckily they were young and no thorns. Breaking down I got to watch the pilots who stayed in that lift climb out high and eventually make goal. Doh. It was a struggle but fun.
Kev
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