Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Blow Up

Well with a dodgy weather forecast of strong winds and for the lift to decrease later in the day the task committee was faced with a tricky task call. After about one hour of looking at all the weather info and changing the task several times we decided on a downwind with a zig zag with goal being in Lamesa some 48 miles. We started towing from further down the runway today to avoid hangers and spectators in case of a lockout to the right. davis decided on his own to push the start back 30 mins as there were not many clouds yet and thought that it would get better. Well he was right but unfortunately it got to good and this meant that the flex wings us would be faced with a big overdeveloping cell pushing in from the east. As we allowed 1 hour 15 mins to the first start this made it even worse having to hang around and watch the day slip away. Everyone did the first start and started heading for the big rain squall just hoping that we could still make our first TP and then fly to the west and out run it. It became clear in the first thermal 8 miles out from the TP that we could go not make the TP with out flying into the gustfront and rain. As we watched closely the cell started with a lightning display and this is when I called it quits and started to head back to the airport. It was soon called off as I believe most pilots had the same idea, funny what lightning does to your decision making. I was one of the first pilots back to land at the airport and was able to witness a lot of interesting landings. Most pilots got down safely but there were a few that landed during the change of wind coming from the gustfront. It was light and variable for about 10 minutes which managed to cause a lot of entertainment as gliders were landing or should I say crashing in all different directions. One pilot hit tailwind and flipped all the way over onto the top surface and another pancaked in breaking both uprights. Paris landed right on the change and pulled off a light tailwind landing, very lucky cause 10 seconds later it was like 15 knts tail. Andreas was lining up to land the same direction as Paris but at the last minute felt the wind change and turned around for a perfect landing against all odds. The day was officially cancelled and a poker game was called for 5pm. I have just returned home from losing my 10 dollar donation to Jamie Shelden and Glen Volk who ended up splitting the $100 pot.. Well done guys. This day has gone into the history books as being the first cancelled task in Texas out of I think 38 rounds not bad.. Hopefully the weather will get better tomorrow and we will have another good task. For scores from day 1 CLICK HERE