Second unofficial practice day.
It was a very familiar-feeling Southeast day today. Hot and humid. Clouds started about 1 PM. As on the previous day, the US team was at the front of the grid ready to go, and took off first to get in some much needed practice. We headed out to the east with cloudbase about 3,000’, struggled a bit in 1-2 knot thermals for about 50 km, came back as the day got stronger with 3-4 knots to 4,000, finally topping out around 4500’. The forests turn out to be good thermal producers because they’re higher and on sandy soil. The fields are quite wet from a lot of rain. We went out to the western part of the task area, then returned. We all stayed out until the lift died off substantially and clouds dissipated, and then got to practice dribbling home in the blue. Al and I tried Euro-style straight in finishes, which are no big deal since the airport is huge and surrounded by landable fields.
Tomorrow is the first official practice day with task and everything, and we’re all looking forward to that.
John Cochrane (BB)
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