Flytec - Day One

We had the pilot’s meeting at 9 this morning instead of last night so we could go to the Wills Wing party. We came back for a brief task and weather update at 11. The task for the day was Quest, north to the intersection of Route 33 and the turnpike, back south to the intersection of Route 33 and Deen Still road, and then back north to Quest. The wind was slowly building as the clouds were drying out. Everyone expected the sea breeze to push through sometime during the afternoon. I managed to slip into the first staging spot on the far staging line and was ready to launch early.

I followed John Chambers into the launch line and was soon rolling out behind the tug. We got hit with turbulence lifting off the tree line. Tug and glider were all over the place and finally the weak link broke when a slack tow line went tight. I pulled in to land straight ahead, but was soon going down wind, then crosswind, and then who-knows-what. I had an ungraceful landing and hurried back to the launch line. My next tow was very active but I managed to hang on until waved off in a nice climb. I soon discovered, as everyone else, that the wind was going to be a problem. I spent most of the day gliding upwind and climbing downwind trying to make progress along the course line.

I made several mistakes; the worse was probably not leaving on course line when I was in a good position just because the rest of the gaggle didn’t go. I did get to spend some time flying with Peter Kelly, Linda, and John. (The flight is available online). John and I were flying together during the last couple climbs and glides. We finally glided just a little too far and ended up landing in the sea breeze. John landed in a farmer’s field with sprinklers and got a “talking to”. I landed in a housing development next to a porta-pot.

I just found out from Johnny that the day was only worth 300 points, so landing short shouldn’t hurt my final score too much. Tomorrow might be too windy to fly, but the rest of the week looks ok.