Lost Hills in October - From FFn Nov 2018

In the Nov 2018 Free Flight News, editor Ian Kaynes gives a detailed analysis of the flying conditions at Lost Hills in October 2018 for the Kotuku and Sierra Cups, followed by the USA Team Selection. The article is too long to include here but two key paragraphs are :

 

On Monday the weather was back to the usual – almost calm at
first then developing a light wind from the north-west. It was
notable that by midday there were some long dead spells
between the strong thermals. While these were easier for the
glider flyers to handle, there were some significant drops by
the fixed base BCQ flyers. By the end of the seven rounds each
class had about one third of the entry in the flyoffs.

 

Overall conclusions are pretty obvious – you need performance
in the first two rounds and good lift picking in the rest of the
day.