Day 4

We flew today. The weather was sunny, dry and high pressure. We got to launch at the usual10 a.m. and settled in to wait for the day to start. The wind techs begin to launch about 11:15 a.m. but were having a hard time climbing out. So we knew that today was going to be tricky.
The launch window opened at 11:45 a.m. and the start was at 1:00 p.m.

I launched about 12 noon, and climbed out on broken light thermals. Not much more then 500 feet per minute max. The ceiling kept lifting as we were climbing, and the gaggle topped out at a little over 7,000 feet msl. It was an interesting start gaggle today as the start was an exit cylinder only 1 km in diameter. It must of looked interesting from the ground as basically the whole group was together. The thermals were drifting toward Lake Chelan, so once topped out you had to get back to the top of the Butte.

Once the start alarm went off everyone went on glide for the task. It was a 69 km task from the Butte to Okanagan, north of Chelan. The interesting part to the start was you could cross the Columbia river to the flats, or follow the foot hills on the Butte side then cross the river to the flats. Once at Brewster you had to cross the Columbia river again north to Okanagan.

I unfortunately, got drilled again today on the first glide from the Butte and landed at Chelan airport. Last word I have received at 4:30 p.m. is there are 40 pilots in goal.

Another tricky day, and patience is what is paying off. Forecast is for cloudy and windy on Friday, but let's hope we can get two more tasks in the last two days. Cheers!