I’ve shaken up the task committee to bring in new pilots and new
thinking. Steve Blenkisop, Trent Brown, and Bruce Wynn formed the task committee
on the first day. I’ll rotate in other pilots as the week goes on. They called a
great task today, a zig zag in a strong cross wind, first south southeast to
Grenfell, then north northeast to Gooloogong, then east northeast to Canowindra,
then south east to a field near Woodstock. It was named the Child of God task.
About 150 kilometers.

The pilots were launched in random order with a small open launch for those who
found themselves at the back and were willing to go first. I was off sixth in my
line and barely got there in time after handling the unofficial team director
duties, weather forecasting, and task committee wrangling. I pinned off early as
the tug just kept climbing.

It was my first time on a Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 in thermal conditions and it
was just fine. I climbed right up and waited for the first start window with at
first a dozen other pilots. The wind was 10+ mph out of the west northwest. The
wind was breaking up the thermals.

We tried heading up wind to get a better start position, but that didn’t work as
we didn’t find good lift. Most of the pilots drifted downwind and climbed to
7,000’. I decided to head up wind again and did get to work some lift with only
a few pilots as the tugs pulled up the rest of them from Bill’s field below.
Those pilots who drifted downwind took the first start clock.

I wasn’t in a great spot for the 2 PM start window so worked to get higher and
further south for the 2:20 start and hooked up with Filippo and Jonny as well as
a dozen other pilots. I was able to get much higher than the others and took the
second clock at 8,600’, 1000’ over Filippo and 500’ over Jonny.

Filippo was charging ahead on his Wills Wing T2C with the extra winglets. He had
a great glide and he, Jonny and I came into the first thermal twelve kilometers
outside the start cylinder at about the same altitude. The thermal was not that
strong, 300+ fpm and that would be the story as we worked our way south
southeast. Out on the flats the thermals were broken, we didn’t get to 8,000’
often less than 6,000’, and the thermals varied between 200 and 300 fpm on
average. Filippo continued to out race us all.

The wind was blowing us sideways and it took an hour and twenty minutes to go
the fifty three kilometers to the Grenfell turnpoint. There is a nice little
mountain range (not very high) before the Grenfell turnpoint and unlike the
flats it was pumping. I lost Jonny just before the range but found good lift,
especially on the southern end just before the turnpoint, averaging 700 fpm to
8,700'.

The conditions had scattered our gaggle and I was mostly on my own now with a
few pilots lower than me. The hills past the turnpoint also were pumping and I
worked 600 fpm to 9,500' before heading out into the flats. I didn't work any
lift until I got to the small hills south of Gooloogong that faced into the west
wind (and the sun) and climbed back to 8,600'. The race had picked up
significantly with the wind now a tail wind at about 10 mph.

The next turnpoint at Canowindra was almost downwind and I found 355 fpm at a
little west facing ridge five kilometers before it. I could see a few pilots
down below me and then suddenly there was Filippo also below. Seems he got low
and had to slow down. Attila, who thought that the task was wimpy, also got low
and was lucky to make it into goal.

I took the thermal to almost 8,000' before the turnpoint and after the turnpoint
headed southeast for the last 25 kilometer leg. Now the lift got weak and I was
down to 3,500', 2000' AGL. We had thought that this last leg would be a cross
wind leg, but in fact it was down wind as the wind still had a north component.
I worked 100 fpm and then after getting up a little moved to 260 fpm, which was
enough to get me to 5,300' and into goal.

Paris was first in on the first clock with Mike Bilyk and Steven Blenkisop.
Jonny came in twelve minutes later. The goal quickly filled up. It was a real
race to goal day. Not an endurance day. Still I was in the air for four and a
half hours.

Task 1:

http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results-show.html?id_results=3&db=results2014&class=results_open

There is a sport class competition also and you'll find the results
here.

Thanks to Wesley Hill, the scorekeeper and the pilots for getting their flight
in so fast.