Today was the first official practice day for the contest and an assigned area task of 4 hrs with a minimum distance of 541 km was set. To fly just the minimum distance on the task required a speed of 135 km/hr.

I had a good flight and was averaging 146 km/hr, but... the last turnpoint was 172 km north of Uvalde, up in the hill country, it was 5 pm and I was 108 km from home on the way north and the sky was going blue.  A quick calculation said I had 180 km left to go on task, and I would probably average around 125 km/hr  for the remainder of the flight, so that would get me home at 1845.

Being a practice day, I decided I really didn't need to go to the last turnpoint and squeak home in the dying thermals, so I turned for home and three climbs later I was on final glide.  As I approached Uvalde, a great cloud street appeared in front of me going right over the airport, so I moved under it around 3500 ft and then ran it about 40 km south and then turned around and ran it home again. It sure was nice to see the clouds again after the blue to the north.
I was also able to get through the Technical inspection today, so all the administrative tasks are finished and the flarm is now talking to my LX9000, so it looks like everything is finished and I can concentrate on flying.

Dave