mifflin sports class day 5

Day 5 is in, and the contest is official.

We have blue thermals, light NW winds, and some scattered cirrus. The
call is a 4 hour TAT. The first leg takes us east out across the river.
Thermals are 2-3 knots and not very high. Gagle city. The second leg
takes us upwind across the same valley to nisbet with a 15 mile radius.
Again, it's weak flatland blue thermaling (just like home for me!). The
third leg takes us back to mifflintown. Here is where it got tough. It
was remarkably hard to get up on the high ground. Those who did found
fantastic thermals. Most did not, leading to a number of landouts and
low save stories. Then upwind to tall pines and back. Again, few very
strong thermals over the high ground. By now all the gaggles had
disappeared, so it took courage to recover, go on and wait for the few
good thermals. I and a few others found the best thermal of the day on
final glide of course. It leads to regrets, but in the end it's not all
that bad to thermal up to final glide at 7 knots.

Looks dicey today

This contest as usual at mifflin was superbly run and organized. Great
social and meal events, excellent task calling, superb ground
operations and friendly people make it all a pleasure. Alas we again
had two gliders damaged. One was a groundloop on an off field landing.
The second hit trees on the ridge, sustained substantial damage, but
continued the flight.

John Cochrane BB