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Award Winning Instruction
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2010 Monarca Open - Task 4
The sky had a thin layer of clouds in the morning. We were encouraged seeing pilots getting above 10,000 feet before the launch had even opened. The day had prospects if the cloud cover stayed this minimal.
The climbs were weak as pilots got high enough to make the move over to the Penon Zone, and there were pilots getting established on both the mesa above the Wall and Crazy thermal as well. Things looked good until it sort of shut down about 15-20 minutes before the start. The pilots who were on the both mesas started to flush, and pilots who had topped out in thermals above launch and made the move to the Penon were finding it hard to find lift anywhere. Things got really hectic at the Penon, and pilots searched for any piece of lift they could find low above the trees at the bottom of the Penon. There was a small bubble keeping a gaggle aloft below the tree line at the base of the Penon, but it was very weak. More and more pilots were falling off the Penon to grab a piece of this bubble which seemed to be the only piece of lift around. The conditions were a bit crowded, and two pilots ended up having a mid-air a few hundred feet above the trees. They both did a great job of immediately deploying their reserve parachutes and landed safely. The pilots who held on made a move for another thermal which a couple pilots were marking between the Penon and launch. It was a weak climb, but took pilots to above 9,000 feet. The gaggles that had tried to hang onto the mesas all came together in a thermal off the mesa between the Wall and Crazy. Everyone topped out and then tagged the start and headed for the Despue turn point. Pilots hit the turn point at different altitudes and made their next play according to their altitude. Some went back to the Wall, some the Peñon, and some chose to head for the south end of Crazy Thermal mesa. The lead gaggle ended up at Espina waiting for a climb just above the terrain. The gaggle hovered there for a few minutes not really gaining altitude when some of the gaggle pushed out toward Diente. There was a small weak climb right at the turn point for the first to arrive, but it didn’t last long, and these pilots were forced to find a weak bubble with a bird which got them some altitude and bought them some time to plan their next move. The rest of the Espina gaggle pushed out and found a little weak climb down wind of the Diente turn point. These pilots worked this bubble, and they drifted slowly toward the south, and tagged the turn point after they had enough altitude to push back to the west. A group of 5 pilots headed west and into the mountain range which leads to the Aguila turn point used earlier this week. These pilots struggled to find a thermal to get them established on the range, and only two of them made their way to higher terrain and ended up in the top 15 for the day. The direct line worked better, and this gaggle finally shared a climb that got them high enough to make a play toward the Sur turn point. A group of pilots ended up getting the Sur turn point, but the day was shutting down since the clouds had continued to get thicker through the afternoon, and a light west wind made things more difficult o make any progress with the light lift. Nobody got out of the valley to make a play at Three Kings. Hoping this system decided to move through so the sun can cook things up for us tomorrow. Rob Sporrer reporting from the pit. Photos courtesy of Rasta Chip Hildebrand
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