Rob Kells Memorial (Day 4)

I was on the task committee today, so I needed to setup my glider before the 10:15 committee meeting and 11:00 pilot's meeting.  It unexpectedly rained last night so Patrick and I carefully unloaded the bags of water disguised as gliders trying our best to avoid an early morning drenching.

The task was a downwind run to a turn point near Fort Myers and then north to a small airfield.  The total distance was 104 km.

 Sport class pilots that made their first goal yesterday

Kerry towed me to strong climb and I was soon floating about at cloud base.  Unlike yesterday I lazily made my way to the edge of the start cylinder and was ready for the first start.  I was going to hold off for the second start until I saw the clouds staring to mushroom into large monsters to the southwest.

Belinda and Ricker

Aside from wasting time on my initial climb outside the start circle, I didn't make any major mistakes.  I shared a string of climbs and glides at various times with Davis, Greg, Ricker, and OB.  We flew fast on a couple sections of the course and its becoming apparent that my light wing loading is hurting my glider performance.  I enjoyed flying with my buddies and the numerous birds that simply joined our gaggles and climbed to base with us.

James at goal

It was a festive scene at goal since 15-20 pilots made it around the course.  Keeping with the rain theme, we drove through heavy rain on the way back and hear that some of the sports class pilots broke down their gliders in heavy rain.

The scoring for the day is available online.

Flights: 1, Duration: 3:15, Distance: 104 km