Sunday 15th November, Comp Day 6

Task setting was difficult today. A brisk southerly was forecast to come in in the afternoon, so Bruce wanted to keep the field to the east, where it was thought the southerly would not have such a great influence, but we didn't have quite enough turn points in the right area. Eventually we set Gunnedah 20km, Bingara 30km Edgeroi 40 km and Splitrock 20 km with a 3.5 hour task time for Sports class, who launched first, with the same task for Club Class with a time of 3 hours. In the event we shortened the club class task to the B task which was Upper Horton 15km, Edgeroi 40km and Splitrock 20 km.

I set a goal to complete the briefing in 20 minutes - it blew out to 25, but much briefer than other days. Unfortunately this means we do not get to hear the winner's story, but them's the breaks.

We scheduled a 12.30 start, but Hank Kaufman approached me to make it earlier, so I asked him to be a sniffer. He agreed to this, and launched first at about 1210. He climbed out easily, but the pilots were not really ready - we have been starting on the dot most days, so I suppose they thought that would be the case again. We managed to start launching the field at 1220, and then went straight through. Took 1 hour 20 minutes today I think it was, but one tug had an ASI problem and dropped out for a while. The glider with the problem release had no problem today - they took it out, cleaned and tested it and put it back with no alteration. Maybe it just needed cleaning.

After the launch, it was pretty quiet on the airfield, Vic did some mowing on the big tractor, and I enlisted the help of Ron Cameron to put the small slasher on the small tractor - but by the time we had done it, the gliders were coming back. Juho did some mowing with the ride on mower.

All the gliders came home except one - but that one got an aerotow retrieve, so no crews out on the road. One glider came in much later than the rest, but made it!!

Some pilots reported getting into wave at the start.

Ian Aspelind from Kingaroy flew with Charles Yeates from Nova Scotia in the Kingaroy Club's Duo Discus - not in the comp. "Our best thermal was straight of the tow, 12 kts peak, average 8.5kts. We went to Narrabri - conditions were good but blue. However on the way back we hit heavy sink and were down to 1200 ft more or less abeam Boggabri, without enough height to get to the mine, (usually a good thermal source) we thought we were done for. Then we hit a boomer which we took to 8000ft and made it home from there." I bet Kris, Charles wife was relieved!!

Todd Clark - Club Class, LS4: "Going really well until the ground got too close!" Todd admitted that perhaps he had pushed to hard. He said he took a 5.5kt climb which was too slow - he hadn't been working anything less than six. So he left it with his glide computer showing 2000ft below final glide - and unfortunately the computer proved to be correct.

Jay Anderson - Sports Class, LS6: "Started high 7000ft (other pilots listening at this point said they thought 7000ft was low) and had a good first and second leg working 6 and 7kt thermals. Went deep into the second circle, Bingara, a short leg to the third circle, and ran south along a thermal street showing 12kts on averager. Got slow at Barraba and had to limp home!"

Allan Barnes - Club Class, LS1."This was my worst day. Last to launch and rushed to start - started only a couple of minutes after the gate opened and had to fly alone. The gaggles did much better. Went too far to the east where the land was green chasing cumulus, but they disappeared as I got there. Nothing seemed to be working, got down to 3000ft with no obvious thermal sources in sight. Average speed at this point was only 78 kph. However got up again and managed 120 kph on the last leg, which brought the speed up to 98 kph (handicap speed) but not fast enough!

I pointed out the Allan that at least he had been flying - some of us were stuck on the ground :-(