The flight and task.

The results

Ah, yes, another super day here at Forbes. How's the snow and the cold where you are? This competition has been so fantastic that some of the "older" pilots are asking for a rest day. Don't think that it is going to happen. My body is holding up great, so I'm willing to go all out every day.

The forecast was for an eight knot west wind at cloud base. The task committee called a 160 km triangle task (after going back and forth), assuming that we could get back to goal into the wind. It's great to be able to come back to Forbes at the end of the day.

The RASP model also called for a blue day, or just barely a few cu's. But it blew that big time as the sky filled up with cu's and a cu-nimb to the north east. It was also pretty clear why RASP didn't get that right. It used a lower forecasted surface temperature. Yesterday (on day four), the BOM was calling for 34 degrees in Forbes for day five. But today (on day five) they called for 38 degrees. RASP used the older forecasted surface temperature as the model was run the night before.

After a bunch of delays in the tow paddock, we got off late taking the mandatory start time at 3:20 PM. After I pinned off I climbed right away to over 9,000'. It looked like the day would be great.

I made a mental error not going upwind in the start circle. I knew which direction to go, I knew to go in that direction, but I got hooked by the nice cumulus clouds that offered so much lift, a little down wind of the course line, that I never made it upwind. I had launched early so there was no excuse not to get upwind.

I did find a nice thermal to get back up to 9,800' just before the start gate opened. About five of us were hanging at cloud base trying to stay out of the wispies and could see a cloud street (the one we were under) right toward the first turnpoint. Sure we weren't up wind of the course line, but it looked like we had decent shot at a good outcome.

When the mandatory start time came we all raced down the cloud street not finding any lift, unfortunately. But twenty kilometers out in front of us was a dust devil going to 8,000'. We raced for it.

Unfortunately, even though we are racing out in front and seemingly have a good line, it all ended up for naught as we got down to 4,000' AGL and had to take the first lift that we found. Looking up I saw a squadron of pilots coming in way high over our heads. So much for getting out in front on the first leg. We were going to have to play catch up.

All those pilots were high and going fast, but a few of us had to make up for our lowly status. We were getting much higher than we had been on the early days of the meet, so 8,500' seemed low, when a few days ago it was unobtainable. We couldn't get to 9,000' getting to the first turnpoint at the oval southwest of Grenfell.

I was flying with Jeff Shapiro and we hung out together for the second leg. We went a bit to the downwind side of the course line to the northeast to get under some good clouds and the beginning of a cloud street toward the second turnpoint. That turned out to be a good move as we got under some working clouds, one that turned on to 900 fpm to over 10,000'. Finally we were back in the picture.

I led us over to another cloud street upwind of the course line and that got us up again over 10,000' which was a good thing, as we went on a 20 km glide to the second turnpoint at Eugowra. There were no cu's between the end of the cloud street and the turnpoint. In fact the cu's were disappearing in general except for north of the second turnpoint (goal was to the west southwest).

We found a little bit of weak lift just before the turnpoint and I circling in it to drift to the turnpoint. After taking the turnpoint I headed due north seven kilometers away from the course line toward big cu's over hot rocks. These clouds were the only good looking ones nearby that could help us get to goal. Down to 2,000' AGL, I hooked into a nice thermal and drifting back away from goal climbed to 9,500'. It was after six and we had 43 km to go to get to goal.

Nick and another pilot and I were working the lift as we moved west going from cloud to cloud. Over a forested area we found a strong one that got us to 10,500', highest for the day, at 6:37. There were no more clouds in front of us. It was final glide time.

It was a 28.5 km glide into goal. I was 10,000' AGL. The head wind was between 10 and 6 mph. Six mph up high as I circled up. As I took off at cloud base, the 6030 said I had goal by 3,300' and an 8.6:1 glide was required to make it. I was skeptical given the head wind, but there was nothing else to be done. The hope was that I had enough extra altitude that would make up for any lack of lift on the way in.

There was almost no lift on the way in. Not only that the head wind increased from six mph (the head wind that the flight computer was using, the average head wind in the last thermal) to ten mph near the ground. I landed 2.9 km short. Nick flew a better line to my south and was more careful in choosing his air speed. He made it. We landed after 7 PM, another full day of racing.

Jeff Shapiro landed less than one kilometer short. Fifteen pilots made goal.

The meet has been well run with pilots getting into the air in less than an hour. Bill and Bobby have been running a duffers line for those less experienced pilots. One of those had a poor landing the other day and suffers along with Armand with a dislocated shoulder. This is the only injury so far.

I think that we will tweak the organization a bit today to have the task committee call the task earlier (like we do in the US) based on the RASP model output. You can always change it later is conditions really are different in the field.

Overall: