East Coast Championship Day 3 & 4

I forgot to mention how well fellow New Englanders are doing.  On day 2 Nick Caci had his longest flight ever, first goal, first day win, and first 1000-point day on his first competition day.  I jokingly told him he should retire now since its all downhill from there!  Brian Boudreau, an honorary New England pilot, placed second for the day on his longest flight to date.

Nick

We had another good day of flying yesterday.  Early morning cummies teased pilots but a quick look at the weather showed we had a blue day in store but still with good lift.  The task committee, (Brian, Davis, John, Larry, and I), picked a 69 mile (111 km) task to the eastern shore, then crosswind to the south, then crossing upwind to the southwest.

I got delayed on launch with radio issues.  Bob towed me into a climb over the airfield where Charlie joined in.  We would end up flying the entire course together.  We climbed to 5500 feet (1676 m) where the views of both coasts were spectacular.  We then stalled at the start circle for 10 minutes in buoyant but slightly sinking air but managed a reasonable start.

We had a good run to the first turn-point, but ran into a devil-spawned thermal at the first turn point that I eventually left because it was too scary.  Rich and Jim caught us between the second and third turn point when then beamed up in a climb just upwind of our position.  They are gone by the time we reached their altitude (7200 feet, 2190 m) but the climb was well worth it.

We wasted too much valuable time floundering around the third turn point before heading off towards goal.  Charlie and I started final together, but I was on a better line and made it into goal while he landed just a mile or so short.  Bummer.  I had my "blonde moment" when I headed to a field that wasn't goal and then had to make a dramatic and wasteful 90-degree turn into goal after Larry radioed to "look off your left wing".  Duh.

We landed at a nice field along a tree-lined river.  They were very welcoming and didn't mind us "dropping in".

David Glover, my driver, was already at goal when I arrived and even provided wind direction information.  Thanks David.

David

I ended up with the lowest score for those that made goal.  Rich won the day again and now has a solid lead.  Several pilots made the sports class goal.  The scores are available online.

Rich

Day 4 looks washed out at this point.

Flights: 1, Duration: 3:10, Distance: 69 miles