With another blue day and light winds in store for us here at
Forbes, two groups set up two tasks, one a 150 km FAI triangle and the other a
67 km triangle nearby for the cross country students. The pilots going for the
longer task got off earlier, but not that early, waiting until after 1 PM to get
going.

The launch situation was a bit better today with four tugs operating and we
didn't have to wait long after the student got pulled up to get our lifts into
the air. The lift itself started off weak and it took a while for the thermal I
flew to to get above 150 fpm. It did finally get stronger and I climbed to
7,000', which seemed to be near the top of the inversion. I took off at 2:42 PM
for the first turnpoint to the north.

I knew that there would be pilots out on the short course so I headed out on my
own. Larry Bunner and Ricker Goldsborough would be coming along later. The
radios weren't working all that well so I never heard from them, but that's why
we do these practice days (and this meet has the most so far). Larry was also
flying one of Jeff Shapiro's new Covert harnesses for the first time.

The short course task was again up north to the Bogan Gate turnpoint then back
southeast to a turnpoint north of Forbes on the Newell highway, then back
southwest to the airfield west of Forbes. The first leg was weak for me. I had
to work 200 to 300 fpm lift and push upwind into the five mph west wind to get
set for the turnpoint. I was catching up with and passing pilots but I wasn't
getting much speed.

The first good thermal was at the first turnpoint and the whole task turned on
there for me. I climbed out quickly, found even a better thermal one kilometer
away and got well over 6,000'. Headed toward the turnpoint and started catching
more pilots (students and others).

I spotted the pilots in front, caught them and continued on when the lift got
weak. Just before the turnpoint I caught all the pilots that I had seen in front
of me as they turned when it didn't seem to me that any turning was required. My
6030 showed that I would make the goal by 600' around the turnpoint, so I just
kept going.

When I got around the turnpoint I headed off with Freddy next to me. There was
good lift along the course line but now I had goal by 2,000' and I hadn't turned
since six kilometers before the last turnpoint. Freddy made a turn and I lost
him after that. I just kept up the speed getting up to 55 mph.

I had trouble holding it fast as there were too many bumps. The 6030 had me at
2,400' above the best glide line to the goal and making it with 500'given my
speed above best glide speed, and it was obvious that these were rock solid
numbers. There was no way I was going to be able to get down to the best glide
line.

There was lift most of the way to goal and I came over with 1,300'. I just
couldn't get the glider down on a ten kilometer glide. But when I saw the 600'
above goal figure before the last turnpoint I wasn't sure how solid that number
was. When I made the turnpoint and I was flying through lift, I knew that I had
the goal made.

All the students made it back after me with Jonny and Curt hanging back with
them. We broke down at the airfield and waited for the pilots from the big task
to get back. As Belinda and I were leaving, Attila came in first (after I think
Peter on the ATOS VQ).

A day that started off weak but one with much more than adequate lift. It just
turned on so strong after 3:30 PM.

The weather looks good coming up if a chance of afternoon showers.