The results.



Forbes is an amazing place to fly. We are having so much fun in the air. All the
task days have been extraordinary and Tuesday was beyond belief.



The forecast was for 500 fpm and clouds to the north again with blue over us and
to our south. There must be a trough hanging around. It is amazing to see this
line at the edge of the clouds just to our north.



The lift was supposed to go to 12,000' according to the RASP forecast with winds
at 12-14 knots out of the west again, but only 6 to 8 knots on the ground (20
knots at the top of the lift).



The task committee (Gerolf came up with this task) called a task to the
northeast, 194 km to Gulgong with a turnpoint at Yeoval just to keep us by the
roads for retrieval. A long task but with the strong winds, we should be able to
accomplish it fairly quickly.



We knew that there would be a major component of cross wind as we had to go
northeast in a wind that might be west northwesterly, but that's where the goals
were and we didn't want to do the same task as yesterday.



Pilots were lined up early, so I had to wait a bit to get going. The first ten
pilots or so were high above me when I started thermaling out of the tow
paddock. I had only 36 minutes to get up and make the start gate 15 kilometers
away.



We were in the blue but there was good lift and plenty of clouds to the north
and northeast. We only had to get up and head for the clouds after the start
gate opened. I climbed to an extremely high altitude and got quite cold ( 3
degrees Celsius) even though I was prepared for it.



I topped out at 10 minutes before the start time and headed toward the edge of
the start circle where I hooked up with Robert Reisinger and Jonny Durand.
Gerolf, Michi, and Attila were further to our west (more upwind) but too far
away to see.



We headed for the start circle and made the start 21 seconds after the window
opened. We were high and racing, what a great start. I was halfway between
Robert and Jonny. Robert was just below me and Jonny was out in front at my
altitude.



Jonny veered a little to the right to go around the south side of Parkes and
Robert veered a little to left to go toward Parked. I went with Jonny. Ten
minutes into the flight we ran into strong lift. I saw 1,600 fpm on my 20 second
averager on the 6030. I had never seen that value before.



The lift was completely smooth and averaged over 1000 fpm throughout the
thermal. I had never seen that value on SeeYou for any of my climbs. I got
stinking high again as I watched Robert get very very small.



It was freezing cold up there and I was beginning to shake and was worried that
the whole flight might take place at high altitudes. I needn't have worried as I
was soon down to a very comfortable 6,500' when I found the next thermal. Lukas
Bader and five other pilots came in way below me.



I saw Gerolf, Attila, Michi and one other pilot (probably Blay) thermaling
further up the course line and I headed toward them high. Jonny had found
another thermal and was ahead of all of us at this point and on his own.



As I came over to these guys they all headed out on course. I came in right next
to Gerolf, just a little above him and we glided together for the next 10.5 km,
gliding with each other the whole way. We basically had the same glide ratio.




We were gliding at 41 mph (TAS), with an L/D of 12 cross wind.



Michi and Attila found some broken lift and after a short while I decided to
head out first. I picked a poor line and fell out of the sky while my
compatriots went a little to the right and kept getting smaller as I searched
hard for lift.



Down to 1,500' AGL I came over near Peter Dall on the ATOS and we searched
together until getting almost low enough to head to the road to land. I hit
strong lift in a gully and thanks to the great handling of the Litesport was
able to watch Peter turn into a very small glider.



Attila, Gerolf and Michi came and joined me in my savior thermal and we all
climbed out ready to hit the turnpoint.



The next task was to get over the hills west of Wellington. Gerolf got quite low
before the hills while Attila and I headed to the nice gap in the hills south of
Wellington. Jonny was well ahead of us and flew right over the town. Lukas came
in low below me in the nice strong thermal.



There were plenty of clouds on the course line and we just flew to them to find
lift. Not always, but often enough. We were well south of the road from
Wellington to Gulgong, and when I saw the paved road that I had seen down below
end in a dirt road I became aware of this fact and for sure wanted to stay up.



Julia (the Russian girl) found a nice thermal just when I wanted one and we
climbed up to cloud base 40 kilometers from goal. As soon as I got to base I
headed on final glide at 11.5 required L/D. I made 19.7:1 with a 16 mph tail
wind (slightly cross). Julia and I got to the goal at the same time. I was able
to push the Litesport to 56 mph.



Michi, Gerolf, Jonny and Robert all came up to me and said how well the
Litesport was gliding. I was keeping up with all of them. On the first glide
with Jonny I was trailing him and almost keeping up with him. He couldn't shake
me.



I glided above and just to the right of Robert for a long glide. I chased Michi
and Attila for 10.5 km and stayed with them. Attila was so happy that I found
that thermal low because he and everyone else in the vicinity used it to get up.



Gerolf just ran over to me at goal and was gleeful to see his Litesport doing so
well.



Now for the bad news.



A couple or maybe four pilots decided to play a dangerous game yesterday.
Deliberately going into a dust (grass) devil very low. Leroy pulled a pilot
through it at 400 feet and was so happy to get out of it when he saw the pilot
behind him pin off in it. What an idiot he thought. Bobby Bailey had flown
through it and said it was the worst air he had ever flown in.



Trent Brown and Nick Purcell plus one or two additional pilots tried to enter
the grass devil low. The gliders were described by observers as puppets on a
string. Their noses were slammed up. Nick's nose then went straight down and he
almost tucked low. He flew away and landed.



Trent was slammed/pancaked into the ground. He is currently in the hospital. He
was up and walking around yesterday, but has suffered some injuries. The glider
took most of the force of the impact unlike what happened with Steve Elliot the
other day, when it took none of the impact.



This is a totally avoidable situation. Leroy was mad at the pilot for pinning
off so low. No one needed to go into this thermal so low.



The launch was suspended until Trent was taken to the hospital. Additional start
times were added to allow later pilots to get a good time. About half the field
hadn't launched before the dangerous game was played.



I'll do some detailed analysis of the Litesport gliding with other gliders
later.

http://OzReport.com/1231276174