Low Save

With west winds in the forecast (and slightly lighter), we headed up to launch at Black Cap. The task called was a 120-mile down-winder to Adel, past Dogherty Slide and beyond. The first gaggle climbed out easily but kept sinking back to launch as the lift came and went, but eventually left the mountain. I was in the last gaggle to leave (next-to-last to launch) and experienced the same yo-yo effect. It looked like the ridge to the right of launch was working, so I headed over and found some reasonably workable lift, but no screamers. Everyone else was above me as I scratched my way around the ridge. I'd almost given up since I was so low, but at the far end of the ridge I found something I could sink my teeth into and worked it up to around 9,500'. From there, I drifted over the back and found another nice climb that took me to 11,600 and drifted me far over the dry lakebed behind the range. I kept finding little pockets here and there and worked each one in zero-sink as I drifted downwind toward the first waypoint. Eventually, I found myself low enough that I couldn't get past the canyon just west of Adel, so I picked out a break in the junipers near a road, deployed my drogue chute and landed in some foot-tall junipers with rocks about the same size.

It only turned out to be about a 16-mile flight, but as I worked the light stuff and drifted downwind, I saw quite a few gliders in the fields below. I'm hoping this flight puts me back in the race. We'll see...

UPDATE: I hung around with the other pilots at Headquarters last night (eating kabobs and soaking in the mineral pool) until the results for the day were posted. Turns out I was third for the day in Sport Class, which moved me one notch higher to 6th for the meet so far. Only two chances left to move up...