Canadian Nationals - Day 4

Today was the the third flying day and we had another good day with 5-6 kt lift up to 6000 ft.  But that makes the day sound too easy, so just to mix things up a bit, the clouds lied - but not all the time.  There were areas where it was hard to find a good thermal and areas where you could do no wrong.

The FAI task was an area task with turns at Woodstock, Listowel, and Lucan.  The leg to Woodstock had a few areas where the sky had cycled between Arthur and Kitchener and many people had low points in this area, but once through the soft spot there were good climbs to be had the rest of the way into Woodstock.

The leg from Woodstock to Listowel was upwind and some nice streets formed allowing for a fast run, but once in the Listowel zone the clouds started to lie again.  I also noticed that it was blue along the next leg towards Lucan from the lake( Huron) effect and that going deep to the NW of the Listowel zone would require a large deviation to get around the hole.  I decided to turn early and head south since the last few clouds had not worked for me and part way along the third leg I started thinking I had turned too soon as I was faced with the large blue area in the third zone that might require turning home too soon and coming in undertime.

I was able to use some wisps on the edge of the blue and run far enough into the Lucan zone and get myself into a position where I would not be under time.  On the way back from Lucan, I again had trouble connecting with thermals under some good looking clouds and eventually found myself at 1800 AGL.  I continued to fly under ugly looking clouds and the next one gave me the get home thermal - a 5 kt climb up to 6200 ft.  From there it was a close final glide all the way home.

Looks like a chance we will be rained out tomorrow as another cold front is inbound.

BTW, scores for all three days are now posted on the contest site at:

http://yorksoaring.com/results

Dave