Quick Contest Report
Had a great time at Avenal Spring Contest this year - helped out our very capable contest manager Morgan Hall as CD and task setter/decision maker.
Day 1 - we had very dynamic weather with a frontal passage in the afternoon and no real way to make a safe task for the whole field - An incoming front brought in a significant amount of moisture. I called a 'proper' MAT task with 3 turns before turning the pilots loose. Turns at Orchard Peak, Coalinga 7SE and Castle Peak. Launched some pretty decent sniffers - they stayed up but numerous gliders working the ridges were unable to get much above 4500 so I cancelled the day.
Had a great time at Avenal Spring Contest this year - helped out our very capable contest manager Morgan Hall as CD and task setter/decision maker.
Day 1 - we had very dynamic weather with a frontal passage in the afternoon and no real way to make a safe task for the whole field - An incoming front brought in a significant amount of moisture. I called a 'proper' MAT task with 3 turns before turning the pilots loose. Turns at Orchard Peak, Coalinga 7SE and Castle Peak. Launched some pretty decent sniffers - they stayed up but numerous gliders working the ridges were unable to get much above 4500 so I cancelled the day.
Day 2 - Totally Bodacious. Post frontal conditions gave us a 500km task, Rourkes Roost-15ml radius, Camatta 1ml radius, Panoche radius 15ml and home. The nasty task setter (me) put a hook in at the Camata turn, well to the west of the expected convergence, to get some challenge into an otherwise 'racetrack' day. It worked well. Morgan Hall (5H- DuoDiscus) asked to team fly so we did - he was a very quick student and we finished just seconds apart with identical raw speeds. the 3 points of handicap difference were noticable in the glide and I had to work very hard not to lose ground to a good pilot in a slightly better ship. We finished 1st and 3rd for the day with Bill Gawthrup in F8 very close second. Yellow Jersey day.
Day 3 - Dry and Blue - I set Panoche (15ml) Camatta (15ml) & Return AAT - with no markers this was a demanding but doable task - Camatta is well west of where we normally fly at the north west end of the California Valley - another great team flying day now in the blue - we had trouble finding the strong and mercurial convergence in the mountains to the north but found it on the way back south and went deep into the 2nd turn way out in the Blue Boonies. Found moderate lift to get us home with good teamwork between Morgan and I - Finished 3rd and 4th dropping 30 pts on the day - winner Michael Ried , a great up and coming young pilot in a Discus A, who found the northward convergence and got better speed in the first sector. Bill Gawthrup finished another very close 2nd for the day to take the lead over 'moi'.
Day 4 - Dry, weaker and WINDY! - Set a 2hr shorter-in AAT , Blackwell Farms, CoalingaSth, Kettleman, Blackwell and home with 5ml radii. Launched into NW 20mph dust storm but conditions were quite a bit stronger than we thought so I went with task A - Most flew 2.5hrs, - Morgan and I team flew again and I took the day but with Bill Gawthrup another very close 2nd it wasnt enough to win the contest overall - Morgan flew really well and in an identical glider we'd have finished equal 2nd - as it was we gave quite a good demonstration to the pilots present how team flying is *supposed* to work - Morgan got the honorary yellow Jersey today.
Great contest !
No comments:
Post a Comment