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An exciting day at Ridgely with the pilots heading down wind in a twenty to thirty kmh wind to a grass strip eighty seven kms away.

The forecast was for fifteen knot northwest winds, so I called a task to the southeast about as far as we could go without landing at the beach. We could have gone further south (with a turnpoint), but after only getting at most twenty one km on the first day I was reluctant to send all the pilots further. Tomorrow is another day.

Larry Bunner was off first and then I got hauled up. Adam took me straight into the sink all the way and waved me off in it. I searched around but go back to land at the airport, where I found lift at three hundred feet and circled up as I drifted quickly down wind. There were cu's every where.

After climbing up a few times I hooked up with Paul Kelley, Paul Tjaden, and Larry Bunner, getting on top of them. As we worked the lift inside the start circle, Kraig Coomber was not far off, but lower as we approached the edge getting high.

At 2 PM I was on top and near cloud base so I took the start at four seconds after 2 and kept circling for another minute to get to cloud base before heading out with Paul in tow. I quickly left him behind and was on my own making cloud base quickly with each climb. Kraig was following from behind and lower.

The cu's were every where and the lift was good. I was still being careful although flying fast, just in case things changed.

Half way out I spotted Jamie Sheldon in a LiteSport who had started 20 minutes before me. The thermals weren't quite as strong. Jamie found a good one way out in front of me and we climbed to over 4000'. She was searching around under a dark cloud which marked the next thermal when I came in over her and stuck with it while she wandered on, got low and landed.

I left when the lift got weak, but not before I got to cloud base. I should have stuck with it. Kraig had caught a glimpse of us. Paul Kelley was three or more kilometers behind and Larry was another thermal behind.

There were good clouds ahead and that was what Jamie was heading for. I was much higher than her and headed for them also. Unfortunately, there was no lift under the clouds for me or for Jamie. And we went under a lot of clouds. Kraig was now with Paul Kelley, but he missed some lift and was heading in my direction.

I got down to 700 feet and started circling in the gusts coming off the trees in the high winds. That got me four kilometers as I fell slower. Kraig landed nearby.

Sunny Venesky was able to make goal by a few inches. Flying the tree line to stay up long enough to just get in the goal cylinder, landing under a power line.

See the results above.

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