After the first three days I'm in first, Scott is in second with
Andrew. The results aren't being posted just yet. I hope to get that fixed
tonight.

With a forecast for light winds, cu's, and good lift, we all decide to head back
to Mystic. The winds at the mountain tops are 10 to 12 knots out of the north
but the area wide forecast on RASP shows a general southerly flow. XCSkies
forecasts cloud base at 8,000' to 9,000'.

I set up a task that takes us toward Myrtleford, the Ovens intersection, with a
ten kilometer turnpoint. This allows pilots to fly over to Myrtleford hill if
they want to get up good there then run the north side of the Happy Valley to
the east. But you don't have to even get to the turnpoint, but can stop along
the ridge line going toward it if it doesn't look that good and run the south
side of Happy Valley.

The next turnpoint is Mongan's bridge in the middle of the Kiewa valley thirty
kilometers east of the Oven's turnpoint. It also has a ten kilometer radius.
This allows pilots to fly on either side of the Happy Valley or to skip Happy
Valley all together and just stay in the mountains east of Mt. Porepunkah (if
you are high enough). Also you can run the Kiewa Valley on either side.

The goal is the Mt. Beauty airport which makes for easy retrieval. It can be a
short task. The nominal distance is 74 kilometers, but you can make it much
shorter (about forty kilometers if you just nick the edges), or much longer (110
kilometers if you go to the extremes of the turnpoint cylinders). But your
minimum time is two hours no matter how long it takes you to complete the task.
Your distance divided by your time gives you your speed which determines your
placing.

Lukas is off first with Olli soon after. There is plenty of lift at launch and
they are soon at cloud base. I take off next, head left to the ridge line,
follow out the ridgeline until I feel a bit of lift then turn. It is only 100
fpm for a couple of turns, but then it turns on as I find the core and I go up
with Scott who launches soon after me at 400 fpm to cloud base at 5,700'. There
are cu's all around.

Scott heads out along the hills east of Bright and gets lower and lower. I
decline to follow him and instead check out Clear Spot. There are nice friendly
dark bottom cu's over the tops of the rides and peaks, but the lift is weak. I
go back over launch get some lift then back to Clear Spot where I climb out this
time to 5,300'.

I follow another glider to the edge of the start cylinder (five kilometers from
launch), join him in some lift at the edge, then at 5,500' head for the range to
the north east and Mt. Porepunkah as I record a start time about half an hour
after Scott's.

I arrive at the range at 3,200', below the top, where the lift is weak. I first
find 200 fpm, but after getting up to ridge height head for the top, but have to
work 85 then 99 fpm to get to 4,700'. There are nice looking cu's right over my
head but I can't find any strong cores.

I head northwest down the range toward the turnpoint and finally find 350 fpm to
5,900' and cloud base. There is a cloud street right down the ridge line and I
ride it looking for a strong thermal or at least light sink. I don't find a good
thermal and turn about four kilometers into the turnpoint cylinder and come back
looking for a strong thermal to get me on my way to the next turnpoint in the
Kiewa Valley. I ignore the Happy Valley altogether and just concentrate on the
best looking clouds.

I only find 260 fpm to 4,700' so I keep going along the ridge top to the next
clouds. Nothing works so I'm back at the bottom of Mt. Porepunkah at 2,700'
working 100 fpm. I finally get to 3,200' head further in, work 150 fpm, to
4,700' then go over the top to find the 530 fpm to cloud base at 6,100'. Too
slow climbs are not doing me any good in this race.

From Mt. Porepunkah I can skip the Happy Valley and the Kancoona (Running Creek)
Valley together and jump over to the west side of the Kiewa Valley and the range
there. There are cu's all over the mountains between Mt. Porepunkah and the
range so I just stay under them and stay high, 6,300'.

Now the question is now far into the second turnpoint do I want to go. I want to
cover the most distance that I can in about two hours. The range heads further
north but gets lower in that direction with fewer cu's. It seems to me that if I
go to the ridge tops and then head for goal, I should just about make it on
time.

I find 200 fpm then 300 fpm on the range , get back to cloud base and go on
final glide fourteen kilometers out. I arrive at goal six minute too early, so I
will get my distance divided by two hours.

Scott, who start much earlier, went past the turnpoint at Ovens, and got on
Myrtleford hill. He took the northern edge route along Happy Valley, then the
north ridge north of Kancoona Valley jumped across the Kiewa Valley and road the
eastern range into goal for a time of 2:06. Looks like he might have won the
day. We don't know what Olli did. Kari made it into goal a while after I landed.
I believe that he started before I did. Andy landed near the launch at Bright.

I'll see if I can get the results up.

The flight on the
HOLC, on
XContest, on
Leonardo