Most ranges point roughly North to take advantage of the sunlight. Ours points roughly NNW and favors winds from 6 O'clock, or the SSE. When it comes from 12 O'clock, or NNW, it flows over the ridge behind the targets, cascades downward, and funnels down the cut/lane toward the firing line. That was the condition Saturday. All that 'funneling' creates swirls and eddies along the length of the lane, as the wind flags demonstrated, always pointing in different directions, and seldom remaining in any particular configuration.
If there is a strategy that counteracts such conditions, I have yet to find it. My technique is to apply no technique, simply bite the bullet, aim dead center, and shoot through the disturbances. Accept that points will fall, and that everybody has the same problems, so it's still a level paying field. That's what I did, what I suspect everyone did, and I'm still wondering what Scotty and Andy did different. Maybe they'll share. You could wait for calm, but I don't know/think there's enough time in a relay to do that when the wind is as it was Saturday.
When the wind quarters, it spills over the sides of the lanes, creating rolling turbulences somewhat like the currents at the base of a waterfall. There's a lot of lot vertical and horizontal in these air currents, and they tend to be dissimilar across the lane from side to side.
These conditions do, to some degree, mimic Bodines; but they remind me even more of Cherry Ridge NJ.
Model aviators (and full scale aviators as well) recognize the more still conditions nearer sunrise and sunset, and the thermal-driven air currents nearer midday. The earlier we begin our shoots (as was the case at Bodines) the more this time/winds disparity affects our conditions.
Greg
