Home from Hobbs

We arrived home from Hobbs earlier this week and have been using the time to catch up on some work and start packing for Hungary.  I have slowly been adding to my list of things not to forget and stacking other items on the kitchen table in preparation.

I have been following the results from Hobbs and it does not look like they are having much fun.  As I suspected the cloudbases are low and there are lots of landouts.  Hobbs is a great place to fly when you get better than 5000 ft AGL cloudbase, but not a fun  place to fly when it is low.

I leave you with a picture of one of the streets in Hobbs on Saturday as the rain from Alex moved through!

Hobs days 5 and 6

Yesterday it rained all day as the remnants of Hurricane Alex moved through the area.  The TV reports had flash flood advisories out and the streets of Hobbs had several feet of standing water in places.  We saw one car stranded in the middle of a puddle on a street and Dave Nadler showed a picture of another car with water half way up the doors.

Today the rain has moved through, but the ground is saturated and the forecasts are for low cloud and thermals only to about 2000 AGL so I don't think we will be able to fly a task.

Yesterday, we decided to head home and started packing up to go, but because of the continuous rain we were not able to get everything ready until about 8 pm and then stayed overnight for departure this morning.

The forecasts are optimistic for the next few days, but I don't think they are taking the saturated ground into account. I have no doubt there will be at least three flying days before the end of the contest, but with low and weak thermals.  Hobbs is not really the place to be flying at 3000 AGL!

 

Dave