May 14, 15, 21, & 22 Avenal Contest

WEATHER
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Here are all the pictures I took and have been given.  They are in chronological order.

If anybody has some pictures to add, you can do it directly or e-mail me the pictures.

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Day 1, May 14, 2022
Tow pilots  Dan Gudgel in "Red Tow" and Andrew Ouellet in "White Tow."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Day 2, Sunday, May 15
Tow pilots  Dan Gudgel in "Red Tow" and Andrew Ouellet in "White Tow."

Sunday's weather was a significant improvement over Saturday. We all woke up to a sky filled with mid level cirrus that slowly burned off as the morning progressed. Skysight showed thermal tops at 10500' in the early afternoon at both Wright and Black, with a hint of cu over San Benito around 4 pm. Also shown was blue convergence running from EL5 to the Temblors.

The task called had a nominal distance of 221 miles (355 km):

Start Tar Peak

EL3 1 sm

Bitterwasser 3 sm min, handicapped

San Benito Mtn 1 sm

Avenal Finish 1sm

We launched at 12:30 as the last of the cirrus was passing over Black. This proved a slight challenge and delayed the opening of the 5 minute start window until 1:50 to allow all but one competitor to climb up to the 6000' start ceiling. As we flew north towards EL3, we were happy to see wispy cu beginning to form over Wright approximately 11,500ft high. By the time the last of the gaggle were turning south, the cu covered about a 5 mile area and marked the tops of 8-10 kt climbs.  Alex Neigher (4B) found the highest climb of the day around this  time to 11,400 ft. The run south rewarded those who were able to sniff out the blue convergence and took us to the north end of the california valley, no clouds in sight. Climbs were available, but more dispersed and weaker south of Black mtn. The run back north was similar to the south leg, I found myself off the line, too far to the east and had to dig out of black from below ridge height while the rest of the group who were able to stay connected blew by me a mile above. Climbs got strong again around Center peak, with quite a few of us finding 8,9,and even 10kts bottom to top. Many got above final glide prior to rounding the final turnpoint and were able to take final glides in excess of 100 kts due to the buoyant air all around San Benito Mountain. 

Congratulations to Wyll Soll for finishing the task in 3:18:48 with an average speed of 67.3 mph (108 kph)! Below are the other preliminary results. 

 

Andrew Ouellet provides a picture of "Red Tow" pulling up the last contestant of the day

Ground Crew is enjoying the electric air conditioner in the ClubHouse while watching the contestants progress.

Wyll Soll lands CZ after Day 2 winning time of 3:18:48.

Alex Neigher  lands 4B with Day 2 second place time of 3:22:13.

Close behind is David Greenhill in Contest 16 with a Day 2 Fourth Place time of 3:23:03.
Only 50 seconds separated second through fourth places today.

Zach Yamouchi lands after a Day 2 fifth place time of 3:27:27.

Walt Rogers has just landed after a Day 2 Third Place time of 3:23:23 and is watching
Neiman Walker land his Libelle, 4P.

Thomas Greenhill has a Day 2 fourth pace time of 3:27:08.

Ken Talovich land NT.

 

Tom Coussens on short final in Z9,

 

Tom Coussens an inch from touchdown in Z9.

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Day 3, May 21, 2022
Tow Pilots:  Morgan Hall in "Red Tow" and Jim Rickey in "White Tow."

Today's forecast delivered! Although the mountains were completely blue, strong climbs, and prominent convergence ran the length of the San Benitos. Plenty of 10 kt climbs were found on course, topping out at 10,000 ft.  The task began again at Tar with a 6000' start ceiling at 12:40, up to EL1, down to Blackwell, then rounding Harris Ranch on final glide, 212 mi nominal distance. All competitors made at least 2 of the turnpoints and everyone made it home for our contest banquet. 

Thomas Greenhill turned in an impressive 78 mph task speed, winning the day 14 minutes ahead of the rest of the pack. 

Below are the day's scores as well as preliminary cumulative times for the competitors. 

Tomorrow is our final day, with high cirrus forecast. Tasking will likely keep us closer to Avenal similar to Day 1. 

Zach

Name	Contest ID	Day 3 Time	Total Time	Ranking
David Greenhill	16	3:08:37	8:22:58	1
Zach Yamauchi	ZY	3:10:15	8:23:09	2
Thomas Greenhill	FH	2:48:53	8:33:04	3
Walt Rogers	WX	3:26:56	8:36:04	4
Wyll Soll	CZ	3:02:24	8:46:36	5
Alex Neigher	4B	3:15:40	9:05:31	6
Neiman Walker	4P	3:23:29	10:29:26	7
Philip Lee	UV	3:39:43	10:45:40	8
Tom Coussens	Z9	4:48:52	10:58:39	9
Ken Talovich	NT	4:48:52	11:54:49	10

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Final Day, (Day 4) May 22, 2022
Tow Pilots:  Dan Gudgel in "Red Tow" and Kyle Hyde in "White Tow."

Day 4 Summary:

Saturday night was the BBQ/banquet, we all likely benefited from increased wing loading Sunday seeing how much tri tip was consumed :) We were very fortunate to wake up to a completely different forecast than that of Saturday night. The cirrus outlook dramatically improved, skysight still showed some patched passing through, but the day turned out to be mostly cirrus free. The task we improvised (Avenal, York Rd, EL7, New Coaling, Dudley Ridge, EL5, Avenal) kept us mostly off the mountains in the early afternoon, with the thought that we would allow the high ground more time to start working before a run up north later in the afternoon. 

We launched the grid at 12:30 and opened the start gate at 13:40. A few contestants were able to reach 8000' over black while waiting for the start gate to open so we likely could have done another mountain task; however, keeping us off the high terrain proved to be a doable challenge for the group. Climbs off the high terrain were weaker and more dispersed, as expected. The front gaggle was able to avoid getting stuck for the first 4 turnpoints, and all elected to take an indirect route to the final turnpoint (EL5) by following the ridgeline out to the west. It was a little slow for everyone reconnecting with the convergence around Black the second time. The blue convergence set up far west, I ended up committed to parkfield before finding a climb about 5 miles west of black that got me back on the line northbound. 

Congratulations to David who won the day, and further widened his first place lead. 

May 14, 2022, Contest Day 1

WEATHER
Visibility:     Very Good
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Tow pilots:    Andrew Ouellet & Dan Gudgel

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Friday Flying at Avenal

WEATHER
Visibility: Very good; a few whispies over the high ground late in the day
Wind: Light all day
Altitudes: ~5,000' msl at the airport; higher in the hills
Time Aloft: Several Hours
Max Lift: 6 knots at times, but 2-4 more typical
Temperature: pleasant, with a mid-80's reminder of summer soon to come
Comment: A fine late spring day (photo by Chris O.)
Tow pilot: Brian

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There was a nice crew out at Avenal today. 

Both November Tangos were out, we saw our newest self-launcher in action, and both 2-33s + the 1-26 got time in the air.  Brian did his first full day of towing and he gave us 20+ good tows.

Carl is BFR'd again and ready to start the season.  Chris is close to soloing in something a little slower than his usual ride.  Quinn was getting ready for his practical test.  Ethan was polishing and waxing his bird and getting ready to start stretching his sailplane legs again.

Thanks to lots of good work by members, the field is looking good for the upcoming fun contest.  Make plans to come out and help with the festivities next week.  Hope to see you there.

Late Winter in Avenal

WEATHER
Visibility: varied 
Wind: northerly at 5 to 20 kts.
Altitudes: 5,000+
Time Aloft: A few minutes to a few hours
Max Lift:
Temperature: cool - mid 50s for a high
Comment:
Tow pilot: Andrew O

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Today brought a bit of post-frontal thermal soaring, and a bit of rain and wind. Several flew, from a few minutes around the pattern to a few hours of nearby XC.  It was a reminder that spring is on the way, but not quite here yet.

As the days lengthen and temperatures rise, be sure to come out and stay current and proficient for the good soaring ahead.

Update from Morgan:

Skysight was showing good cu cloudbase for a nice post frontal day with bases in the 5000-6000 range for most of the valley.  I flew XD since Julie was out of town.  After a couple of abbreviated pattern tows to get current I took a third tow.  Most of the valley was in shadow, so it took a tow nearly to the mountains to connect with any lift.  Once off tow it was a soft climb initially.  1-2kts.  Then I pushed a bit more to the west and picked up a bit stronger lift.  Above 4000 I followed line towards Coalinga and it wasn't exactly ripping, but it was working.  By cruising at 50-60kts I was able to slowly climb in the convergence and cloud surf along shelf near Coalinga and ran north for about 30 miles before needing to thermal again.

Cloud shelfs along the convergence with bases varying by several thousand feet.

It was very cold.  Freezing level varied a bit, but above 4000 was at or below freezing for most of the flight and the convergence was completely overcast, so I didn't see the sun for most of the flight. Maybe 10 minutes of the entire flight had sun in the cockpit and it was so nice when it happened.  Numerous times during the flight I picked up some icing on the wings from sleet that froze to the surface.  Nothing significant, but enough to degrade glide performance if it had been needed. The convergence was pretty consistent and aligned with the forecast in Skysight.  The LX9000 has the Skysight overlay and generally it works well.  There are times when it's just wrong, but on a day like today with all the cloud cover, you knew where it was or wasn't.

I pressed up to the hills NE of Hollister.  I did consider crossing them and running up to Santa Cruz, but cloudbase was low and there was a lot of overdevelopment.  I didn't want to get trapped on the west side of the mountains and that seemed like a real possibility given the OD observed on the San Benito range and near Hernandez reservoir. 

Looking west towards Hollister.  A bit low cloudbase for crossing comfortably

Heading up to the SW side of San Luis Reservoir.  Completely OD over the lake itself.

Turning to the south of San Luis Reservoir, the first 20 miles or so were very good.  Kurt Thams joined up on my wing briefly in his RV6 before throttling back up and departing with a nice aileron roll.

Short video clip here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GGtf8ewe2xrsvGPQ7

Back near Panoche VOR things turned soft.  It was probably working over Panoche, but I'd placed myself a bit far to the north of that retracing my steps.  BG had joined me around this time, though he was 1000ft higher. We both turned for the valley where there were nice shaped cu and sun hitting the ground.

Climbs in the valley were hit and miss.  1 in 4 clouds was working I'd say which is never good for boosting confidence.  There was also a significant line of shadow to cross between Cotto and Harris Agro West.  Cloudbase was a bit lower, maybe 5600, but when a good core was found, the climbs were decent and 4+ knots at times.  

I originally thought I would run out towards Fresno and then down towards Paramount/Wonderful and back, but all of the Kettleman hills and plains looked completely shut down with OD.  I didn't really see a viable route around that and with Lizzy in the truck, I didn't want to landout when I had a very good chance of getting final glide soon.  

I picked up a climb near Harris Agro West and used that to cross back over to a patch of sun north of the Coalinga Airport.  The climbs weren't great, but they were sufficient to give me final glide with a bit of margin.  Avenal was completely overcast with precipitation to the west and lingering snow/ice blowoff throughout most of the valley.  

Leaving behind the last signs of lift.  

Heading into the grey back to Avenal.  

Kevin gave me the report that the runway was pretty muddy and suggested picking somewhere with some grass to land.  I followed that advice and the landing and rollout was uneventful.  Kyle and Quinn helped me push the glider back to the trailer.  The runway was sticky enough that by the time we got to the trailer the tailwheel was seizing up from collected clay.  

A very nice start to thermal cross country after a long hiatus since September.  The days are still relatively short, but plenty of good soaring to be had.