2012 Heat 1

Forecast:

A quite unstable air mass with a westerly flow turning south west during the afternoon was forecasted. Thermals would be moderate in strength all the way from the ground to the cloud base at around 1300m. Cloud streets would form in the early afternoon and break up in the late afternoon as the sun and the wind direction meet.

The clouds would be moderate in vertical build-up and cover 4-5/8 of the sky in the early afternoon. In the late afternoon there would be a risk that the clouds would spread-out and cover 6-7/8 of the sky towards the east.

Task:

We thought that a straight race to goal with the wind would be too easy, so we decided to make an easy first leg going east with the wind and then turning north north east to go to goal south of Hammel. This way the task would be equally difficult for the first pilots as well as for the later pilots.

Heat:

We saw most pilots getting away on their first tow though our young newcomer Dennis experienced problems with his instrument and had to land, correct things and restart.

The first pilots onto the task were two experienced pilots Rob and Niels Ole with Niels Ole taking the lead.

Rob benefited from this passing Niels Ole who landed short of first turn point. But maybe they started a little bit too early – Rob had to land shortly after first turn point …

The next group would be slightly bigger consisting of Joakim, Vegard and Jesper. Jesper would lose first Joakim then Vegard. Joakim had problems getting high before the start and got only 9,32km.

Vegard made a wrong decision leaving an obvious line of lift to go south – I guess looking for better lift in the lee of a forest … but he had to land before first turn point.

Jesper was doing better – I saw this, because I had taken the start with Charles and we came fast from behind. I had gone back to restart in the air, because I saw a nice cloud street building on the first part of the course. This made me fast and I caught up with Jesper just before the first turn point. Charles was slightly behind.

Jesper and I did the turn point and the next thermal together, but then took different choices for the last part of the route.

Jesper went a bit upwind of the course. I went slightly with the wind. A first Jesper gained on me, but then I found strong lift and could do a long high energy final glide, whereas Jesper had to stop in weak lift to gain the altitude needed to do his final glide into goal taking second place of the day – well done, Jesper.

Charles was not far behind us but was low on his final glide. He understood that he had to stop in lift to make it to goal however, the thermal he found was weak and he was drifting much not getting a positive number for his final glide. Hoping to make it anyway, Chares decided to try to glide to goal, but missed it by one km or so.

The rest of the pilots had various luck most of them landing between the lakes and the forests on the second leg.

Birger tried to avoid the forests right from the beginning forcing him to the north. Eventually he had to land because of Karup TMA, but he shortly entered the restricted airspace and got disqualified for the day.

The last pilot on the course was our newcomer Dennis. He now had his instrument correctly set-up and could focus on completing the task, which he did passing much more experienced pilots and making it into goal at a descent average speed taking third place of the day – well done, Dennis!