West Rutland

Although I had everything ready to go to the East Coast Championship at Highland Aerosports, I decided to drive 2.5 hours in the wrong direction to fly at West Rutland instead of driving south to Maryland to sit in the rain. Dave set an informal meeting time by saying he would be there at 11:30. Rodger was about 30 minutes ahead of me when I left home, but I caught up with him just as we reached West Rutland. Before long pilots starting showing up in the LZ. It was great seeing friends I have not seen in months. Nine pilots (Al, Aric, Chris H, Dave C, David V, Pete J, Peter K, Rodger), showed up at the LZ. We met Marshall at the gate. Pilots continued to show up throughout the entire afternoon. There was a lot of catching up to do as we made our way to launch.
It was obviously soarable when we arrived, so we didn't waste time setting up. I discovered a small dimple on the inside of my leading edge, probably caused by the "dingle dangle" striking it on the ride up the rugged 4x4 "road". I carefully checked it out and decided to fly with the damage. I followed Aric as he started the parade off launch. It was soarable, but as Dave C would later comment, the air was "stiff". Not stiff as in a "stiff breeze"; more like the air made your glider feel stiff. The thermals were strong, but not necessarily big. It wasn't rough, just hard to keep the glider where you wanted it. I also noticed that the wind was stronger below 3000 feet (15 mph) than above (6 mph). This made staying in the squiggly thermals even more difficult.
I had several climbs over 3800 feet, but nowhere near cloudbase. I made several runs to the west to play whenever things became crowded on the ridge. A "down" cycle a couple of hours into the flight put many of the pilots on the ground. Shortly afterwards the wind picked up and the thermals got even stronger. John, Pete, Aric, and I played around some more and then each of them eventually worked their way down to the LZ. I was playing in the valley when Rodger mentioned dinner plans. That was enough to entice me to land. Besides, 3 hours was enough of a work-out before the comp that starts on Sunday.
After dinner in Ludlow, I drove to Morningside for an evening of flying lies and ***** around the fire at Camp Rob.