The latest scores will be up at: http://www.soaringspot.com/2007gc/results/

First, the pilot's IGC files can be found at the URL above. You just open up a day file and click on the pilot's number to download their IGC file/ track log for that day. If you have SeeYou installed and have it associated with IGC files, you can automatically open the file in SeeYou and animate it, for example. Or you can open multiple SeeYou files and fly pilots against each other in 3D.

The Soaring Spot is a great addition to SeeYou which was used for competition scoring at Gulgong. It has been improving daily as the folks at SeeYou add to it.

The 2007 Gulgong Classic was a technical and interesting competition. By technical, I mean that you just didn't climb in the strong thermals every day, pull in when the thermal slackened and fly as fast as possible until you ran into the next strong thermal. With days with low cloud bases and often weak scattered lift you had to search, search, search for lift.

Now that the pain of my relatively poor performance has begun to abate somewhat I can go back and look at the week of flying with perhaps a calmer perspective.

The first day started off with good conditions and a 7000' AGL cloud base and light winds. Little did we know how good that day would be compared to some of the following days.  Getting "down" to 1,700' AGL on the first glide out from the start circle was avoidable if I had just been willing to take earlier on the glide lighter lift than I had been experiencing in the start circle. The cu's ahead were just too inviting.

With all the good lift after that I wasn't patient enough and smart enough to get high enough on the way back, especially when it came to taking good lift in the hilly region before heading out to the flats, and landed short of goal when almost every one else made it.

I wasn't quite prepared for this first day of racing even with a practice day (which I didn't take full advantage of). Just getting in the air and feeling the glider was a thrill and it was so much fun to fly.  I hadn't really learned how to glide with it yet. That took a day or two. Thermaling was almost automatic.

Without the stick on reading lens I couldn't read the arrow on the 6030, so I was at a bit of a loss as to where to go to. I got confused by the 25 km turnpoint cylinder. I didn't slow down a bit and keep climbing in the last thermal.  I was losing my focus there. All and all a very fun day and not too bad emotionally when I landed out.

The second day was a strong racing day into a headwind out and tail wind back to goal at the airstrip. There were plenty of cu's, still I got low a couple of times and had to carefully assess the situation to find the best lift. Cloud base was 7,500' AGL. Long fast glides were possible.

On this day I did relatively well, but could have done much better. I was second around the second turnpoint. I just didn't find the good thermals on the way back while others did. I need to improve my thermal sniffing abilities.

On the third day conditions get much weaker. I spent over an hour over the tow paddock just staying up while all but one of the other pilots landed or stayed on the ground. I had to get up from much lower altitudes (down to 500' AGL) on this day than on the previous two days. Still I was able to climb to 5000' AGL before a large shaded area.

Scott was able to get around this shaded area while I flew through it (and didn't find any lift). I was not willing to climb higher before the shaded given the 100% cloud coverage in that area and my desire to keep some distance between me and the clouds. I should have taken the lift 1000' higher, giving me a chance to find some lift just past the shaded area.

Also I should not have given up on the shaded area no matter how wide spread. Scott made his way though it to my right and I could have tried harder to take a different path and looked for lift.

Scott and Cameron did well on the first two days and now on the third day Scott has set the pace (what is possible for that day) by being the only pilot to make goal. A review of his track log shows him finding lift in the shaded area.

On the fourth day, a down winder to Rhylston, I  find one thermal to 5,500' AGL but otherwise we stay below 4,000' AGL. We can go down wind fast, but have to keep our eyes out for thermals. Often the clouds aren't working.

Again Scott went fast but Curt went faster starting fifteen minutes later. I didn't climb as well as I should and went back for lift when I should have gone on toward goal. I also didn't find lift under a long line of clouds over the hills,. Afterwards Tish told me that she went further out into the valley at the edge of the clouds and got a much better glide.

It rained hard on the fifth day and this really damped down the conditions for day six. Cloud base was 4,000' AGL and you felt high when you got there. I had to survive after getting down to 350' AGL. Really focusing on that little thermal and staying in it was what saved me.

I made a mistake not getting high before the hills west of Wellington. It was no good just knowing I had enough altitude to get over them hills and hoping for lift over them. I needed to get a few thousand feet more in the flats before attempting the run.

There would be no lift on the lee side of the hills (at least for a few kilometers) because the strong ( 18 mph) winds would push them away from the hills, so it was futile to think that I could get lift low on the lee side. When I didn't get high enough on the upwind side, I needed to turn 90 degrees to the course line and fly along the front of the hills (before the hills) to find lift to get at least three thousand over them.

On day seven I was the first pilot to get to cloud base at 4,000' AGL and I stayed there running just under the cloud street to the edge of the hills. After running off the end of the cloud street I just could not find good lift no matter how hard I looked. Cameron, right behind me, had no problem finding it under a developing cu, that I didn't see. He had me acting as a little sniffer dog out in front.

I was willing (as I always seem to be) to go out in front on my own especially when there are lots of clouds. I figured they are the thermal indicators. Unfortunately, not always the case.

I made many mistakes during this competition. I just wish I knew what many of them were. Just flying with Cameron on the last day instead of going out on my own on a weak day with light lift would have helped immensely.

Billo writes:

The Cudgegong Soarers club hosted the 2007 Airborne Gulgong Classic at their Stubbo airfield. We are lucky to have the use of this facility for this comp. This year we flew six days out of the seven, and while conditions were not epic, the tasks were testing. This year's winners were, Scott Barrett, Cameron Tunbridge and Trent Brown. Jason Reid won kingpost class.

Our tug drivers were Smokey, Matt Olive and Pete Marheine, and they were tireless workers towing up the field every day.

I will update the website with the scores and photos over the next day or two. http://www.gulgongclassic.com

The Gulgong video with the soon to be famous Curt Warren foot launch: http://www.williamolive.com/videos/gulgong-2007-trailer.wmv.

Discuss Gulgong at the Oz Report forum