Flying Day 1

The trough over the prairies is still causing some problems for us, but at least we got in our first flying day today.  The satellite shot shows the clouds that we are still dealing with and our task area is represented by the circle inside the red square.

At the task committee meeting we made up three tasks to cover the NE, NW and a shorter 2 hr task in case we didn't get the temperature needed for thermals until late.  As it turns out, none of the tasks were usable today as the weather changed rapidly and any pre-planned task was not going to work.

Part way through the club class launch, we decided the only option would be a 3 hr MAT with no mandatory turnpoints to allow the pilots to fly to the sun and stay in the lift.  The gates were opened just before 2 pm with cu in the NE sector and overcast in all other sectors.  As it turns out the MAT was the right call today with only four landouts and a few early finishers.

Ground elevation here in North Battleford is 1850 feet and most thermals went to 8000 ASL with a few up to 9000.  The strongest thermals were in the 7-8 knot range and and 5-6 knots was common under the good clouds.

I was able to cover 302 km in 2:56, coming in just under minimum time, but close enough to the full 3 hours.

 

Dave