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September 21, 2018, 6:54:50 pm MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

More weakness, but none the less glory

competition|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Fred Kaemerer|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|sailplane|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

The task committee thought that the day would be pretty good and that the weakness from the previous day would be relegated to a distant memory. It would turn out to be the case that once again the lift would be weak and the top of lift would be low, at least where we would start our flying at the Francisco Grande.

The task set was heroic:

The idea was to head east against a 7 mph head wind and then, if you can make it there, get high on the mountain north of the sailplane port at Estrella, coming back with a tailwind.

With the first start window open at 1:30 PM I launched at 12:55 PM. Even with the light lift I only took the tow to 1,600' and pinned off in light lift with a couple of pilots.

The lift was indeed quite light and the first three thermals averaged 95 fpm, 86 fpm, and 129 fpm. There were just a few pilots around, maybe ten, and I got to only 3,600', or 2,300' AGL.

We were still in the center of the start cylinder with eight minutes to go before the start clock having been pushed back by the west northwest wind and I headed out with three other pilots to the north west to see if we could get closer to the optimum start point and also find better lift.

After gliding about 4 kilometers and finding nothing we all turned around with me as the lowest. Coming back and trying to get near a road in case I landed I found lift at 500'. I was by myself with everyone else high and down wind of me. 130 fpm felt like a strong thermal and climbed right up to all the other pilots at 4,000' without any issues. It was great to be by myself just turning in the best rising air.

Now we all headed north west again, aiming for the second start time at 1:50 PM. A 30 fpm thermal kept me above 3,800'. The next thermal, all of 66 fpm only got me to 3,200'. I was climbing terribly. I wasn't able to climb through anyone and there were twenty pilots in the gaggle, which severely restricted my options.

Heading north west again I was down to 900' AGL as three pilots landed below me. Half the pilots in the last gaggle were here with a few hanging back two kilometers to get the third start time. I joined other pilots in a 64 fpm thermal Again it was terrible. Very weak, only a small portion of the turn was actually in lift.

I was near the bottom of the stack. I was not climbing well and not getting up to where I needed to be. When all my turns were in sink I headed out with four other pilots, but I was by far the lowest at 2,900' (1,600' AGL).

That didn't last long and I found a good field to land in next to the highway.

Other pilots stayed up in the weak conditions very slowly moving against the headwind. They huddled together in groups of four or five. Only eleven pilots were able to get more than 10 kilometers from the edge of the start cylinder. Ten of them were able to cross the flats getting to Estrella where the mountains were working. Some got to at least 10,000'.

As we arrived back at the Francisco Grande hotel, Jonny, Ollie, and Tyler were arriving over the hotel. They had made it around. A great day for them.

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/results

Task 5:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 02:40:07 80.76 605
2 Felix Cantesanu Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:57:39 80.76 553
3 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 02:59:49 80.76 545
4 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 03:02:16 80.76 540
5 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 03:02:16 80.76 536
6 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 03:03:20 80.76 534
7 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 03:10:44 80.76 520
8 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13   73.08 381
9 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C   76.10 365
10 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144   65.99 362

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 3326
2 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 3134
3 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 3081
4 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 2938
5 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 2925
6 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 2782
7 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 2694
8 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 2640
9 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 2428
10 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 2357

In the Swift Class, Greg, Chris and Brian made it back to the hotel.

David Aldrich got outside the start cylinder for 10 kilometers (coming low over my head into a landing) as the only Sport Class pilot to get outside the start cylinder. He got 8 points for that effort.

Fred Kaemerer was the only ATOS class pilot to make it around the course.


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