It was really hot today, very difficult for those of us stuck on the ground. The aviation weather promised showers everywhere, but it was wrong - although there are some storms about now - after dark.
The temp trace indicated a good day, but the blipmaps seemed to indicate that the day would end early. The task committee set two tasks, one to the west and the other to the east, in case there was overdevelopment in one direction or the other. The launch was planned for 1200.
We had a meeting of the safety committee to discuss weather we should declare a rest day for the pilots. The consensus was that pilots that were feeling fatigued should be encouraged to take a day off, but that we wouldn't declare a rest day unless we had a day of mass outlandings when everyone would be back late. Those of us on the ground would very much like a rest day, so that we could go flying ourselves!
Only two outlandings today - one of which was at the farthest extreme of the task.
Tales of the heights achieved were rather like a fishermans tale - got higher with every repetition. However the scorer informs me that just over 15000 ft was the height they got to in the shear wave, up above the clouds. I understand cloudbase was about 13 or 14000 feet. Lucky so many of them carry oxygen.
Lars Zender said it was "all right". He did 145 kph (unhandicapped), but it wasn't fast enough he said. He lost time by taking a 6 kt thermal when there were 8 kts about. He said he had a couple that averaged 10 all the way up.
Maren and Garry had a good flight in the Twin Astir, coming 11th for the day in Club Class. The flight is up on the OLC. Their OLC distance was 419 km. David Jansen's flight is also on the OLC - he won the day again with a HANDICAPPED speed of 133 kph. His actual speed off the stick is rumoured to have been 155 kph.
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