Day 5

The word of the day was long glides.  We had another day of thunderstorms blanking large areas of the task requiring long glides (30 km) across blue holes to reach the next area of usable lift.  At the end of the day, 55 km final glides were required to get from the last clouds home.  In the FAI class, most got home, but in the club class those without the 40 + L/D ratios couldn't make the long glide and landed short.

The task was again called on the grid because the weather was too unpredictable to use any of the tasks that were concocted during the task committee meeting.  Fortunately, we again picked the best quadrant of the task area as all other quadrants had significant CB's and lightning.

With the large blue holes and streets aligned about 45 degrees to the course lines, I did a lot of deviating to stay in the lift.  According to Seeyou, I flew 358 km to cover a task distance of 280 km!  In hindsight, it was too much as Joerg who flew straight home across two large blue holes won the day, while my faster but longer route cost me about 5 km/hr.  At the time, I didn't think that it would be possible to get across the long glides and connect with lift to get home - but it worked.

Overall results now have Joerg, me, Dennis Vreeken in 1,2 3 in the FAI class and Bill Cole who was one of the few finishers in the Club class moves into first.

 

Dave