We are here to have a great time and we are having it. The tugs are pulling us up fast, the lift is there. The winds are light. The cui-nimbs don't form until very late in the day. Most pilots make it back to goal.

What I saw:

I'm first in line twenty minutes after the start window opens at noon. No one is rushing to launch obviously. They will get going a bit earlier tomorrow as they probably didn't get launched exactly when they wanted to on Sunday. A bunch of us had our gliders already setup in the hangar (you'd think that we were in Big Spring) from the practice day, so we just had to slide on over to launch. They've got five dollies here so there is no crowding.

I pin off at 1,000' AGL in an obviously fat thermal (I've got the averager set correctly now to 15 seconds), and gently climb to 6,500' AGL. and cloud base. There is plenty of lift around. The glider is a joy to thermal in and the thermals are as smooth as can be.

Scott Barrett says to thermal the C4-13.5 just push out, and the glider does the rest. And, in fact, that is all there is to it. Push out and the glider starts turning into the thermal. That makes it pretty easy.

I see Chris Jones head out low just before the first start clock toward some clouds to the west, but they look further than 5 km away from the center of the 5 km start circle to me, so I go back and play in the lift and wait until the second start time at 1:20 PM. I'm high then and head out with four other pilots. There are cu's right up the course line after a patch of blue.

The task is an out and return to a 25 km radius turnpoint circle around Wellington to the west south west. That would make for only a 77 km task.

After a thirteen kilometer glide through the blue three of us have to stop in 100 fpm at 1,700' AGL and work our way slowly back up.

Still it finally turns on and the lift is strong under black clouds after that. I'm having a bit of trouble knowing just where to go. The direction arrow on the new Flytec 6030 is much smaller than on the 5030 and with my 20/30 vision and astigmatism it is really hard for me to make it out. So I get off course a bit, but maybe that is a good thing cause the clouds there are working.

The C4-13.5 is thermaling great. I'm having a bit of trouble getting a feel for the glide though. This will take a few days to feel natural. There is a lot of rope on the VG line which makes for an easy pull, but I'm unsure as to how much to pull. Learning once again.

Scott Barrett started at the first start clock by himself and is out in front doing well. He was further to the north when he started and I didn't see him at all or I would have gone with him then. Many pilots will start later at the 1:40 PM start time.

I get to the 25 km radius turnpoint without realizing that I've made it. I didn't hear or register hearing the beep of the point being lay down in the turnpoint cylinder by the 6030. I'm too used to the 5030. Also, the 25 km radius for the turnpoint was enough to throw my thinking off a bit.

After realizing I've gone too far into the turnpoint cylinder I race back and come in low over a hill that has a nice black cloud over it. This is the last climb I need to get to goal. Unfortunately the cloud is dying not forming and I land 15 km out. Most pilots make goal.

One pilot got a little confused and made it to a 400 meter cylinder around the turnpoint and back to goal for the longest flight of the day. Scott was first into goal. Cameron Tunbridge won the day taking the second start time and going faster than Scott. Chris Jones landed out on the leg out.

Cameron and Billo at the last minute asked to use my SeeYou scoring script for OzGAP 2005 so I'm helping with the scoring. Scores are up at: http://www.soaringspot.com/2007gc/results/

I have limited internet access here in this town that time forgot, so things may be a little spotty.

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