12^th August: Back up the ranking

Well the morning was conclusively rubbish. Steady drizzle and dark clouds everywhere. However there was a reasonable clearance to the south coming from Poland, even though the air in it looked pretty thundery. We were requested to rig and grid for a re-brief at 12 with the clearance coming steadily our way.

At 1300, it started to look like a serious amount of rubbish coming in from the West, so naturally they launched the 18m class! The best I got for the first 30 minutes soaring was about 0.8kt on the average, with even very promising large clouds being pretty useless. Just as we were lining up for a re-light, we got a couple of knots and climbed away. The climb slowly blew us backwards into the start sector so off we went!

Straight up track, however, was an enormous storm which we soared to the edge of, then pealed off to the south, over 90 degrees off track at some times just to stay in the air. Slowly the hole behind the storm started to fill in and off we went on track, into wind.

Some competitions just don’t go your way. I pressed on under a very good bit of sky while the others stopped and climbed at 2kt. The good cloud I pushed under gave me good running but nothing more, but it gave the others that stayed and topped up a solid 3kts to cloud base! That put me low when I needed to be high and eventually I just nicked into the sector and took what I could to drift back down while Russell and Gary managed to find 2-3kt climbs.

Eventually I got back with it and came home but the damage was done and not retrievable on a short 2h area task. I got back just as the rain arrived, but enough in hand to allow me to be comfortable, just a few minutes behind having done very similar distances. Frustrating, but having done the right thing at the right time it just not working out, much less so than yesterday’s debacle.

However a day like this can do funny things to the scores. As I write, the poles have and a bad day and Russell a good one, putting him into 2^nd place by a point or two.

Competition Day 12

13^th August: If Only... 5th over all

The last day, and not too promising a prospect with milky skies and the prospect of some pretty major thunder storms ahead.

However, it was not raining, and showed some signs of improvement so we rigged and gridded as required, for the first time with the Open class on the front (with almost nil wind and a very damp airfield!).

The expected area tasks materialised, versions A and B, followed by regular postponement of an early first launch. When cumulus appeared the snifter was launched and failed to reach cloud base, but just as we were about to think of early travel plans and the route home, they announced a fall back to the B task and launching the Open class.

The Opens clearly struggled to get up with cloud bases only marginally above launch height. Eventually they left but found such poor conditions on track that several came back again.

Just as we were thinking that is it, the 18m were given the go and off we went into weak thermals to 2400. Despite the launch at some time after 2pm and thunder storms forecast for 3pm, there was simply no way of going down the first leg and staying airborne. Eventually we found ourselves in a gaggle that contained all the top runners in the competition and left, with Russell playing the game and holding back a couple of turns.

We slowly tiptoed along in slowly improving conditions and Russell dropping a little further behind but with Gary and me calling back information as best we could. The first area was over the forest and with a top of a little over 3000 by this time, it seemed a little ambitious to press too far in. At this stage, the Poles diverted and got some more distance, while Gary and I went towards some good looking clouds that didn’t work well. That was the break that they needed and soon we were all together enjoying better conditions but deteriorating sky going North.

We dipped into the north sector, with Gary getting slightly ahead. However we came back together going South once more. We made a mistake in the last sector though. We could see a huge shower to the West of our track like home, throwing an enormous anvil shadow over our track, so rather than press on to a very good looking cumulus just in sector which I was keen to go to, I was persuaded to get back safely instead at the risk of coming in under time.

On the way home, I got ahead though a little below Gary and found some reasonable running and was able to just keep going. I took a bit of safety after getting back to the sunshine but came home a few minutes early and ruing the early turn in the final sector.

Gary also came a couple of minutes later but also under time with just 1km less than I but Russell managed his flight and distance better, getting 6Km more and coming in just on time. However this was not enough to stay ahead of the Poles who got more distance and just over time to be 1^st and 2^nd pushing Russell to 3^rd. I ended up climbing to 5^th, just 2 points clear of Roland Termaat and just 9 behind 4^th with Peter Erekson also having a poor day. Oh that last cloud!

So a successful competition for the 18m class, with Gary 7^th, me 5^th and Russell 3^rd. One bad day for Gary and lots of little bits of back luck and some silly mistakes from me, while Russell did very little wrong other than a below par first day and a lost opportunity on one of the area days. The Poles were so strong throughout and made very few mistakes, while Peter Erieksen and Ronald Termaat were very strong throughout, just dropping points on the more difficult days.

Others that were expected to be contenders never really got going, including Wolfgang Janowitsch and Ricardo Brigliadori. Arne Boye-Moeller, always a danger, had a lapse early on and an airspace penalty but still ended up 11^th. The French were steady but didn’t get right up there and the Germans, always a danger, didn’t really feature. This comp it was the Poles, Danes, Dutch and Brits who, but for Arne’s penalty, would have filled the top 9 places to the exclusion of all others.

Competition Day 13