It was another exciting day in Arizona. The task was set to the
northeast:

The larger circles around the turnpoints are there to keep us away from Class B
airspace around Phoenix.

Our goal is a dirt air strip with little to recommend it.

As usual the lift was light under 200 fpm at first after our launches at 1 PM. A
few pilots got high. I stair stepped up to 3,400', then 4,000', then 4,900'
before heading over to the northeast corner of the 5 km start cylinder. I was
too low to make the 1:45 PM start but fortunately there was a 300 fpm thermal
right at the edge of the start cylinder so I climbed to 6,700' in time for the
second start with all but seven pilots.

I headed out with Zac and shaded to his left to find lift that he came back for
just south of the Casa Grande airport. That was half way to the first turnpoint,
a 4 km cylinder around Signal Peak. That 300 fpm thermal just before the edge of
the cylinder got us up to 5,800'.

As I took off following Zac my GPS in my Flytec 6030 quit. That was quite
confusing as I was checking my 6030 to see if I had made the turnpoint.
Fortunately my Volirium P1 said I had. In the confusion and with turning off the
6030 and waiting for the GPS to start working again I had shot off on my own
losing track of the six or seven other pilots.

That turned out to be a good thing. I got down to 3,200' and had to search
around for lift but after circling in 250 fpm I found 340 fpm to 6,300'. That
allowed me to glide for 14 kilometers getting the second turnpoint at Eleven and
heading back north. Right after I made the turnpoint I spotted Zac just above me
and Olav and maybe Kraig nearby. They didn't see me at first.

I shaded to the north northwest even though the course line was to the north
northeast. I saw small cu's forming in that direction and was heading for them.
Zac, Oleg and maybe Kraig headed down the course line.

I found 250 fpm and thermaled up to 4,900'. Those three pilots finally spotted
me as they were getting much worse lift and came in under me much lower, just
off the deck.

Soon it was my turn to deal with weak lift over Coolidge. I had to take five
different thermals a few less than 100 fpm to finally get to 4,900' northeast of
town. I had to back up a couple of times to find better lift.

I headed north northwest to get on the sunny side and windward side of some
small hills. The spot was perfect as a thermal gathering spot. I climbed at 230
fpm to 4,800'. Kevin Carter joined me early on and made the smart move of going
back upwind when the thermal petered out. He got much higher. I missed that
opportunity.

I made the turnpoint and the altitude above goal numbers were positive. As I
headed south toward goal I was not sure that the positive numbers were correct.
I found 180 fpm 8 km out and took it to 3,900'. That gave me 2,500' above goal 8
km from goal. About 11:1.

At 3.5 km from goal and at 2,100' (700 AGL) I thermaled up once more to
2,700'drifting to the east northeast. I was 1 km out from the 1 km goal cylinder
but down to 300' AGL and faced with an unlandable field between the edge of the
goal cylinder and me. I was over a plowed field and decided that I wanted to fly
the next day.

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