26 July

I flew another 500 km triangle today, but it was slower than Tuesday, averaging only 119 km/hr.

On the first leg, I had trouble finding good thermals and ran the leg lower than I would have liked.  I finally connected with a good 5 kt climb right at the first turn and was able to climb it from 3700 up to 6500 and gave me a speed of only 96 km/hr on the leg.  This put me in a good position to run upwind on the second leg, and I had a good run cover 133 km on the leg without having to stop and climb.  Unfortunately, at the end of the run, I was at 2600 and really needed a climb.  It took a bit of time, but I found a 4 kt climb that I took for about 1000 ft and then pushed on to a better looking cloud where I found a 6 kt climb that I took all the way up to 6700 and rounded the second turn with a respectable speed of 114 km/hr going into a moderate 12 kt headwind.

The third leg north started well and I was able to run another 109 km and once again found my self lower than I would have liked and I had to change gears again and look for a good climb.  I took a few weaker climbs and kept moving ahead and finally, 35 km later, found another 5 kt climb that I took to 6500.  Jumping across the streets on this leg made life a little more difficult, but I eventually reached the south edge of the hill country where I needed a couple of more climbs to get into the last turn with a leg speed of 133 km/hr.

Once around the last turnpoint, I needed one more climb to get home and then had a nice run back to Uvalde.

Tomorrow is a no fly day, we have a mandatory pilots' meeting at 10 am and then we'll get Canada Base set up.