The task was a 57 km (35 mile) run to the north. The blue sky was sprayed with thin cirrus. The wind was light, but 90 degree cross and at times blowing at our backs. The "wind technician" sank out. Davis even suggested taking up a collection to pay me to check things out. ;-) Finally a sport class pilot launched and Johnny, the tug pilot, reported a good climb when he came back. That was enough to get people going.
Speaking of Johnny, we had a fun tow out of the field. I was coming up to tree height when Johnny started turning right and then left. That is unusual for that height. I understood what was happening when I saw Charlie approaching across the runway after breaking a weak link and saw other tugs on approach down the runway.
I struggled with a couple weak climbs after I released until I was heading back to the field and stumbled into a good climb. A few minutes later Charlie found the strong sweet spot and we twirled to 3000 feet (914 m) at 500 fpm (2.5 m/s) and then headed on course. I put the brakes back on when I saw Sonny and JD land at the end of that glide. It took several climbs before I was moving on with confidence.
As I got closer to goal, I noticed the wind was blowing off the bay. I slowed up a bit again ensuring I had enough altitude to compensate for any low-level headwind I might encounter. Paris beat me into goal by a few minutes as I stocked up on extra altitude. I watched Paris land in the goal field and decided to land in a large cornfield to the northeast. I was soon joined by Mark, Charlie, Steve, Greg, John, Terry, and Christen.
Mark won the day.
Steve celebrated his first goal!
Brian won the sport class task and Rodger is still holding on to the first spot.
Flights: 1, Time: 2:04, Distance: 35.4 miles
No comments:
Post a Comment