http://www.ssa.org • August 2019 • Soaring 35mountains. The clouds quit about 25
miles southwest of Moriarty, but I
continued south across a blue hole in
order to connect with a line of north-
east bound cu which started over the
community of Abo. Turns out there
was lift in the blue hole, which got
me to the Abo clouds at about 13 kft
MSL, as well as a booming thermal.
The line of clouds/lift ran from that
point to Santa Rosa and beyond. My
second major blunder of the day (not
gonna recount the minor ones) was not
following the clouds past Santa Rosa
under which the conditions appeared
to be working well.
After turning at Santa Rosa, there
were fewer cu and thus more sparsely
spaced lift, but the sky looked inviting
enough to press on back in the general
direction of the home drome. There
must have been a shift change at the
thermal factory as a lot of the clouds
were, for the most part, used up. As
a result of poor cloud chasing on my
part, the Discus and I found ourselves
within a safe glide to a ranch strip
within the Galasteo Valley when we
bumped into a 4 knotter that got us
back in the game. The somewhat low
save took some of the fight out of me,
and so I only pressed on to the Santa
Fe airport before reversing course and
heading home.
It was an incredible day with lots
of great speeds by all those who flew
out of Moriarty. Gary Osoba, myself,
and Steve Hill placed in that order
as the fastest Speed Leaguers in the
world. Although I’ve read and reread
the OLC rules, I’m still befuddled and
certainly do not have a thorough grasp
of how all the calculations are made.
Having said that, let’s look at how
Gary did. His was the fastest speed
at 186.22 kph, and a scoring distanceof 465.55 km, followed by me in the
Discus at 163.77 kph and a scoring
distance of 409.43 km, and Steve Hill
at 170.06 kph and a scoring distance
of 425.15 km – which demands the
question, how did I end up ahead of
him? Steve was given 148.85 points
for his efforts whereas I scored 154.5
points for mine. I’m guessing this is a
function of the algorithms used in ad-
justing for the handicap.
I had the good fortune to have
been given credit for an FAI triangle
of 536 km, which, combined with the
rest of my flight, put me in second
place for the day in both the U.S.A.
as well as the world, behind a well-
flown Stemme S-12 out of Santa Fe.
What’s not to like about conditions
like those? What’s not to like about
flying my fantastic little standard
class mount?2020 Soaring Calendar Photos Wanted
It’s that time again, to submit your best
high resolution photos for the 2020 calendar.
Email images to: [email protected].