The weather itself was very difficult - high pressure, very little cloud - only over Mt Kaputar - and a late start. The same task was set for both classes except that sports class had two hours, and club class had 2.5 hours. Club class launched first. The task was Boggabri 30km, Edgeroi (40km) Splitrock Dam 20 km. Minimum distance 149km max 394km.
We launched a sniffer, Greg Smith in the club's LS6, at about 1215, but he was unable to stay up. Then at 1300 we launched Ray Tilley and Greg again, both together, and this time they managed to soar - just. We held on to 1325 and launched the first group on the grid. Then a slight pause as they were not doing terribly well, and then we continued to launch the whole field. There were a couple of relights in club class, but all the sports class got away OK.
There were about 6 out-landings, and no - Christian was not one of them this time. Also 3 couple of gliders did not start.
A very difficult day for the competitors and for me, but those who got around had good flights, some of them getting in excess of 9000 ft over Mt Kaputar. It amazes me how people manage to race in these conditions - I would have been in survival mode the whole time!!
I had no trouble getting people to retrieve those who outlanded - even though not everyone has a crew. All the pilots are really good about helping one another out.
The finishes were spectacular, with most pilots opting for a straight in landing on runway 14, and at one stage we could see four coming in together over the water. Lucky we have such a big runway!
Jo Pocklington did another superb job on the radio, keeping track of the finishers.
Some pilots have still not identified their loggers to the scorer, but other than that and the few outlandings Chris has managed to do the bulk of the scoring.
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