We're currently rolling through the reservations and desert of New Mexico. A good looking sky full of puffy clouds and sun. Our evening ended after 4am last night and we were on the road by 8. Yesterday was interesting. A 56 mile lightning bolt task was called with mostly cross wind legs and a tough final leg into a quartering headwind. Dustin, Glen, and I launched at the same time, but Dustin and I would go off and never see Glen purposefully. Our plan was to take the second start and attempt to catch him. After more than an hour, Davis, Shapiro, Dustin and I came together at the edge of the start circle. We took the start together and were off running. Dustin and I were keen to push hard to try and gain ground on Glen.

The first leg went well, Shapiro and Davis stayed a bit higher. At the first turnpoint, it looked like better lift to the left of courseline, and there was a blue hole on courseline. Davis, Dustin, and Jeff headed left, but I saw a building wisp in the blue and headed for it. It was working ok when I got there, and I climbed up until my climb rate decreased. This move had enabled me to get the jump on the others. In hind sight, I should have topped up in the broken lift and waited for the others.

Instead, I ran around the turnpoint and saw Dustin come in low a few km behind me. Davis and Jeff were still higher and behind. I just pushed too hard and soon found myself low searching for lift. Found a reasonable 500fpm and climbed up as high as I could. Shaprio came in way over my head and soon pointed for goal. He would connect the clouds and fly all the way to goal.

I took my altitude and pressed up courseline. Davis was downwind of me in a 300fpm climb, and I elected to pass him up and get more upwind. This was a mistake. Davis' climb eventually turned into 500fpm, and I would soon land 10km from goal after not finding lift. Davis would eventually get within 1/2 mile of goal.

As I packed up, pilots came in around me and landed. The upwind leg was tougher than it seemed. I eventually found out that Shapiro won the day. His first day win. Glen landed 500m short. Dustin would take a long time to get in as he was pushing too hard as well and spent a long time low.

Our aggressiveness cost us the meet. Had I just flown conservative and made it in, I would have likely won the meet. Dustin should have done the same. The poor performance allowed Kraig to move into first, and Dustin was second. Glen third, and I was fourth. Davis rounded out the top five.

After downloading our track logs, it was off to the awards dinner, then to the bar. We completed our trip with a lot of laughs with friends.

Airtime: 3:00. Flights: 1. Miles: 50.