K day 7 report
Day 7 dawned with a fair forecast and expectation for mostly blue skies. Gary predicted a single cloud over Sandia Peak. Generally easterly winds would prevail as we've come to expect this week.
Task was a racing task of 224 km around the valley. We would be able to work a few potential mostly blue convergence zones and stay mostly within glide to Moriarty while we did it, if we played our cards right.
Launch went well but the thermals were a little slow to develop height. Bif delayed task opening until 2:15 when most competitors were comfortably getting above the 12,000 ft tag up altitude. I was not concerned as I didn't really want to start until 2:45-3:00 PM, figuring that winning speed would make it a 2 hour task.
A group of us including Mike Westbrook and Randy Acree played some Start Gate roulette as the thermals got better and better and ended up starting nicely well above 14,000 feet at 3:05 PM. I had an incredible run to the first two turnpoints and caught back up to the group at Manzano. Mike and I had a good run together across the valley to Wagon Wheel and we all had a really good climb on the way at Estancia.
The winning move turned out to be following the wisp line from Estancia up towards Moriarty before going to Wagon Wheel. At that time those clouds were working and several pilots got over 15000 feet and had final glide from there. MIke and I drove straight for the turnpoint and found a few decent climbs but nothing good so kept pressing.
We both ended up low at Ortiz Mine which was uncomfortable. Mike bailed towards Zorro Ranch for a potential landing. I worked a few weak climbs, got the turnpoint, and glided back up on top of the escarpment to have a few hay fields in range. Eventually I found a decent climb and got back to final glide but lost a lot of speed along the way. In the end I was happy to make it home and scored fairly well considering the trouble I went through.
Today is looking better yet so we're headed to the mountains!