Eduardo Fonseca «fonseca414» writes:

The winds had switched and were coming from the NE, which called for a 39.7 km task towards SW.

Take off could have been better in my opinion. I need to stay in the cart longer and build enough airspeed. Big spring is higher than Houston and much dryer, so speed = lift. Towed by Bob Bailey, air was bumpy and at times I would get way higher than the tug. Weeks ago I would have pinned off, but I recalled Mick’s words saying “just stick with it” so I did, used all the muscle power I had, and managed to finish with a wave off.

It didn’t take long to find some lift, and little by little started gaining altitude. This time I would try to stay with whatever thermal I could find and climb with it to the end. In the previous day I left the first thermal at 9600’ in order to get to a “better” cloud, but I might have been able to do better if I had managed to leave at higher altitude.

As I circled and got drifted by the wind I started going through the course. There were a few times that I got a bit low, down to 1200’ AGL at one time it felt, but I worked every little piece of lift I could find. It didn’t matter if it took long, or if I would make goal, I just wanted to see how well I could do it. Hit the first turnpoint, not bad. Then kept working lift and getting drifted towards goal.

I was getting lower. For me the definition of a ‘oh-oh’ moment in Big Spring is when the air starts getting warmer than 75F and it was getting hot. Time to check for wind direction to land and a dust devil formed about 1 mile away. Now I know which way it’s blowing. For a moment I thought that flying towards that devil could provide some lift, but I am sure it will be rowdy, so no. Thankfully, nice strong and well developed lift formed, and within four miles of goal, it was all I needed to make the final stretch.

My first goal ever. So happy. I couldn’t believe it. Immediately I thought of my son Nick who told me the day before “you have to make goal tomorrow.” This flight is for you Nick!

Ok, time to land. The pilots were a bit concerned with the task because the goals for Open and Sport classes were not airports (with wind socks), but areas where there are a lot of oil fields, many in the drilling phase. However, it was a blessing in disguise as one oil platform below started flaring, which provided a nice view of where the wind was blowing. I let myself get drifted out towards a nice looking field, and had a good landing.

Overall a great learning experience. Yes, it’s a comp but for me it’s more an opportunity to learn from my glider, from Big Spring conditions, from all the other pilots, and from myself. Now, off to the next day.

Flight on Leonardo and my GitHub.

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