A Thermal When You Need One...

CD Mike Mayo opened the gate on our Day 3 Task at 1310 and the fleet of sixteen sailplanes left the Truckee Bowl headed for the Pine Nut Mountains.  We were talking to NorCal Approach who said "Yep, I see you all out there and I'll keep traffic away from you."  

Down the Pine Nuts to Mt. Siegel, the decision became “Turn left to the Sweetwater Range or continue the usual path down to Mt. Patterson?”  Naturally, once either decision was made, the alternative path looked better.  In the end, it didn’t matter much, as we all arrived at Boundary Peak in flights of two’s and three’s.  

By this point Cockrane had reeled in Fitch, Linnekin and Woodruff and down the White’s we all flew.  Fifty miles south of White Mountain Peak, our first turnpoint, we turned north to make our return pass up the Whites on our way to Pond Peak.  We had flown to the southern limit of the White Mountain Peak turnpoint, so all we had to do was nick Pond Peak and go home.  Again, two possible paths, one over Mt. Patterson and the other, more easterly, near Hilton Ranch and up the Smith Valley.  Either way, we all needed to get to about 16,500’ to make the final glide across a now blue Carson Valley and into Truckee.  I’d been flying lower than Cochrane, Fitch and Woodruff all day and I figured when I stopped for that last climb, they’d smoke me.  But, I found a pretty strong late afternoon thermal and headed home above a Macready 4 final glide.  Ticked the edge of the Pond Peak turnpoint and was happy to be home after being in the cockpit for over six hours.  Five pilots never found their last good thermal of the day and landed at Carson City Airport.

It was an exciting day of racing with a lot of lead changes and the outcome not settled until late in the flight.  The results for Day 3:  Woodruff 4th, Fitch 3rd, Cochrane 2nd and Linnekin 1st.

DL