DAY ONE DALBY

12 April

Blue skies in the morning with cumulus clouds popping off by 10am and a light S-SE wind, task 124Km triangle. Out to Jandowae then SW to Brigalow then 53Km back to Dalby.

Towing started at 11:30 after the Sports Class were towed up and those who picked low numbers for start order had up to 45 minutes to wait for the first start, but staying up was not a problem with lift around 600ft min. Even those who had weak links break were able to get away low if you were lucky enough to find a thermal on your glide back to the tow line. My weak link broke at 340ft and lots of swear words were coming out of my mouth when I heard the vario start to beep and hooking into the lift I out climbed a tug and tow and carried on up to over 6500ft.                        

The course to Wpt 1 was littered with clouds with good lift, cloud base reaching 8400ft, which made the first wpt reachable to most pilots.

John Smith was racing to wpt 1 and got low (300ft) and managed to scratch up and get back in the race.

Getting away from Wpt 1 was made difficult by the thermal drift which was to the E, with Wpt 2 in a SW direction.

Even the first couple of thermals on route to Wpt 2 were slow going as the drift took you back towards Wpt 1. Further down the course Wpt 2 came into sight but for those who got there late the heat of the day was wearing off as the clouds had thinned out and the glides between clouds increased.

Slowing up was the best plan. Under most clouds the lift was smooth with a constant climb of around 300-400ft min.

Once Wpt 2 was reached a cross head wind up to 15kph was encountered which made the run to goal slow for those who had not kept up the pace around the course to beat the day as the day softened up making final glide difficult.

Kurt Warren won the day coming in 3 hours and 2 minutes after start. 14 pilots made it to goal.

How good is Dalby with classic race conditions and a technical day for those here to win?

Results can be found on the Oz Report or for full results the Dalby club web site.

The Trans Tasman Cup is being fought for again with NZ pilots Hargen, Guy, John Smith, Conrad and Tash. Results when they come to hand.