The flight and task.

The results

The RASP called for a day similar to the first day, a fresh east wind (10 knots on the ground 156 knots above), 500 fpm average lift, with climbs to about 8,000' MSL. What RASP doesn't take into account are midlevel and upper level clouds. When the cirrus came over it looked like we would have a lot less lift than forecast, but the task committee stuck with its task a straight west shot 225 kilometers to Hilston (a turnpoint for the Hay meets) over Lake Cargelligo.

The shaded ground caused folks to hesitate a bit on launching but I was first off in our line not wanting to be stuck at the back. With a few pilots launching just before me there was some assurance that there would be help finding the lift. Actually the tug pilot took me right to a thermal and I pinned off at 1,600' AGL. I worked 350 fpm average up to eventually 7,300'. It didn't seem to matter that the ground was shaded. The wind was 14 mph due east.

Getting high it was still 35 minutes to the mandatory start gate at 2:30 and I was three kilometers from the edger of the start circle in a strong wind. Gerolf and I headed up wind back toward the Forbes airfield where we were towing. There were plenty of pilot circling in front of us, but they were all much lower. Apparently the shaded ground was now taking its toll.

Not finding much lift and now back down to 3,000' AGL, I came over Steve Moyes (he's easy to see in the red harness and the red Litespeed that I flew last week) and stayed with him and a couple of the Russian pilots (they fly Aero gliders) in light lift.

Other pilots had drifted down wind and gotten higher but beyond the start circle. Just before the start time they all came and joined us about two hundred feet over us. We were at 3,300' AGL, or 4,000' less than I had already achieved earlier in the start circle. Not a great start, but at least we were all together.

We headed north west at 2:30, not exactly on the course line with an eighteen mph tail wind toward an area with sun. The thickness band of cirrus had passed over us and was now to our west and moving west. Maybe we would fly just fast enough to stay in the sunny area behind it.

The lift was weak and we didn't get over 4,500' AGL as we drifted 45 kilometers in the next hour. Everyone was hanging together working the available lift and not venturing too far out in front. Pilots who had gone straight on the course line had landed. One hour into the flight we were 17 kilometers north of the course line.

It was there that we found 400 fpm average up to 7,200'. We were finally looking good, but the shaded ground was to our west and we needed to go west. We were high now so off we went west toward the thickest band of cirrus and goal.

The lift was weak but it only took at 45 minutes to get through it going 40 kilometers. We were down to 2,000' AGL back on the sunny area and climbing back up at 125 fpm. I had been flying with Steve and Jonny Durand for the last seventy kilometers just above them so I was able to know who they were.

We climbed back up after finding some better lift to 5,000' AGL. The Jonny below me headed off west south west and I followed him. This turned out to be a big mistake as he dropped like a rock. Steve seeing this headed more westerly and within a few minutes he was a thousand feet over me I headed under him and found some lift but lost touch with both him and Jonny and most of the other pilots that I was flying with.

Heading further west twenty kilometers east of Lake Cargelligo a Russian pilot and I found 600 fpm at 1,500 AGL to 5,500' AGL, a thermal that required that I really hold on tight and put the glider up on a tip. The lake and many flooded fields were looming ahead of us to the west so when the lift ran out I headed on my own west south west to get around the bottom of the wettest area. It was now two and a half hours into the flight, after five o'clock and I still had 100 kilometers to go.

I headed for an area that was dry and had just had a massive dust devil. Arriving at 700' AGL I found 300 fpm in interesting lift and held on as it drifted me to the southeast of the lake area to 6,000' AGL. Ahead lay a small range of hills right on my line toward goal.

I saw a couple of pilots turning in the hills and joined them as the sun shone on the bare rock faces that faced north. The lift was not all that great and when I left off the end of the range I was only 5,000' AGL. When the sink after the range averaged 500 fpm down, it looked grim as I got down to 1000' AGL. It was now after 6 PM and I was 50 kilometers from goal.

I felt out a nice little thermal just as it looked I was about to land. It seemed to me that this might be the last thermal, so I held on and it averaged 280 fpm to 6,000' AGL. Not quite enough to make goal from now 43 kilometers out.

I headed out when it quit and then found myself down to 1,500' AGL 22 kilometers out. Again it looked like I was going to land as it was now 6:40 and I wasn't seeing any possible lift. Then I felt a small bump and after searching around found 200 fpm back to 3,000' AGL.

This thermal (like all the other ones) was drifting quickly to the west and I just held on to it hoping that the thermal would take me to goal. I still wasn't quite high enough to make it.

Fifteen kilometers out I gave up on the thermal, but probably should have tried to stay with it a bit more. Zero sink would have been fine as I was basically drifting toward goal. I went on glide to the west southwest toward goal watching the large areas of trees below closely as there were few areas to land and lots of trees.

I landed 3 kilometers short of goal just before a vineyard. About twenty pilots made goal. I didn't get to see any for the last fifty kilometers. Half of them landed at goal just before I landed short of goal at 7:06 PM.

We got back to Forbes at 12:30 AM after our second flat tires in two days. The gravel roads are tough out here.

See the overall results at the link above.