A couple of questions:

Was the wave aligned so that you could use it to make great speed on course?
Would it have taken too long to climb back up to 17,500' after the start
to make it useful?

Great story by the way!

On 4/18/2020 5:12 PM, Nick Kennedy wrote:
GETTING HIGH IN PAROWAN UTAH
I had been to a couple of the Marfa spring wave camps sponsored by Dick Johnson in the early 2000's so I knew what a Shear Wave was/is. Got to 23k+ in my 1958 Ka6CR. Great fun, some good story's from those meets.

Fast forward to a few years later in a early Region 9 contest in Parowan Ut.
Flying my aSW 20 XS.
Due to a 1st day navigation error I was about last on the score sheet.
We take off on this kinda windy blue day, Top of the start is around 10k.
Well I climb up super high for no real reason, waiting for the start gate to open. I'm up over 17k in the blue, when my thermal peters out and I bump into what I recognize from Marfa is a shear wave. I want to exploit this thing so I think real quick and turn off my logger, and slowly s-turn my way up to over 22k and drift way back to the NE. Then someone comes over the radio and says " Hey isn't that a glider super high about 15 miles NE? Jeez I was spotted. I pulled my hat low over my eyes.
The start gate was going to open in about 15 minutes so I lowered my gear and flaps and opened the dive brakes and descended down to 10k to get a start.
After that, the rest of the day I felt so low.
I like getting up over 20k, the air is so nice and crisp up there.
Nick
T

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Dan, 5J