Nick, ST - Practice Day 7, 3 Aug

Today's weather was not optimistic, with a late start and less than half of the pilots electing to fly today. My main goal was to get a full flight log for a new back-up logger.

On release I couldn't believe how much sweat was dripping from my hands. I had the vent full open and the side window scoop open fully as well. Lift was only 1.5 kts to 5000, but it improved somewhat. I decided to start and by the time I crossed the gate I was down to 4500'. My plan was to go on course for a while and if it didn't look good, to simply return and hand in a good log file. Conditions in the blue improved on the first leg and I was in a group of 10 gliders or so.  Condition kept improving and I kept going around the first turn and then down the second leg. Lift improved some more and rose to 7500' near the second turn. After the turn, conditions were not as good, and I was having to glide a long ways to find decent lift. I stayed behind the gaggle to climb to the top and lost sight of them. I was joined by two 18m gliders. I needed about 2000' to get onto final glide and saw a couple of gliders ahead and detoured right. After unsuccessfully searching for the lift underneath, I decided to keep going and ran into the thermal finally. An enjoyable flight overall.