WCPC Task 1

Task 1

The day started off bleak - lots of high cloud and also thunderstorms in the forecast.

The high level skud burnt off while we made two tasks, one big one and a smaller one, we ended up going with the "smaller" one which turned out to be quite tough. Unfortunately, the hardest part was the begining - the first glide off the mountain and onto Rabies Ridge.

Nobody got to Rabies high, and it was windy and scratchy and rough, it was the place where you had to get tough. The climb out was in a saddle just before the ridge gets steep, the comp wings climbed out there, and people dove over the back low and managed to find the core, I wasn't willing to do that as the LZ's are crap back there.

I surfed the end of the ridge where the antennas were, lone wolf. With a little altitude, I slid over towards the the second load of circling gliders and my timing was good, a small but strong core got me out of there and high. I tagged the Rabies turnpoint while I was ridge soaring, now it was off to Burnt. A gaggle formed after Burnt, and we got high and back onto Rabies and high again and then headed towards the Grants TP. Lots of into the wind over the high ground, mostly good going until the last ridge before the TP.

All the serial gliders got stuck before GP, and we landed at Hadley Creek Rd. Only 7 in goal, Farmer got there first. I can't think how the task could have been set better, maybe a later start, maybe going to Burnt for the first TP, hard to say. The forecast isn't stellar for the next couple days, but woodrat is pretty resilient...

Results here

stay tuned