Oliver Chitty <<ocairways>>
writes:

The Forbes Flatlands competition which started on the 29th of
January and lasted through to the 5th of December made it the first big comp of
the year. Having hosted the world championships in 2013 it made its mark in the
hang gliding scene as one of the best venues with the most consistent flying
conditions to be found during this time. It attracted pilots from all around the
world.

This year saw a gathering of pilots for a few practice competition days as the
forecasted good weather put on a good show, notably Alexandra “Sasha”
Serebrennikova managed to set new women’s declared and open distance female
triangle world records during the practice days. She took off from Forbes, flew
southwest to West Wyalong, then east to Grenfell before pushing back north west
to Forbes to complete her task landing at 7pm. Congratulations Sasha. She
commented, “And to think this is only the practice task at Forbes.”

This year the competition head quarters was run at the rugby club in the center
of town where all the pilots meet for a 10 am task briefing. It was likely to be
hot in excess of 35° Celsius so keeping pilots out of the sun was a
priority. The pilots are told the task, start time and any other details they
needed for the day. It's usually about two hours before the first launch window
opens at 12:30 so it’s nice and relaxed as it only takes about 10 minutes to get
to the takeoff field formally known as the Bill Moyes International Airfield.

Day one canned

Day one in any competition is always quite tense. The famous saying rings
through everyone’s minds “you can’t win a competition on the first day but you
sure as well can lose it.” The task set for day one is a 155km task to the SSE.
There is a lot of overcast today and a strong breeze. There are some cumulus
forming under the high cloud but a band of rain possibly pushing in from the
west. With much discussion between the safety committee and task committee the
launch window is pushed back from 12:30 till 2:30 to give the strong winds time
to die down. As 2:30 arrives nearly half the field is in the air and climbing
well, but maybe too well as a large area of rain starts to descend on course
line. The safety committee decide to cancel the day on grounds of safety. The
Laminate gliders we fly in competitions really don’t handle well in the rain but
everyone makes it down safe back in the start cylinder.

Day two Task 1

The weather for day two looks far more promising, still quite strong winds out
of the WSW, but no over development and a 9000' cloud base. With day one out of
the way it’s a little more relaxed before take off in the tow field. Our task
today takes us north to Trangie, just to the west of Dubbo for 142.8km optimized
race to goal with a later start again to let some of yesterday's bad weather
clear the area. A challenging cross wind for the first part of the flight which
should back later on to a more predominant tail wind. All of the competitors get
up and off and there is plenty of room in the 10km start radius. A large
proportion of pilots take the first start at 15:00, but quite quickly people are
taking different routes on course line. Some pilots take a more direct route
keep just left of course line enough to battle the wind, while others push much
harder into the cross wind to make the latter parts of the flight easier. First
into goal is Atilla Bertok followed closely by Ollie Chitty from the first clock
after taking the more direct route and not straying far from course line. It's
10 minutes before the next competitors arrive, Guy Hubbard and a chasing pack of
2nd starters (15:15) with Josh Woods, Steve Blenkinsop and Niki Longshore. Niki
also took a decisive day win over the other females in the competition being the
only one in goal.

Day 3 Task 2

A switch in the wind brings us a steady northerly flow. This means we will be
seeing predominantly blue conditions early on and only 10knts of wind from the
north in the boundary layer. With this forecast we have a 185.7km race to goal
via 2 turn points finishing at Bookham north west of Canberra. It's noticeably
slower in the start cylinder today and climbs are only getting to 7000ft. The
first start clock comes around but only a few pilots at the top of the gaggle
take the plunge, everyone else seems to be on the same consensus that a later
start gate would prove more efficient if the conditions get better. It's only a
short time (15 minutes) before the second start is activated. After the second
start window opens everyone starts hunting down the lonely few gliders who took
the first start. With two large radius turn points along the way there is quite
a split of pilots along the course line. Josh Woods takes the day win closely
followed by Jonny Durand and Atilla Bertok all taking the 2nd start.

Day 4 Task 3

The ever-reliable southwest wind returns for day 4 task 3 and a 195.2km task to
Gulgong airstrip is set. In this wind direction we get a cooler air mass and
even better flying conditions. There are talks of getting to over 10,000' today
so we are reminded at pilot briefing about the effects and dangers of hypoxia.

Straight off the tow it was obvious today was much stronger than the previous
day. Already by 12:30 we were getting close to 10,000' with climbs well in
excess of 1000fpm. Almost everyone took the first start today and a good strong
gaggle made the first 50km look easy. Niki Longshore was once again one of the
top pilots pushing the gaggle and was on glide heading for climbing gliders
ahead when she was hit by a incredibly strong patch of rough air sending her
glider pointing straight up to the sky with no airspeed left to recover. She
very quickly pulled her parachute and was on a descent through a gaggle of
gliders from 8000'.

Niki did an incredible job to stop the rotation before landing quite perfectly
in a paddock with road access and under the shade of trees. Jonny Durand was
first on scene after seeing Niki pull her chute. He descended with her side by
side and landed in the field within seconds of her arrival. Many pilots stayed
in the area to make sure things were okay before heading back on course.
Unfortunately, Niki’s competition would be over after such a strong and
dominating start and Jonny would receive his score made from an average of his
future total.

First into the Gulgong goal would once again be Atilla Bertok, closely followed
by Tyler Borradaile and Josh Woods.

Day 5 Task 4

Waking up on the morning of the 2nd of January we are greeted by our competition
Whattsapp group with a message of “Briefing 10am, be here ready to fly.”

There had been talks of going big today, the south wind was still blowing but
slightly stronger today and even higher bases than yesterday so it looks like
the task committee was planning a big one. In 2014 the distance to goal record
in a competition task was set at 368km flying from Forbes to Wallygett. Today we
have a slight west component to the wind and will be flying 389km to another
flying site, Manila.

To make this new record task pilots had to be taking off much earlier than
previous days so the first start was 12:00 just 1:30 hours after briefing in
town. For many pilots this would be a personal best flight and nearly everyone
took the 1st start getting on their way as soon as possible. Even at mid day
there were good cumulus clouds and pilots reporting climbs to over 11,000'. A
lot of pilots had Niki’s accident on their minds for a while. Glides were
noticeably slower for the first portion of the course.

There seemed to be two main routes taken. A few pilots took the direct course
line route when other pilots headed further west of course line and followed a
line of mountains hoping to use them as triggers. 5 hours later the first pilot
called on final glide. Ollie Chitty from Great Britain was first in goal with a
time of 05:18:23 just ahead of Jonny Durand with a time of 05:19:27. Tyler
Borradaile took 3rd place just a few seconds later. Eventually we would see 16
pilots make the record task with many personal bests broken and smiles all
round, except for the retrieve drives who had over a 1000km total journey, the
real hero’s of the day.

Sasha took an early bird launch and quickly flew 10km south into the head wind
to a declared starting point for her an attempt at breaking the distance to goal
woman’s world record, extending her flight to over 407km.

Day 6 task 5

With many pilots not returning back until the early hours of the morning the
next task briefing was delayed by a few hours giving people time to rest and
recuperate before flying again. A shorter dogleg task via one turn point of
155km was called landing at Wellington airstrip with a start time of 15:00.
Today was the polar opposite of the previous day with no clouds and slow climbs.
Many pilots were dropped in the first hour struggling to find climbs. Once at
the turn point the conditions seemed to get better, but it was a strong
crosswind for the final leg. Some people landed short after drifting too far
down wind giving a hard final glide. Ollie Chitty took a 2nd consecutive day win
once again followed closely by Jonny Durand and Guy Hubbard. Only 9 pilots made
the task.

Day 7 Task 6

Finally a day with less wind. Task 6 was called a rest day for the retrieve
drivers so we would be flying a closed triangle of 166km. Pilots were starting
to look noticeably fatigued after 5 back to back long tasks (and a record task).
The towing was slow to get going. Fortunately there were good clouds in the
start cylinder and everyone had plenty of room to pick their start. Almost
everyone took the first start again at 13:50 with only a few pilots choosing to
take the gamble on a later start at 14:10.

The shorter first leg of the triangle with a slight chasing tail wind went quickly
but some pilots got low and had to take slow climbs from the foothills at
the turn point. Heading northeast into the 2nd turn point the day started to
blue out and become a little more tricky. It was here that the fast first
starters had a slight time advantage over the stragglers and didn’t waste much
time. The wind had picked up slightly and made the final leg of the triangle
more difficult as pilots headed over high ground and minimal landing areas. Once
they got out onto the flats it was back to good climbs and long final glides of
over 30km. Jonny Durand took the day win with a time of 03:33:59 closely
followed by a consistently well scoring Rory Duncan, Jason Kath took out 3rd
place for the day just 30 seconds behind Rory.

Good music and many goal margaritas were handed out in goal as pilots and
retrieve drivers celebrated at last a task with no 5-hour drive home.

Day 8 Task 7

The final task. 7 straight competition days has the field of competitors looking
and sounding very tired. We have a weather system passing through the area today
and the wind direction could be anything later in the day. We have a task that
headed north east to a large 40km radius before turning west into a 50km radius
and returning south down to goal at the Peak Hill air strip. Depending on the
weather this could be a final 15km strong head wind stint. There was discussion
at the pilot briefing if this was safe as we would be crossing over a firing
range, but it was eventually agreed that this was the best bet for the
conditions forecasted in the local area.

After launch many pilots commented how rough the air was in the 5km start
cylinder, some managing better than others to get up, but everyone at least
managed to get away for the start. The task saw a fair tail wind for the first
50km on course line before dropping to almost nothing before the first turn
point. The faster pilots of the day made a better run after the first turn point
and made short work of the 2nd leg. With two very large radiuses there can be
quite a few different routes depending on where you intercept the optimum point
of turn point. This stretched the field out into many small gaggles. Atilla
Bertok took another day win closely followed again by Tyler Borradaile and Rory
Duncan seconds later.

The scores for the top three pilots were incredibly close. No one would know the
final scores until the prize giving that evening, so at goal it was a quick pack
up and off to get home and ready for the presentation

The only pilot to make goal everyday of the competition was Rory Duncan and
rightfully so he took the overall win and became national champion by 1 single
point from a total of 5880 beating 7-time champion Jonny Durand on 5879. Josh
woods took a strong third place after another consistent competition. Alexandra
Serebrenikova (Sasha) took 1st place in the woman’s task just ahead of Yoko Sano
from Japan.

Photos:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qclk44m13i89euu/AAD9eK_c1GAhzD6goWE0gr6Va?dl=0