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!
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