Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Thoughts on Santa Cruz Flats Meet

Right up until the last day I had flown well and scored well. Pleased I was, until I got a little ahead of myself.
Day break.
Seeing a dust devil ahead, I took off and a few others followed, we had not quite topped out the climb. Flying over where the dust devil had been we felt not much of a burble uh-oh. Continuing on, finding some chop I continued on looking for the real climb, keeping an eye on Ricker who had wisely stayed in the chop, searching for the core. I found something but it was too small to work, seeing Ricker start to make some progress upward I headed back. I found nothing and was down to 400ft. I landed and watched as one climb later pilots were getting to 15,500ft. Sometimes 5 seconds can make all the difference. And has been pointed out to me sometimes 1/4 second can make all the difference. Leaving the gaggle was a mistake. A great meet regardless.
The Davis and David duo.
Back on day3 we ended up taking shelter from the gust front in the Bent Prop Saloon at the Eloy infamous Skydive centre.
Here is the gust front coming through just as I had zipped up my glider bag. Interesting to see the lifting dust being on the trailing edge of the front and not the head. I am thinking perhaps this may have been one gustfront catching another... perhaps. Either way good to be on the ground.

Top 10 pilots O.B. taking the meet. Excellently flown.
Check out Bretts Video too, gives a great prespective on flying this Arizona meet.

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