The results are here: http://www.soaringspot.com/2008dba/.

We had a nice feed the other night at the Dalby Commercial Hotel, one of our sponsors. Out in the beer garden I set up and took downloads when the pilots came in for their repast. It's great to have the town behind us and behind other sportive events.

The cu's were thick and friendly early in the morning with the winds again (as they have been every day) out of the east (as easterly as yesterday) and even stronger (18-20 knots). So there is only one way to go, but it will be hard to stay on the main highway with goes northwest. There are forests to the west and to get around them you need to go a little north first.

Around noon the cu's filled into the east and there was a cell off to the north east. With the strong wind we postponed launch until the cell passed, the scud went away and the cu's started popping again near us. The task was changed given the later hour and it was once again a straight 77 km shot to Chinchilla to the northwest. Unfortunately for me the wind was out of the east north east (70 degrees), so it looked like I would not have the pleasant time I had a few days earlier when the wind was almost straight down the highway.

None the less I launched first and found some lift after about five minutes of searching around under the cu's. There were two Litespeed pilots just a few feet below me and I used them to help me center the lift and see the stronger bits. Soon I was high above them as they did some less fruitful searching while I stayed in the core, such as it was at 160 fpm.

I climbed to 2,900' AGL as I drifted at almost 90 degrees to the course line. There were plenty of cu's a popping, but the best clouds were even further away from the course. I saw some ragged looking but reasonable cu's back by the course line and headed under them to try to stay on track.

Argh! They didn't work and I had to scrape it off the deck at 500' AGL out in the blue and just go where the lift took me, again way off the course line.

The lift was reasonable at 250 fpm to 3,400' AGL, but now I was west of the next highway. Dave Seib and Cameron Tunbridge were with me as we eked out the last little bit of lift near the top of the thermal less than 10 km from the start point. Dave went on glide and I followed, but of course he got further and further ahead of me. I couldn't get to the little bits of lift that he showed me, and he actually got down to 500' on that glide back to the highway.

I had to stop and find lift in cu's that he bypassed. With the wind going the wrong direction and not getting high I was not doing well.

I continued working light lift and drifting away from the course line until I got to the point where I was about to go into the forest to the west of Dalby. Not that high, my last lunge to the north not working out I found a nice paddock for a safe landing 26 km out

Looking up a saw Phil Schroder not too high. It didn't look good for him either as he was now also blocked by the forest. He landed soon after me.

Cameron got below Dave and I when he went out a bit to search out for the next lift. He came back in under us and then didn't find much. He worked his way back toward the course line but soon landed behind me.

Cameron was ahead by over 650 points on this last day, but now he had landed way short of goal. Trevor Purcell who was in second place, started the task on the fourth start gate (3 PM). He flew down the course line going on long glides, never getting low, finding strong lift and getting high. He made goal in an hour and ten minutes and won the day, thereby winning the meet on the last day.