http://ozreport.com/ozweather.php

The results are up at the soaring spot: http://www.soaringspot.com/nswst2008/

With a bank of high clouds over us and extending to the north and east and a light to moderate (not good) north east wind, we can't launch from the favored west launch and are finally forced to go back to the northeast launch. A number of pilots will refuse to launch from there and stay on the west launch hoping against hope.

When we drove up the hill we went first to the north launch, and found ourselves alone. There was a brisk wind from the left about 90 degrees to the launch, but every once in a while a thermal would come through and straighten up the flags around launch.

We trundle over to the west launch as that is where everyone else is hoping that the day will be like the day before, where it came up on the west side in the afternoon. The strong winds and the clouds will keep the west side from heating up and make this definitely unlikely.

Given the iffy conditions (actually the northeast launch looks better than the day before as there is a good amount of wind there), the pilots opt for nine start gates, so pilots who start later won't get double penalties (they'll already be out of the battle for arrival points). This is passed overwhelmingly with Jonny and Dave Seib complaining about it.

I quickly go back down to the northeast launch and get my glider out, but I'm not fast enough. Maybe I'm holding back a bit based on the day before. Jonny, Conrad, Scott, Cameron, and Dave all get off the hill before I can get to launch. The valley is dark below, there are thick high cloud above, they will ridge soar for the next fifteen to twenty minutes at 200' over launch while the winds at launch blow from the left.

Finally the sun comes out, the thermals start coming up the launch and I launch easily after Bruce Wynn. There are nice thermals and I climb out slowly watching Jonny, Scott, etc. a few thousand feet over me and down wind, but still in the start circle. They had the advantage of that extra bit of thermals when the sun first came out before we could launch.

Jon Durand Sr launches and I come back over him as he looks like he is climbing well. There are maybe ten guys flying just above the launch now but they are not getting up as Jon and I drift south over the range not getting particularly high. The shade comes back again and it is all dark on the eastern side of Mt. Borah. There are cu's and sunlight to the south along our course line.

The guys in front of us and much higher take the second start time, and we are trying for the third (well, at least I am). But the shade on the ridge and the lack of lift means I have to run for the sunlight to the south, starting ten minutes after the second start gate, and we are much lower at 3,300' (2000' AGL) than the first group. The wind is 12 to 15 mph out of the north.

In spite of the good looking clouds and lots of sunlight on the ground, the lift is weak, broken up and rough at approximately 200 fpm.  I don't stay in any "thermal" very long only getting to 4,500' before trying the next good looking cloud.

I have chosen a cloud street to the left of the course line for the best chance to find lift but at the rate we are going downwind we will miss the turnpoint. I have to find a strong thermal and fast. It looks like there is one ahead and I race for it leaving Jon in 250 fpm.

It turns out to be 450 fpm and I take it to 6,700' leaving Jon behind. The top of this thermal is north east of the turnpoint at the towers south west of Lake Keepit. I pull out of the thermal early to stay well below the cloud that I'm about to race under, pull in the bar and race to the tower turnpoint. It is raining a few kilometers past the towers and it looks like this will kill the chances for the next guys if they get this far.

There are really thick black cu's south east of the turnpoint over some hills basically along the same line that I chose on the first leg. I head back to the hills and find strong lift where I expected to. This gets me up to 6,900' and lets me go on glide fast. I go at 90 km/h over the ground under the clouds watching a dust devil move south twelve kilometers ahead of me right on my direct line to goal. I will get to that dust devil and climb again.

Off to my right to the west about twenty kilometers is a cu-nimb with a wall of rain about twenty kilometers long going north south. It doesn't look particularly threatening, but I do need to head somewhat toward it to get to goal. It has cleared away an area to its east of cu's so I stay further east. The ground to my west is shaded, but I'm over sunny hot fields with some good looking cu's ahead.

The winds now out of the northwest at about 14 mph. At eighteen kilometers out I find 500 fpm at 2,500' AGL. I watch the L/D required to get to goal and the Altitude above Goal fields as I climb out. At 4,700' AGL I should have goal by 1,000'. There is shade most of the way to goal.

It looks mellow down there, as I can see the dust coming from a tractor in a field and it is moving from the northwest but at a reasonable rate and steady. I can see rain between me and the goal, but it doesn't look like heavy rain, at least yet. There is plenty of heavy rain a couple of kilometers west of the goal though and also northwest.

I do best glide into goal with little bits of lift and reasonable sink over the shaded area. The rain isn't too bad as I fly into it about five kilometers from goal and it stays with me to goal. I arrive with 200' to spare at the edge of the 400 meter cylinder. I don't see anyone else at goal, but they are in a different field and I'm too low to see them. Only six pilots make goal.

Jon Durand Sr decides not to fly into the rain and deliberately lands six kilometers short of goal. Conrad flies away from goal after getting the cylinder to get away from the rain as much as possible.  It does pour down a bit for about five minutes after I land. The winds are light.

Jonny and Scott took a similar course to mine after the turnpoint, but they and Dave Seib went a lot closer to Lake Keepit than I was willing to go on the first leg. They started a couple of thousand feet higher and ten minutes before Jon Sr and I.