Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Nats Day 4


Day 4 was a great day of flying. The conditions were some of the strongest I have flown and by far the strongest for me at Chelan. The cloud streets and lift were very big although not over developed.
I launched second or third - Thanks to Doug Hoffman for being a wind tec for us - great pilot and he showed us it was safe to launch.
Climbing above the Butte with a bunch of R 10.2s is quite exciting. - They are so fast you just have to get out of the way. The lift on the Butte was a bit challenging because of the strong lake side flow but the start cylinder was 10K so you didn't have to worry about getting blown too far down wind.
My start was ok - maybe 5-7 min late but I was just worrying about staying high, staying warm and staying out of the clouds.
I was with the second gaggle until it dispursed or headed down wind and by the time we were 20 minutes into the race I was very lonely. - Lift was everywhere with lots of cloud markers and dusties. I left my last lift at about 7,500 or so and had a long way to go to the next cloud.
About half way through my glide I noted a couple of wings catching light lift to my right and I turned to join them but by the time I got there they were gone and so was the lift.
Two trys for lift is all I got and my slide to the ground continued until its completion.
No compaints - I think I flew well and made ok decissions - got unlucky as far as timing and clouds but that happens. - All in all if I have a similar mental and performance day today it should pay off. We will see. - Today likely a triangle.
P.

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