News column

[Peter Kelly]

My last flight was 5/19 - almost 2 weeks ago.
I'm busy with other things, but hope to fly next race day - June 9th.
I look for news here on the Forum, but need to search it out ...

Last weekend Key came up from Georgia to fly the 27, Jim - 1B flew too.
couldn't see much on the SPOT tracks.

Last weekend was the first half of the Regional contest at Crazy Creek.
Luke had a landout, Sergio had some good distances... guess we'll wait for this next weekend to see how the second half goes.
A limited number of finishers on the contest days - days were devalued.

Guess the wx is not holding up.

The Avenal Contest was the week prior. I copied these results from the PASCO Page...
I am guessing that Larry-YE wrote this....

Avenal Contest Results - May 20, 2012 The "Central California Soaring Club Spring Contest" results have been posted on the SSA.ORG website.
Another challenging, but fun contest. Follow the link below to view the results and read the contest summary. The top 5 (preliminary results) were:
#1: F8 Bill Gawthrop
#2: P7 Gary Ittner
#3: 5H Morgan Hall
#4: 7V Ray Gimmey


Soaring Outlook:
It's supposed to be in the mid-90's on Friday- that's the First of June already! I guess summer is approaching, as is the hot wx....
BLIP looks favorable along the Mendos ... nice cu tomorrow, lower on Friday, but still quite good, but more, and lower clouds on Saturday.

I see lots of things scheduled in the latter half of June. ASI, Truckee, WSC (Montague)..

Looking at the WSC schedule, I see Key is planning to be here for the next race day (6/9) - guess there'll be no lift for us on that day.

[Peter Kelly]

Outlook update - as of Thursday, late morning.

Today looks good, as does tomorrow. I see differences between RASP and BLIP for next couple of days. There might be some OD near Yolla Peak tomorrow.
The sounding over wsc for friday shows unstable above 12,000 or so ( but little moisture over the valley).

Noelle/ Cora, I'll take a tow tomorrow, with the intention of getting past Yolla Peak before it overdevelops - if, in fact, it does overdevelop.

[M.Guerin]

Looks like a good call, PK - I'll likely be taking a day off tomorrow to fly as well.

Marianne

[Peter Kelly]

RASP and BLIP look tremendous.
Forecast suggests support for a trip over to the Sierra Nevada range.
It's probably best to get an early start.
Interesting soundings and wind plots as well.

[Garykemp]

Nice flight Peter!!

[Peter Kelly]

Sorry to mislead those of you that may have observed my SPOT report.
It was a nice flight, thank you Gary, but lift was non existent much north of the T-15/ T-16 ridge.

As I discussed with Key the day before, I have a motor so it's best that we don't buddy fly unless there is an "understanding".
Key wasn't able to get the 27, so I was on my own, and thus I flew accordingly.

I would NOT have flown even as far as Hay Peak, due to the lack of lift, if I were buddy flying.
With no prevailing wind, the thermals just didn't get organized - there were occasional bubbles of lift, but no cu all the way from t-15 to the T Alps. I pretty much did a glide from T-15 to the pattern at Weaverville.

And.... it wasn't working on the south side of the T Alps. I kept reading a north wind - downwash- each time I got close to the south end of those stony peaks.

I had to power into the Alps just to get enough altitude to get home again - but it was a good day.

After landing I was feeling good, as I washed the bugs off the wings of my stead, feeling I was well served by her preformance today.