Forecast was for light winds and sunny skies.
When the launch started a cirrus band moved overhead and the lift was sparse and hard to find. Some landed back and I got down to radio tower height, which is landing pattern Height. Jeez. I DID NOT want to land so I took a .5 knot climb if you can call it that over town and hung on for dear life.
I slowly worked it back up onto the plateau and got to 5k which is pretty low to be leaving with but a light with off in my head- If I didn't just leave right then I might be done as we had a long task call in front of us. There were clouds in front of me to the north and luckily not much sink. I made it to the clouds and got to base and it turned on, beautiful flying the rest of the day.
Every cloud worked and there was some streeting to take advantage of. We went up to the north out to the East back to the west then Home.
Got to fly with LS7 GG Z2 and several others. Couple of blue holes to cross but not much sink and the forecast showed these energy lines in the blue and we found these and used them. Spectacular flying up north here around Banks lake and Grand Coulee dam area. Low stress, lots of paved airports and fallow fields everywhere.
Had a very interesting final glide with Doug Easton in his DG800B 18 meter and my 1980 LS3a. We left side by side from 45 miles out at 9k with me about 200' higher. Long final and I thought he was going to smoke me with those 18 meter wings and the weight of a motor in there.
I was very surprised that at the 40 mile mark we were dead even with me 200' above. During the dive to the finish he did pull away. We were gliding at 65-80 knots during this long glide.
Scores on the white board this morning, you might want to check the SSA site for last minute changes:

SPORTS CLASS
1. Nick Kennedy 1000 pts
2 Doug Easton 758 pts
3 Tim Martin 698 pts

STANDARD 15 METER
1 Stu Larimore 1000 pts
2 Brian Case 925 pts
3 Kristian Klix 916 pts

OPEN 18 METER
1 Noel Wade 918 pts
2 Sean Franke 891 pts
3 Mike Bamberg 846 pts

Its super close in the Open 18 Meter class
Noel with 2820
Sean with 2818
Noel is running this contest with Mike Newgard and hes hanging tough, flying great along with the endless responsibility's he has to take care of too, Like last night ordering 10 pizzas for us to have a clubhouse pizza and beer party.
Lots of loose young Ephrata women came to the party too, it was great.
Nick
T

On Thursday, June 17, 2021 at 8:30:54 AM UTC-7, nickkennedy...@gmail.com wrote:
> Forecast was for light winds and sunny skies.
> When the launch started a cirrus band moved overhead and the lift was sparse and hard to find. Some landed back and I got down to radio tower height, which is landing pattern Height. Jeez. I DID NOT want to land so I took a .5 knot climb if you can call it that over town and hung on for dear life.
> I slowly worked it back up onto the plateau and got to 5k which is pretty low to be leaving with but a light with off in my head- If I didn't just leave right then I might be done as we had a long task call in front of us. There were clouds in front of me to the north and luckily not much sink. I made it to the clouds and got to base and it turned on, beautiful flying the rest of the day.
> Every cloud worked and there was some streeting to take advantage of. We went up to the north out to the East back to the west then Home.
> Got to fly with LS7 GG Z2 and several others. Couple of blue holes to cross but not much sink and the forecast showed these energy lines in the blue and we found these and used them. Spectacular flying up north here around Banks lake and Grand Coulee dam area. Low stress, lots of paved airports and fallow fields everywhere.
> Had a very interesting final glide with Doug Easton in his DG800B 18 meter and my 1980 LS3a. We left side by side from 45 miles out at 9k with me about 200' higher. Long final and I thought he was going to smoke me with those 18 meter wings and the weight of a motor in there.
> I was very surprised that at the 40 mile mark we were dead even with me 200' above. During the dive to the finish he did pull away. We were gliding at 65-80 knots during this long glide.
> Scores on the white board this morning, you might want to check the SSA site for last minute changes:
>
> SPORTS CLASS
> 1. Nick Kennedy 1000 pts
> 2 Doug Easton 758 pts
> 3 Tim Martin 698 pts
>
> STANDARD 15 METER
> 1 Stu Larimore 1000 pts
> 2 Brian Case 925 pts
> 3 Kristian Klix 916 pts
>
> OPEN 18 METER
> 1 Noel Wade 918 pts
> 2 Sean Franke 891 pts
> 3 Mike Bamberg 846 pts
>
> Its super close in the Open 18 Meter class
> Noel with 2820
> Sean with 2818
> Noel is running this contest with Mike Newgard and hes hanging tough, flying great along with the endless responsibility's he has to take care of too, Like last night ordering 10 pizzas for us to have a clubhouse pizza and beer party.
> Lots of loose young Ephrata women came to the party too, it was great.
> Nick
> T
Damn I missed the loose women!