Today was a practice day at the Region VI Gliding Contest.  There was overcast and the day seemed to develop slowly.  It appears that we wasted at least an hour, as by the time we took off the climbs were averaging 4-5kts to 6000 feet.  As the day went on the cirrus grew thicker and the lift got weak.  I had to slow down and stay high to make it home.  Here is a link to the flight on the OLC

 I took advantage of the ongoing SPOT promotion and purchased one.  You can follow my flights "Live" on my shared SPOT page, http://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl.jsp?glId=0ghbkBV8WStsYryG5JnfeqLX0r0ZgnaEm

May has been a busy month.  The beginning of the month was spend preparing for the first ever Club Class contest in the USA.  The contest took place in Cordele, GA and was a great success for the organizers.  The weather was very challenging.  I made two critical mistakes scoring 0 points on one day and receiving a 96penalty points on another but I managed to come in 11th over all.  I've flown two XC flights since coming back; both days were blue with conditions deteriorating during the flight.  Fortunately I was able to recognize the change and switch gears.  Yesterday, May 24 F1 and I managed to get into wave just north of Kitchener, Dave (F1) climbed to 8800ft MSL and I got to 8000ft MSL.

Saturday, Apr 11 was shaping up to be a great day, unfortunately the recent snow and subsequent melt meant that we were unable to fly out of SOSA.  As good luck would have it Scott and Andrea agreed to provide tows from Brantford Airport.  Jerzy and I towed our glider trailes to the airport and were ready to launch by 12:30.  The day turned out to be better then expected.  The 18kt winds proved to be challenging but the strong lift made up the difference on the upwind leg of the Brantford-MtForest-Aylmer task.  Along with the lift came the strong spring sink, thermals below 4000' MSL were very difficult to core.  Click here to see the flights on the OLC  

I arrived at SOSA without any hopes for XC, instead fully intending to instruct.  Jerzy bent my rubber arm and I rigged the 55 and towed down to the flight line.  The day was blue and the lift was choppy down low but workable.  Some thermals were strong and well organised up to 4800MSL. Here is the link to the flight on the OLC.

SOSA's brand new trainers get airborne on Thursday Apr 2 2009.