Dave's first official practice day

The task was a 2.5 hour area task that took us west and then north.  I had trouble climbing after release.  It took me almost 45 minutes before I was finally able to get above 5000.  Eventually, I met up with Jerzy near the start line where we made it to about 5900 ft and then we started.  Part way down the first leg a few cu started to pop and under the first cloud we found 5.5 kts up to 7300 ft.  We ran with a couple of other gliders on the first leg and turned in the first area where a line of clouds led to the second area.

At this point Jerzy and I separated when he went to one cloud and I went to another.  From that point we didn't see each other for the rest of the flight.  The clouds that aligned with the second leg looked good, but they didn't work. After 30 km, I found a 5 kt climb under a newly forming cloud that took me from 4800 ft up to 7300 ft and I was back on my way.  I deviated to the north to try and put together a run under some clouds and had a couple of 4.5 - 5 kt climbs just before entering the second area.

The clouds along the centre and east side of the area looked good so  I stayed north of track and had a good run including an 8 kt climb to 9100 ft.  After leaving the second turn area, there was a 20 km hole to cross then one more 6 kt climb to 500 ft short of a MacCready 5 final glide and from there I was able to bump my way home for 96 km at 173 km/hr.  The final 30 km was not, however, without excitement as the big sky around here can also produce a lot of sink and even though I have a 500 ft safety factor and had a couple of hundred feet above a 5 glide I lost a lot of it and really had to work to find and take every bump on the way in so I could make it.

This last stretch of the day really helped lift my overall speed to 134 km/hr for the task.  The score sheet shows this on the low side for the day in the 18 m class with the winner turning in a speed of 156 km/hr.  The fast group started 20 minutes after we did and 1500 ft higher so we need to be a little more patient at the start.

The picture shows the big sky to the north of Benalla at 1820 after we had already been on the ground for about 45 minutes.  Cloud base is about 9000 ft (8400 AGL)