Bright 321, Final Day

Today the weather was perfect, the task ran to completion, I repeat, the task wasn't stopped! No thunderstorms! Wheeeeee! The fear that the wind was going to be strong never materialized either, which put over 50 pilots into goal - always a great way to end a comp.

The task was a 57 km round the valley richochet - A 5km start cylinder around Mystic, to Smoko, to Lil' Pyramid, then to the Burrs, then to Lil' Mystic, then Porepunkah Roundabout, then with goal at Porepunkah airport. The Cu was very helpful and friendly.

Because of the possible increasing wind, a rebrief was called ten minutes before launch opened, and the task was changed with an earlier start time. Start times are one number you want to get right, and I didn't, so when the race started, I followed the 80 glider gaggle towards the turnpoint, but something was wrong, they were starting 5 minutes too early!

I was sure of it, so I turned around, went back to the start cylinder, got the 12:50 start, and restarted the course. The massive gaggle left me behind in a swirling cloud of dust, so to speak. I had a bad feeling, so I turned on my radio and ask what the start time was, and well, I guess there are times when following the crowd is a good idead...

Oh, well, I love a good challenge and I got one, several actually. Doing the course with only a few gliders around you is good practice! The day was a slow starter, and I got stuck big time at Gold Mine. The thermals didn't get good until after 2pm, but then it just got better and better.

The clouds started to stick around and it looked like it might try to rain, which would stop the task, and the lift was good enough that I started using full bar on all glides, hoping to get to goal before a stoppage. It took me 2:59 to get in, which is a crawl, but goal is a good place to be on the last day.

I think the Czechs did very well, and will be taking home some cash, and the Austalians will be in the money too.

Mathew Cooper threw his reserve, the SES even got him and his wing out of the tree before dark, I was glad to see him happy and smiling later at HQ.

Wesly Hill did a smash up job on the scoring, the daily results were out usually before dark, and get this - The final results were correct and posted on the web on the last day of the competition! Well done!

It was a well run comp, not to mention the $8,500 in prize money, with safety as the first priority, I hope I can make it back next year.

Scoring results can be found here here.