Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Pre Europeans Day 4

The day started off very slowly with a delayed briefing at 12pm at the camping. The weather looked better as the day went on so they sent us up the hill to wait with the gliders on the car. After about 45 mins they decided it was good enough to fly and they would set a short 74kms task with 4 turnpoints. We had briefing before we even set up today which is something quite new. The window opened and there was only 45 mins to the first start. I waited for a bit cause it was very crowded and I wanted to see how the pilots were going. They started to climb so I jumped in and pushed everyone off. I climbed out and eventually made it to the top of the stack just intime for the first start. I headed out on course with about 50 other gliders and soon found myself in the lead gaggle with Blay and Gerolf. We did the first 2 turnpoints and flew back to launch to climb up. I got high first but only a few hundred metres over launch and did not want to go over the back leighside alone. I flew back out the front where I saw Blay and Balazs climbing and only got to the same height I was just at 5 mins before. I then decided to go over the back and they others soon followed. We got a reasonable climb about 13kms from turnpoint and then pushed on to a better climb the strongest one of the day. A huge gaggle came in below us now and were climbing well also. Gerolf was on top and we all glided off for the 3rd Turnpoint. I went more to the left and Balazs followed me and we climbed back to cloudbase 2,600m 5kms from the 3rd turnpoint. We crossed the lake and glided in just below Gerolf and Martin Harri who were climbing well on the other side. We did not get the climb they had and they pulled away from us. We got stuck there for a bit and soon the 2nd gaggle caught us up and we finally climbed out. I went on final and made goal easy after doing the last turnpoint. Gerolf will win the task in 1hr 31mins and Martin Harri 2nd a couple of minutes behind. I will come in 5th place 7 mins slower than gerolf. I think nearly 80 pilots made goal so there were many smiling faces after thinkning we might not fly. I am now in 5th place about 130 points behind the leader who is Blay. Matin Harri will be in 2nd and carl walbank in 3rd all flying Moyes Litespeeds. Todays video.