Day 1 report from Mark Keene

Here is a report that Mark Keene sent to me two days ago. I fumbled and didn't get it published till today, sorry.

We had an interesting day on Sunday.

It was a bit hazy, with overdevelopment threatening early on. In fact, it rained in Leszno after we were on course, a 2.5 hour AAT. Dave and I figured that it was going to blow, so we left just a little earlier than most, by five to eight minutes. We had a great run for a while, averaging in the low to mid 80s till halfway down the second leg, where it went soft. We muddled our way through that to some good clouds, where we had a couple of good climbs, one averaging 8kts. After that it was time to shift gears again, but we were spoiled.

We passed a good 4kt climb, with hopes of better. It didn't happen and we got down below 2500ft. We floundered for a few minutes, till we finally connected with 4 and 5kt thermals again. Clouds were widely spaced and weaker from there. We milked our way through, along with a whole bomber formation, until we had final glide. It is interesting finishing at the same time, with 30 or so of your closest friends. We took some inflight video and will try to have it up soon.

7K