Day 2

Day 2 – Thursday.  Uff-da.  We began the morning with Dave Springford giving us 30 minutes of instruction on tactics for flying MATs and TATs, and that might have helped a few of us as you can see in today’s results.  Our contest weather experts then reviewed the RUC soundings during the pilots meeting where it was pointed out that lift would be strongest below 5,000 agl under the day’s blue sky.  However, it was noted that the winds aloft would be strong, strong enough to fool our flight computers with values of 25 to 30 mph.   The CD and task committee planned a three-hour, 199 mile TAT task at first, that later changed to a two hour MAT after the grid launch in order to allow the PW5’s a good day too.  Lift was great to 5,000 agl with numerous reports of lift to 7,000 agl and strong indicated lift on the varios for most of the thermal circle.  That said, if you could stay above 3,000 agl and find lift streets in the blue and not bother with lift above 5,000 agl, you had a great day.  And that was consistent with the RUC modeling and the interpretation of the models during our pilots meeting.  My self, flying GH scored highest with Dick Andrews in FH a close second.  Jim Hanson and his wife, Mary Alice, prepared a delicious dinner of salmon on the grill that was well attended by pilots, crew, family and friends and so we had a great day at the airport.