Today's task was almost canceled because the lift was so weak at Woodrat, but they ended up calling a very small one at the last minute, after we'd waited on the summit in the sun all day. Six Hawaii pilots made it to goal (3 from Oahu, 3 from Maui). The task wasn't worth very much in the overall results because it was such a short one, and the top pilots flew it so quickly. But it was still very challenging for us newer competitors. We saw a very common phenomenon here that we don't often see or recognize in Hawaii, where the wind flows together from two different directions, and the convergence of the two air masses creates a very strong and swirly mixture of lifting air. Once you got into that stuff it was all going up everywhere, and there was no need to turn - everyone just headed straight for the next turnpoint or for goal.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Convergence
Today's task was almost canceled because the lift was so weak at Woodrat, but they ended up calling a very small one at the last minute, after we'd waited on the summit in the sun all day. Six Hawaii pilots made it to goal (3 from Oahu, 3 from Maui). The task wasn't worth very much in the overall results because it was such a short one, and the top pilots flew it so quickly. But it was still very challenging for us newer competitors. We saw a very common phenomenon here that we don't often see or recognize in Hawaii, where the wind flows together from two different directions, and the convergence of the two air masses creates a very strong and swirly mixture of lifting air. Once you got into that stuff it was all going up everywhere, and there was no need to turn - everyone just headed straight for the next turnpoint or for goal.
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