It took a long time to get going today. Hot, blue, hotter, bluer, the
201 libelle sniffer grinding away below release altitude. We finally
launched about an hour late, starting on a shortened 3 hour turn area
task around 3:30. I and several other pilots found a shear wave which
let us start above 8,500 feet, a blessing heading in to a totally blue
first turn area down south. (The max height for this contest is
10,000', meaning this bit of usually unavailable good luck can
happen.) Most turned near the mexcan boder in scraggly "cu" wisps.
Things were clearly developing, so the next leg was in decent 5 knot
or so thermals. Arriving back at Uvalde to the turn area just north,
the sky opened up to classic beautiful Uvalde conditions. There was a
cloud street heading from Uvalde up to 15 miles past concan,
coincidentally the back of our second cylinder, and about 40 miles
south to the third turnpoint. It was possible to do all of this with
no circling. I stopped once for 9 knots to get high as the street
petered out. Now once again into the blue, with lots of calculaitons
going on -- exactly when can I turn and not get back under time? Once
turned, there were still good lines of lift going back to Uvalde so
most ended up bumping up a few thousand feet on to final glide and
ending up pushing over to warp speeds.

Imagine yourself at 8000', with a big fat street heading 40 miles
ahead, just a sprinking of gliders here and there, crystal clear
afternoon skies, occasional hawks to share the air with, and the Texas
countryside spread out before you. It was gorgeous. The evening ended
with a fantastic Fajita dinner provided by our excellent contest
organizers. This is what we came for.

John Cochrane
BB