http://ozreport.com/ozweather.php

The results are up (or soon will be) at the soaring spot: http://www.soaringspot.com/nswst2008/

There are dark cu's every where as we head up the side of Mt. Borah at 11 AM. It looks like it will rain soon. There are patches of sunlight and upper level clouds, and clouds with black bottoms. It is raining to the north.

The wind is coming from the north northwest perpendicular to the northeast launch. We go there but not many other folks take a look. We then head over to the west launch as the forecast is for northwest winds.

We delay the pilot briefing for an hour to 1 PM to let the rain come through. It is not too strong or too long. My glider is all setup and I only have the harness in the car. Everyone else (other than Jonny) is also setup and ready to go on the west launch.

Just before the rain Raef and his brother Corry launched and flew around ridge soaring in front of launch. There were a few paragliders in the air and they made sure that they stayed out of the clouds. There was plenty of lift.

After the rain, and the pilot briefing I go immediately to the launch area to the right to wait for the wind to come in. It doesn't. I'm the second person to be ready to launch and first in my "line". I'm ready to get off the hill, but there is no wind on launch, no lift at the hill, and sun on and off in the valley below. There is rain to the north, clouds overhead, and clouds moving from the north.

I will be on launch for the next three hours waiting for a breath of wind to come up the hill. It's raining over the back by Godfrey's. We sit and wait. Finally after an hour I get out of my harness. Then I get back in again as the sun comes out. Then I get back out again. Jonny, Scott and Conrad go to the south launch. Then back to the top of the hill, then back to the west launch. The winds keeps rotating about, often blowing down (from the east). At one point it is clear that there is a good thermal out to the southwest, but no one can get off the hill to get to it.

With a tiny breadth of air up the launch Bruce Wynn launches. Everyone watches as he glides out to the sunlight and lands. There is only a moment of very very light winds up the launch.

Pilots start making paper airplanes and flying them off the south launch. This goes on for fifteen to twenty minutes. Hardly anyone is in their harness. Conrad and Scott are hanging out to my right but they are now out of their harnesses. Jonny is running around flying paper airplanes. My glider is in front of my line, ready to go. I keep looking at the wind socks.

More rain is coming and so I finally decide at 3:40 (we have already added more start gates, so the last start gate is 4 PM), to take my harness to the car 200 feet behind me. I'm not taking down the glider (others are taking down theirs) and I go back to check out launch.

Suddenly the breeze starts coming up the launch lightly. No movement in the trees below. Scott Barrett gets off and heads out toward the sun patches two kilometers from launch. Jonny still isn't in his harness yet. A few other pilots launch including Conrad. I've got my harness hooked back up to my glider and I'm ready to go.

Jonny and a few other pilots get off in very light winds and get under Scott and start getting up. The light winds stop.

Scott is climbing well and the other pilots are staying up. Then the rain comes and we all have wet gliders on launch.

We wait for the winds to come up again. Finally they come up enough and ten pilots barrel off the hill. Scott and the pilots below him have gone down the course line. There is rain between them and the turnpoint. They were climbing under a line of dark bottom clouds that looked like they might produce rain.

I get off and head for Dave Seib in the black inlayed glider. He is circling in light lift two kilometers from launch at 700' AGL. Any port in a storm. I come in under Dave and there are a number of other pilots trying to work this same thermal.

The thermal averages 100 fpm for me. I climb up through Dave and hang onto the best bits. All the other pilots will soon land including Dave. Dave headed away from the thermal to the hill. I follow for a few feet but find the rest of the thermal and stick with it to 4,000' as I watch the rest of the pilots land.

I head for the dark line of clouds to the south and the sunlit fields just to their north. I find lift there and climb to 4,400'. I'm alone. It looks like other pilots might be able to get off the hill and get up now.

I look to the south toward the turnpoint and it is completely shaded. My plan is to hang on here and get as high as possible before going there, but I lose the lift and after searching around for it under the cloud head down wind searching for lift under smaller clouds over the shaded area. I find patches of sunlight, but no lift. It is a long glide to 21 kilometers away from launch. I pass over a few pilots who got out earlier under Scott.

Last I heard Jonny and Scott were doing well. I'll put up the results in a few hours when I get it.

As I was on launch I was thinking about how important it was to be ready to go early (I go to launch early) and how important it was to remain vigilant. Then when it looked like it would rain again (and it did) I let my guard down for a minute over a three hour period and that was the crucial minute.