I was not in a hurry to get up in the air yesterday as a few people were sinking out and having to relaunch. My tow up was a bit squirrelly, but I was able to keep myself behind the tug and pinned off near a thermal that required me to backtrack and find. I bobbled around in that for a bit, but found it to be a bit weak. Brian Foster had just pinned off after his second tow at about the same time. I could hear others on our same frequency moving on to the first waypoint.
Ben Dunn and Brian Foster in the lineup...Ben made goal as did Wayne "No Blog" Michelson, his first!
The lift was weak where I was, but there were some dust devils out within gliding distance...I went for the largest dusty in my sights. As I was approaching, I could see a smaller dusty developing nearby and positioned myself right in the middle of the two. At 500 AGL, I found the lift off the dusties, dumped my VG, and cranked up for what would my best climb of the day.
The drift of that thermal was taking me over a racetrack south of Maricopa where another thermal was found. Scot Huber was there also and another pilot as we all worked that lift. I should have been able to get higher, but topped out at about 6200', then went on glide. I had the competition route working well on my vario and had a clear direction to the first waypoint, Mobile. As I headed out on glide, I could see Brian Foster low over the racetrack. He was setting up his approach to land...one of those days. I was not too far from landing, as well. At about the 10km mark, I could not find a thing and was on the ground at 11.9km.
Final resting spot for Thursday...
Currently, I'm holding steady onto last place in this meet...the irony is that I'm having some of my best flights. Flat land flying is challenging to say the least. Flying with my fellow pilots can't be beat here...Wendy is having a great time, too...two more days of flying, then the drive home on Sunday with Mr. Dunn and Jamie Sheldon. Ben will remain bound and gagged in the rear seat of my truck and will not be allowed to touch the radio as always...
Today (Friday) winds are similar to yesterday...light and from the NNE...the task called today may be similar to yesterday...we'll see.
Flight time: 53 minutes