2010 Forbes Flatlands - 7th day
Zac landed just past the first turnpoint. I hung in there for
another half hour but landed near him. Larry almost landed just past Zac, but
doing well Jeff Shapiro stayed high and made goal quickly. The Moyes team at the
goal field was very happy to hear that Zac went down. It would not do for an
American flying a Wills Wing glider to come to Australia and win the Forbes
Flatlands, the premier Australian competition.
After Ricky Duncan beat Jonny at the Canungra Classic (and Rohan Holtkamp came
in third) flying the Airborne REV 13.5 I would assume that the Moyes folks were
not terribly happy. To have Zac beat all the pilots flying Moyes gliders for six
days running here in Forbes, was a bitter pill.
There was a movement to have a rest day, and that came up for a straw poll at
the pilot briefing. But before it did I presented the weather which showed that
we again would have clouds, good lift, high cloud base and reasonably light
winds. The task committee called a zig-zag task of 140 km to Grenfell, Eugowra,
and then to Gooloogong. It basically consisted of three cross wind legs.
Then the proposal for a rest day came up with Gerolf making the motion. He
presented his case and then there was some rather desultory discussion without
anyone making a clear statement of their position (that could be understood, at
least). I called for a "vote" and it was 16 in favor of a rest day today and 26
against.
I asked Vicky (the meet director) what she wanted to do, she shrugged her
shoulders, essentially passing the decision back to me. I said that there was an
obvious spilt and that no decision could please everyone, but that I would go
with the majority. If the vote had been more equal Vicki probably would have
gone with a rest day.
So we were off to the airfield. I have been riding a very nice carbon frame
bicycle (Apollo) provided by Peter Holloway at Cycle Science. It is a joy to ride it everyday to the airfield.
On this day I made sure that I launched first to avoid having to wait in line in
the heat fully dressed. The launching went quickly with everyone in the air in
forty five minutes. The lift was good and we easily got to 8,200'.
All four of the team members, Zippy, Jeff, Larry, and I got together and were
ready to go at the first start. We took it but came back for the second when no
one went with us and we didn't find good lift right away under the first cu.
We went back and had a good second start all of us together with Larry in the
lead. There weren't many other pilots around.
We hit a nice thermal and that was a bright spot for us. We headed out together
after climbing up. After a few kilometers, Jeff spotted a pilot circling a
little to our right and the three of them went toward the guy. I kept on the
course line as there was a pilot racing out ahead and I figured that doubled my
chances. There was a dark black cloud ahead also.
Zippy said later that their right turn was a mistake. I was out in front
searching as the pilot below me wasn't getting anything under perfect looking
cloud. I finally did find something useful as my teammates came in my direction.
The sky was full of cu's.
I headed out toward a nice line of good looking black bottomed cu's. Down, down,
down I went as I raced toward them. Looking ahead I saw a pilot low racing down
the line in front of me. I was betting on that guy as I followed along. Suddenly
Zippy came on the radio to report 600 fpm 1 km ahead of me, just as I saw the
pilot turn and start to climb. The low pilot was Zippy and I joined him.
Jeff was way above us, and Larry came and joined me. We climbed at 400 fpm from
pretty low as Jeff topped out and went on course toward Grenfell. Larry and I
followed Zippy toward the foothills before Grenfell. Larry found something and I
came in under him to find nothing. I went forward to Zippy and found nothing
under him. Then forward to the next pilot and finally there was some reasonable
lift from 2,000' AGL.
Back up over 5,000' Jeff was reporting strong lift 11 kilometers and then 8
kilometers from the Grenfell turnpoint. I raced along the hills and didn't find
anything. Larry was high behind me and Zippy was near the turnpoint.
Not finding any lift I left the foothills and headed west away from the
turnpoint to get under some clouds and over shaded ground running toward areas
of sun searching for lift to get me well back over four thousand feet.
What I didn't know at the time was while Jeff went in high to the turnpoint,
Larry and Zippy did not, not being over 4,000'. I was freaked to be as low as I
was as I consider the turnpoint a sink hole. The sky conditions nearby did not
look at all good.
I worked half a dozen light thermals trying to find one that lasted for more
than a couple of minutes and was better than 100 fpm. Zippy had already landed
having been down to 1,000' over the gold course. Jeff was still high. Larry
found good lift just at the golf course and got back up into the game.
Jeff came in quickly in the top ten he thinks. Larry was late. The goal field
was full. The sport class had the same goal and for the first time most of them
made it to goal. They were a very happy crew.
http://OzReport.com/1263030816
|
