Nick, Day 5.

Nick, ST - Day 5, 9 Aug

Due to the potential for severe thunderstorms to the north, we had a short 3 hr Area task with a 15 km finish radius in case Uvalde was under a T-Storm by the time we got back.

I started early because of the T-Storm threat estimated to be at Uvalde at about 5 PM. The lift on the first leg was a little weak at first. It improved as I got closer to the first turn area. I turned early since I was at the end of a cloud street. The next leg was quite good. I got a radio call from F1, indicating that the T-Storm threat was lower than expected, so the way home was going to be OK. The third leg was aligned with a cloud street for 2/3 of the leg, and there were 8 of us on this leg, running at 100 kts. At the end of the cloud street I had lost an extra 1000' on them, and  we stopped for a 6 kt thermal. I stayed behind to climb an extra 1000' after they left to keep going into less certain weather, and turned right for better CUs, wasting some precious distance. The last leg was fast, stopping a couple of times to top up, and pulling up under CUs along the way. 412 Km @ 128 Km/H.

Some stats for today: (Better glide ratio than yesterday, average 64:1 at 94 Kts average glide speed, and 21% circling also better than yesterday, but only a marginal increase in overall speed).

Circling Number:  24
Circling Time:   00:41:44
Circling Speed:   69 Kts
Circling Radius:  570 Ft
Circling Rate:     27 sec/circle
Circling Count:    92 circles
Circling Gain:    18048 Ft
Circling Avg:      4.3 Kts
Circling Best:     7.0 Kts
Circling Percent: 21.0%.

Glide Number:    24
Glide Time:     02:37:02
Glide Speed:     94 Kts
Glide Distance: 455 Km
Glide Avg:       19 Km
Glide Longest:   73 Km
Glide L/D:       64:1
Glide Loss:     23448 Ft
Glide Avg:       -1.5 Kts