Quest Day One and Two-
BLOWN OUT
Quest Day Three (Tuesday- I need to be told what day it is lately- it's all a blur...)
High pressure, no lift, high-ish winds..... so let's call a 74 mile task! No one launched right away but a few rigids. They weren't climbing at all. For once, I was in no hurry to get in line. Neither was anyone else for a while. It was comfortable temps on the ground and slowly people meandered to launch. George, Mark and I were like dead last to launch. I had a great tow and got off to the west of Quest (upwind) and quickly climed to 3600' or so. I was mostly alone so I waited for others to join in. They didn't. I could see the lead gaggle- 80+ gliders sandwiched into 1500' of altitude, two thermals away from me and on courseline. I waffled on off and had two gliders nearby, and we just kept pushing west into the wind and looking for lift. It got rocky and dicey and the thermals were snaky and disorganized- once I got below 2300' I just couldn't seem to climb above that altitude. So I just followed the stringy lift, and since I was upwind, I could let myself drift a bit with it. I watched gliders land left and right and below. When I got even lower, around 1500', I began to stress out about landing again at the Bronson Ranch. The terrain was getting a little more unlandable downwind of me and with such little altitude, my options were diminishing. I started to think about landing when I was at 1100'. I think this is the first time I actually just gave up during a flight. It just seemed pointless and of course after hearing that people actually made goal, I wish I had some of my previous tenacity. Oh well. Hopefully tomorrow will be more soarable, more enjoyable air. My retrieve was really fast (we were all very close to Quest) and we got Mexican food with Bellerby at the Supermercado afterwards. I am tired again, so the enthusiasm is lacking in this post, but I am pretty optimistic about tomorrow. Scores will be pretty whacky after today!