Ollie took this photo of the launch at the Forbes airstrip on the first day (the
hang glider launch paddock is in the center of the photo):
Click on the photo above for higher resolution version.
A few days before the meet starts Nathan does a group loop:
We are having so much fun here. The tasks are really long, the flying is
spectacular, and lots of people are making it to goal, even with the super long
tasks. It's great to have Attila, Jonny, and Gerolf on the task committee. They
are go for it guys.
Today they called a warm up task, not too long, as they knew that the day would
be blue (post frontal) with top of the lift less than 8000 AGL, and it looked
like Tuesday (tomorrow) would be the day to go long. Hard to go long on
Wednesday as that may be a party day and awards (perhaps we'll do that at
breakfast on Thursday).
The task committee calls a 237 km task (only 15 km short of the competition
record task) and even longer than the task on day two. The wind is 15-20 km/h
out of the south southwest. It looks like a gaggle day with no clouds to mark
the lift.
They open the launch up at 12:30 PM instead of 1:30 PM which gives folks a lot
more time to launch. Instead of launching early, I don't even suit up, but get
lots of video while all the guys in the staging line behind me take off. Our
start clock is at 2:15 PM, so I wait forty five minutes before launching so I
only have to stay in the 15 km start circle for an hour.
Also it appears that the lift will get better as the day goes on, so it's better
to wait until later to launch. Attila, Lukas, Michi, and others (but not Gerolf
and Olli) take the same approach that I do.
I get dropped off in the nice thermal and climb right away to 5,000' AGL. I'm
the highest pilot around but it's twenty seven minutes until our start window
opens. I've been keeping an eye on Attila, he's been just below me most of the
time. He goes out toward the edge of the start circle, and while I feel that it
is premature to head out there given that we've got a 13 mph tail wind and
could easily get stuck outside the start circle low, I go with him any way. I
don't see anyone getting high back over the tow area.
I'm at 4,800' AGL at ten minutes before the start gate opens but outside the
start circle. As I head back in I notice that the gaggles from the tow area are
heading our way and getting high. Looks like I'll have a lower start than would
be optimal. Attila is with me also and he's not in an optimal situation either.
I take the 2:15 PM start time 1,000' below the top guys in the gaggle. Now it's
a race to catch them. And race we do. I will average 37 mph over the course and
55 mph over the ground while flying straight. We've got a lot of ground to
cover.
I'm jumping from gaggle to gaggle moving up as fast as possible. The task is to
Narromine and then to Toora just before the Warrumbungles. I've got Olli
Barthelmes chasing me, and I and another pilot hit strong lift to get us to
7,000' AGL just before Narromine. This moves us past a number of pilots and we
can see the tail end of the lead gaggle not too far ahead.
My Moyes Litespeed RS4 is gliding and climbing great, now that I've made all the
adjustments to my gear (see later articles) and I can get it going fast. After
hitting some reasonable lift things get slow at Gilgandra, forty kilometers out.
I join up with Jeff O'Brien and Olli is there also just below us, as we work
weak lift on the south edge of town, the lead gaggle is on the north end. We
leave the weak stuff still low at 3,000' AGL and scoot across the town for eight
km to come in at 1,300' AGL under the lead gaggle, which promptly takes
off and heads toward goal.
The lift is broken and moving all around. I work it back to 4,000' AGL and drift
toward goal. Finding two weak thermals on the way toward goal gets me high
enough to go on final glide at 12:1. Jeff and Olli will come in soon after me.
The first gaggle made it to goal by themselves, and then the rest of us came in
in a big rush of about thirty pilots a few minutes after them.
