TOPIC: Goal and Return, Go for it!

Made my level 4 (2Km) goal and return earlier this summer. We (my driver, spotter, and witness) made it in one attempt using my NSP Fusion. We had tried a couple times unsuccessfully that day with a different pilot and plane landing short trying to work lift along the way. When it was my turn I rode a thermal to about 1000 feet and jumped in the bed of the truck. At an easy pace we drove straight out to the goal losing altitude the whole way. Just before reaching the goal, we could see the plane was in lift. The spotter asked if I wanted to stop to work it and I said let’s continue on knowing we’ll be flying through that area on the way back. The Fusion’s altitude is now at less than 200 feet and at a distance of about 2Km from the field. Made a couple turns in the lift and thought let’s just go for it. If we’re lucky we’ll encounter more lift on the way back. Pushed forward on the stick and yelled for the driver to step on the gas! Not much higher than the trees I was asked did I want to slow to work lift. I said no let’s go faster! During the last 1000 yards to the field a smile came across my face as I realized we were going to make it! The plane came across the field boundary at about 20 feet and landed a few yards from the winch. I’ll never forget this experience! Thanks to everyone who played a part in it!

great report john!
I just completed my 10k but had to use a different strategy: since it is a distance task and not a speed challenge, I used every thermal on my way. if you too low you will land out. I had a perfect day and specked out about 10 times then gliding XC until I reached 1000ft, looked for thermals and went back to 2000ft. I never went below 800ft. the guru's usually fly around 3500 ft, but I'm just yet not comfortable at those altitudes, that probably comes with more experience.
on my 2k, I specked out (2000ft) and flew the whole course and back from the truck with and old NSP edge. that habit bid me on my unsuccessful 10k attempts, I was to eager to get down the course!
enjoy the journey towards level V!
thermals
ingo

I made both of mine about 10 years or so ago, got all my stuff & points for L5 but need my 8 hr slope.
But I will never forget both of them.
The 2K I did with a gentle lady on a crosswind day. I had actually covered it with solar film and at the time it was under an honest 25 ounces. I found out that airfoil with its wing loading would glide flatter with a trip turbulator. no spoilers and one of our big Arizona dust devils decided to occupy the same airspace I needed to fly in. I couldn't get out of it without blowing it up. (the wings fluttered) so i kind of just kept it upside down and spinning to keep it in sight. by the time things calmed down a bit I was able to move the speck in the sky down course on return and landed.
the flowing year for the 10K I had learned a lot flying with the guys and was using a beefed for winching modified Dynaflyte Apogee. (E205) airfoil. it was late morning about 9 AM & a quartering headwind out and the opposite direction coming back. I ran some ballast to bring it up to about 9 OZ to the square foot wing loading. the driver had the ideal cross country car. A 5L Mustang convertible. I got skied out in the late morning thermal buildup and we left losing altitude & stopping to work lift a couple times to make the halfway point. a thermal there had enough energy but I was off sideways of the course with about a thousand feet altitude so I just decided to re-trim and get down course & more in line with what we needed. it was moving fast enough for what it was. and not losing a lot. at least it wasn't sink. then some kind of wave lift started happening and if I kept the glider in the right heading and went faster it started to slowly climb. by the time we got back to about a mile & half from the field it was stupid high and off line again compromising distance for direction to stay in the lift. our field was an elevated & capped landfill with hi tension lines in the path. I fed in some more down trim again and went for it. from my reference watching the glider intently it just looked and felt like we weren't moving THAT fast. just a normal thermal flight back to the field as we stayed even with it. It just got a little harder to hear the spotter above wind in the convertible. "put on another 15mph" then "more speed" " a little faster" "pick it up again please". it felt like forever but we finally made the field with comfortable altitude to get out of the car circle and land. I wont reveal the location. but the driver remarked he was doing 85mph at times just to stay even with that Apogee. I wouldn't know what the downwind component was because on the ground it just felt like a normal day of lulls between thermal cycles and soft 3 to 8 mph on the feeding side. by this time the lift was working for everybody and we went out to help spot for a few more pilots. all of them were having a blast as more than one attempt was made for some. Most all of them made it out and back at least once. a lot of them were flying the early bagged & sheeted foam core designs. we had enough pilots to work it as a timed event too just in case. I was just happy to make it out and back & have my LSF goal in hand. but at the end of the afternoon when the lift died. I found out my time held up as the fastest. Not a bad day for a cross country & a built up wood glider.

I´m preparing my L3 1km goal-and-return flight. The rules for start and landing is clear, but how can i prove that the plane was behind the turnpoint? I will fly wth a gps-logger: would it be ok if it´s verified with the logfile(flight vizualized in google-earth)?

Bernd

That is the function of your witnesses ... to ensure compliance with the task parameters.