2012 Heat 2

Forecast:

An unstable air mass with a southerly flow turning south east during the afternoon was forecasted. Thermals would be moderate locally strong in strength all the way from the ground to the cloud base at around 1300m. Cloud streets would form in the early afternoon and last all afternoon – maybe even strengthen as the wind would turn south east having the sun direction perpendicular to the wind.

The clouds would be moderate in vertical build-up and cover 4-5/8 of the sky. In the late afternoon cirrus was forecasted to come-in from the south west shutting down the day and a sea breeze from the north caused by the convection in-land and the fjords to the north.

Task:

Bearing in mind how few pilots made it to goal in the first task, we decided to do a straight race to goal with the wind to go to goal south of Vemb. We discussed going to Lindtorp airfield, but I was afraid that the sea breeze would make it difficult or maybe even impossible for the late pilots to make it to goal.

Karup ATC allowed us to enter Karup TMA as long as we stayed underneath 3500 feet, which we are very thankful for.

Heat:

Again we saw most pilots getting away on their first tow.

The first pilot onto the task was Jens Henrik – maybe a little riskfull knowing many much more experienced pilots would come shortly after.

The first group is interesting – they were Jesper, Johnny and Dennis. Though starting at the same time as the other two, Dennis decides to try his luck on his own taking a more northerly route than the others. He does well and get the furthest of the three of them.

Jesper tries to escape from Johnny by going a bit south west before the start, but Johnny is on him like a hawk. He shadows Jesper who maybe pushes a little bit too hard. Jesper lands first and Johnny shortly after only a little bit further.

The next group is also interesting – they were Vegard, Rob and Flemming. Flemming does a nice preparation getting into a good position for the start getting high south east of a point between Arnborg and Skarrild. Looking at his track it seems he has decided that long and fast glides between the thermals would be the right tactic to win the day. However, unfortunately Flemming runs out of altitude and options as he passes underneath the Karup TMA and has to land.

I don’t have access to the track logs of Rob and Vegard. If they were with Flemming, I think Vegard couldn’t keep up with Flemming, missed a thermal and landed short.

I think probably Rob joined Flemming to do more or less the same flight.

In between these two groups Tommy sneaked onto the course. At first maybe he makes a mistake taking a thermal on the east side of the big forest north west of Arnborg. The thermal is weak and he spends a lot of time around this forest. But then he seems to make good decisions finding nice thermals that bring him straight to goal taking third place of the day – well done Tommy.

Charles, Joakim and Tormod were the next to start. Tormod did a start similar to Flemming. I was already in the same area further south of Tormod. He seemed to do at nice start. At that moment I was not sure who it was, but I thought that it might be Flemming, so I delayed my start a bit more seeing that nice clouds build up on the first part of the course. I had been waiting for the conditions to peak, but didn’t want to get caught by the cirrus. Shortly after Tormod I start my race. I find strong lift and quickly caches up with him near Fjelstervang. Together we work a moderate thermal. I’m in a hurry, so when I see the chance I leave for the next clouds that will bring me well in under Karup TMA.

Meanwhile Charles is chasing the good lift in an organic way covering a lot of ground, but even so he is making a good average speed getting to goal taking second place – well done Charles.

I leave Tormod at Fjelstervang. The next pilot I see is Joakim landing east of Barde forest. Apparently he didn’t want to follow the organic flying style of Charles …

I carry on towards some nice heath and good looking clouds further ahead. A little too eager to get to the nice looking cloud, I skip good lift and join some sailplanes under the cloud however, the thermal is not as good as the one I just skipped. I have to cross some wind to get to the next good thermal, so I climb all the way to 3500 feet and race towards what becomes my final glide thermal. It’s very strong and right outside Karup TMA, so I can climb to 1300m and glide to goal in a more or less straight line. As I approach the goal, I’m looking for signs of the sea breeze from the north. I slow down a bit because I see wind turbines showing northerly wind just north east of Vemb, but make it easily into goal with enough  altitude to do a nice approach and landing next to Tommy, who kindly showed me the wind direction.

During this competition a long time dream by Helmer of having the pilots carry a position sending device came true. This way Søren had been following the second heat from his home in Holstebro. When he saw, we were three pilots in goal, he brought coffee and crackers to us – thank you, Søren :-)

Birger who hadn’t flown far this day was retrieved quickly in his own car. When he got back, he unloaded and went to goal to pick us up – thanks Birger!

With bears and snacks from the local supermarket we turned the drive back into a party celebrating the finish of DOHG 2012.