Day 1

Day 1 - Tuesday.  We flew a race today and what a thrill.  Even though high cirrus from Iowa tried to press northward while cumulus streets tried the same from central Minnesota, the CD believed that a 1:30 MAT would work.  Pilots flew to the north but they found that pressing to far northward or trying for extra distance after the minimum time, left you a bit slower and so most pilots had returned within 2 hours.  And guess what, the cirrus from Iowa over ran the cumulus streets just after the minimum task time, still Dave Springford in a ‘G29  and Dick Andrews in a DG1000 anticipated this and showed the rest of us that experience and good plans to fly MATs win races, finishing first and second respectively.  Lift was consistent, moderately strong but low, in fact low enough to keep us below 3,500 agl for most of our flights with a flight band of about 1,000 ft.  Our flight experiences matched the Skew-T diagrams and Dr. Jacks forecast for top of lift, and winds aloft.  Finally, at days end we had a delightful barbequed pulled pork dinner at the airport, and again great attendance, fun stories for another day at the airport.