Jason Turner <<jasonflys>>
writes:

Craig Collings, ex Australian Paragliding Champion (09,08,07,06,05
etc) from Bright Victoria who has recently crossed over to Gliding (much to the
relief of the Oz Paragliding comp pilots as he was always pretty damn hard to
beat) is also doing well slightly ahead of Oleg.

Craig's report from yesterday's task:

A little about yesterday from a 15m pilot's perspective. The forecast for the
past two days was humid with the chance of thunder storms. It never eventuated
Monday, so yesterday the 15m gaggle waited and waited and waited (for almost 2
hours). Finally we got going on our 3:15hr AAT and within the first 30 minutes
of the flight we could see it was already raining in some places. Course line
and turnpoint decisions became critical as the sky continued to overdevelop
between the last circle and home.

For different reasons Matthew and I ended up running behind time on the way home
and this proved to be a problem as a storm developed right over the airfield. At
30km out I'm 600ft under glide with a thunderstorm and lightning behind me and
thunderstorm and lightning developing in front of me. Looking at paddock options
I see the huge windmills behind me begin to turn from the out-flow of the storm
behind me. I turn and head away from goal towards the storm.

I'm selecting paddocks as I glide, there is almost no sun on the ground. As I
approach the storm I start climbing 1-2kts. By this stage Matthew has climbed to
final and is heading towards the storm at Leszno. There is lightning coming out
of my storm on a frequent basis and as I climb I just hope it stays where it is.
By this stage Tom and Ben have arrived back and Tom is on the radio telling me
to wait until the storm passed. I'm now at final glide height but I just keeping
climbing.

Matthew reports that conditions are terrible ahead and he has to abandon the
task at the last minute and urgently find a field to land in. I keep climbing,
now 3000ft over glide, I get reports the rain has eased and it is safe to come
home. The sky is black black and I see the occasional flash around me. Finally I
see the airfield for the lights of the cars retrieving gliders. Full air-brake
and landing flap to get me on the ground. A little shaken by the experience,
I'll leave earlier today if storms are predicted.

http://wgc2014.fi/