Another Day

Today we awoke to gusty winds and high wispy clouds. It didn’t look like a particularly good flying day. I was well rested, but still sore from the long flight on Thursday. Another day off wouldn’t really disappoint me, but I had a feeling we would fly. We would certainly go through all the motions. We had the pilot briefing at 10am, and Len reported that a frontal passage was expected tomorrow. The winds were indeed strong and gusty, and forecast to get stronger. Jonny hinted that a couple of possible tasks were being considered: a 300km (180mile!) task or a “short” 170km (106mile) task.

We headed to the airfield and started setting up. Dust devils were screaming across the field like clockwork every three minutes. I could tell that no one was anxious to fly, as no one had moved from the set up area to the staging area. We could see the high clouds ahead of the front to the southwest.

The task briefing occurred at 1pm. They had chosen the “short” task. Launch would open at 1:30 with the first of five start gates at 2:10, with 10 minute separations. At 1:30 two blasts on the airhorn announced launch open, but nobody moved. I still wasn’t sure I wanted to fly, but if I did I wanted to get out early. Trouble was, where I was at the back of the line I was blocked from the launch line by all the gliders in the set-up area. Finally someone moved into line which opened a slot for me to slide through. Now, everyone seemed to want to get into line, and just like yesterday I kept getting pushed back as pilots further ahead moved in. I ended up even further back in line than yesterday. As I waited the high clouds started to fill in. There seemed to be a steady rain of pilots landing for re-flights and getting slid into line. Finally I was on a cart and lined up behind a trike. The tow was uneventful. Too uneventful. He dragged me all over the sky and we never hit a bump. Finally, in desperation, he headed far downwind where we could see two gliders turning. If he was willing to take me, I was going to stay on. As we came towards the turning gliders we hit a stronger core than they were in. I reached for my release just as the weak-link snapped. Wow! Two in two days. Usually a weak link lasts me a year.

The climb petered out well before cloudbase, and I was far downwind of the field, so I just picked a line on course and went. The air was surprisingly buoyant, and I had a nice long glide before the next climb. Several more climbs and I was at the first turnpoint, 67km out. My heart really wasn’t in it, though. The last climb had been a screamer: 1200ft per minute on the averager, but it was a wire slapping rodeo ride. Not my idea of fun. The sky had started to get an ominus look to it, and the wind had indeed picked up. I could see pilots turning to the west of the turnpoint, but I couldn’t find the motivation to join them. I was also discovering just how sore I still was after Thursday’s flight. I went on a half-hearted 30 minute final glide and landed.

I sent a text message with the coordinates to the driver, then packed up and settled in to wait. 3 hours seemed to be the standard, so I was shocked when about twenty minutes later I heard Dave on the radio saying they were only a kilometer away. Both Dave and Andrew had landed before me and were already on board. We headed home, arriving at the civilized hour of 7pm. Final statistics: 1:46 in the air for 50.9 miles. More than 50 pilots made goal.

Get the Google Earth file here
See the flight in the HOLC here
See the scores here