The very preliminary results, I\'m working on it.

There seems to be a bug in the very latest version of SeeYou when it comes to handling IGC files created from Garmin's. Either downloaded using GPSDump or directly with SeeYou. I'm checking on whether that is true or not. It is version 3.91. Very preliminary tests indicate that it has a problem. I have an announcement on this version coming out next week. I'll keep you posted on what the troubles are, if any.

Our troubles were that I was not able to read eleven IGC track logs from the competition that Monica downloaded last night using version 4.29 of GPSDump. SeeYou 3.91 gives me a floating point error.

Again the forecast from XCSkies (GFS model) and NSW RASP (WRF model) were wildly different than the local weather service office forecast and they agreed with each other. XCSkies called for west wins at 5 knots at 2,000 at 11 AM turning southerly by 2 PM. RASP called or southerly winds through the boundary layer all day. Both called for over development around 5 PM or so.

The local forecast called for a fair sunny day with northeast winds. You can guess what the actual conditions were.

Given "my" forecast for west then southern winds and given that fact that the winds and thermals were coming in well on the west launch when pilots got up the hill at 11 to 11:30 AM (and then switched to southerly right after I launched at 20 minutes before the first start window opened at 2 PM) Jonny and the Mongrels headed to the south launch when they saw me climbing and drifting back from the south over launch.

Whoa, we've got a nice gust front right now at 6 PM here at the River Gums Caravan Park. It has been very hot and there has been a little rain, the Cu-nimb has been hanging around since 5 PM.

I took off from the west launch and headed south with a couple of other pilots. Paragliders and a the few hang gliders that had launched had been struggling, and we were below launch, but I kept heading further south to a nice looking little knob that had a bit of a shadow on it. Boom, that was the thermal and I climbed right out of there getting higher than anyone else in the air. In twenty minutes I was at 7,700' almost cloudbase and ready to take the first start clock.

It looked to me that four pilots followed me. I was the highest and way in front. Bruce Wynn was a few hundred feet below. A couple of pilots were lower on the hill but it seemed like that were taking the first start clock also.

There were scattered cu's about, and one every now and then on the course line to the north. The task committee decided to go downwind to Bingara and then a little north northwest to Graves End, 128 km. There were more clouds to the east and the clouds seemed to be coming out of the east, but all the drift was from the south southeast.

I jumped from ragged cu to ragged cu, carefully working my way north. The only pilots I saw were way low and of no help to me. I worked a nice 450 fpm thermal over the town of Barraba. I could see the windsock at the airport blowing hard out of the south.

After climbing to 7,200' under a cu, I headed north along the course line looking to get to the next few cu's ahead. I had been working little cu's all along but five kilometers to the east there were much better cu's. Thirteen kilometers north of Barraba and still not finding any lift I had to option of turning east and maybe making it to a better looking cu's cross wind near the highway. Ahead I saw a few ragged cu's forming over a brown paddock down the course line and down wind. I went for them and didn't get anything. I soon had to land at Cobbadah.

It was great being alone and in the lead for the first third of the task. All the decisions were my own and I suffered my own fate.

We'll see if I can pick up some other stories from the day later at the pub.

People got back late, so not much in the way of stories. The last leg was difficult in the blue. Many pilots went down after Bingara. Blay (and I assume Jonny) made goal, Still problems with scoring. I'm working on them.