Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Competition day 1 & 2

I didn't have time to write anything yesterday because of quite a few outlandings and retrieves. About midnight everybody was accounted for.
It was a very hard day and we had a racing task (316 km). The sky was blue and it was extremely windy. At some stage I was showing 37 kts westerly winds at 5000 ft. Very challenging and I was very thankful for the heavy Mrs. TF. The daily winners got lucky and were able to start the task above 9000 ft - they managed to contact the wave. Most of us though weren't that lucky and had to start the task about 5000 ft. The biggest advantage for the winners was that they didn't have to stop for lift on the first upwind leg. I had to do it twice. I am very pleased though that I got around the task. It wasn't that obvious. We launched very late and start gates were opening for all classes between 3 and 4 pm. Normally by that time you are thinking about slowly turning back home from wherever you are.



So here are yesterdays results for 15 meter class:


and for all the other classes:


I was really glad we were the first class to be launched yesterday. We just made it back on time. Ziggy was further back and when he calculated the speed he was progressing after 130 km on task he figured there is no way he can compete the task before dark. He decided to abandon and got back to the airfield. I think it was a good decision. He didn't have to be retrieved like very many from his class.
We went for a retrieve to get Bernie back. It was already dark and very windy - not an easy task. Good that there were four of us otherwise it would have been a hard work.

after finally finding Bernie

Today is a very different day. From 40+ degrees we went down to just 22 today. It's cold! Winds were much stronger than predicted and only open and 18 meter classes were launched. They are on task just now. Strong southerly winds cause the sea breeze to arrive in Benalla early. It always cuts off the thermals. Today's task is to the north which will make it challenging to come back against the very strong winds. We'll see how the boys cope.

cold morning


Zig and his beast

end of the gridding exercise
my national stalker Simon

Jarek & Iza's "don't put it on the blog photo"

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