Well, my tactics seem to work ...
The day started up with two layers of clouds coming into the area from the south: a solid mid altitude layer and very low Cu wannabes. The morning briefing didn't give much hope for a flying day but the decision was made not to give up. Max was convinced that it will break up around 2 pm. Since he is the local weather guru we were all patiently waiting on the grid till Colin decided to send Keith up to do some sniffing.
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| blue holes = time to send the sniffer up |
Keith is flying a PW-5 called the "fixed object in the sky" and it's well known that he can climb in almost anything. Bernie admitted he offered Keith a bag full of empty Coke cans to not find the lift. After a while we heard on the radio: 5 kts up to 3500 ft. Not really believing it could be true we had to get ready and go. I guess the bag was not big enough. My class was the first on the grid and by the time I was towed there were gaggles below release altitude. Great ... where are your 5 kts Keith? I think I didn't just say it to myself but also pressed the PTT button. 10 minutes later the sky opened up and I got a nice climb up to 5000 ft and crossed the gate shortly after opening.
I made a plan considering the strong southerly winds aloft and decided to stick to it. The first leg was booming. I was able to follow the lift patterns and stop only for the very good climbs. After 80 km my average speed was way over 120 kph. I was tempted to go deeper into the area down wind but resisted this temptation.
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| far from perfect but good enough |
I turned as planned and continued the good run with crosswind. I managed not to get too low and was comfortable all the time working the best height band. I also tried to fly the lift doing it a bit faster than previous day. I was doing 80 kts and it worked for me. I arrived in the second area and made the turn exactly as planned being few minutes over time. I didn't notice though that the McCready setting was 0 ... I was playing with Altair to see how it modifies task based on McCready setting and just forgot to put it back up ... Bugger! Half way back home a nice lady voice from the speaker announced: "Expect early task arrival". This was when I realized the setting but it was already too late to do anything.
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| lesson learned: don't play with settings while on task! |
I wasn't happy with that at all and finished over 3 minutes early again. There is room for improvement though and I'm not gonna make this mistake again today.
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| enjoying my evening beer with the boys |
I mentioned the "Phil riding my folding pushbike" story the other day when we all ended up in the Emergency. A week and a half after he looks like this. Tess is a very smart dog and feels for him so she decided to use one leg less as well:
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| good dog |
And here is the proof that my flying is moving into a better direction:
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| sunset at YHSM |
I just got the task sheet for today. 3 hrs AAT (150 km - 370 km) to the NW and NE. It's windy on the ground and it looks like it's gonna be an interesting day again.
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