Nick's day 8.

Nick, ST - Day 8, 13 Aug

The weatherman predicted a slow starting day and thunderstorms for 5PM to the north of Uvalde with a possible gust front for the return landing. A short 2:15 hour area task is set. So what do you do when the start gate opens at 14:15 and there already is a shower over the hills 20 km north? Start early and have a slow first leg? Start late and risk not being able to get back, or in the rain?

I started early at 14:27 and had a terribly slow first leg with quite a few Cus but weak lift. I dumped ballast for 30 seconds to climb better. Much better looking CUs in the first turn area proved quite strong, and I extended the second leg to see if I could improve my speed with strong lift under most CUs. When I could see a good alignment of small clouds for the return home, I turned. There were few CUs on the return leg and they were dying as I got there, but eventually reached building clouds and it was an easy final glide at high speed. The storm stayed north of Uvalde and a light gust front went through about 1/2 hour after landing, tuning the wind sock 180 degrees. 298 km at 112 km/H. A slow day indeed...