DAY THREE DALBY BIG AIR

14 April.

Clear blue skies with clouds building early morning. Wind light and variable filling in from the NE around 16:00 and becoming stronger up to 17kph. Clouding in from the east 6500 -7000 increasing to a 8000ft cloud base later on in the day.

Task: Dalby to Broadwater Dam 26.5km to the SW. Then north 61Km to Jandowae and return to Dalby Airport. 132 km triangle.

The start gate opened and the gaggle to the west of take-off were in the best position.

The lift around the airport was light and shifty in some places and stronger in others and those who got high quick had no problem staying high. The run down to Broadwater Dam was fast and the pilots did not thin till the run down to turn point 2. A few pilots got low along here but most managed to find good lift back to cloud base. For the lead pilots, those who stayed right of course had the quicker fly and in a good position for the run to goal.

A cloud street to the east of course allowed pilots to get a good glide towards goal only needing a slight top up on the way. Some pilots had a low save in a massive thermal which became a cloud of Sorghum as it sucked all the leaves off the ground. Other pilots got into thermals with dozens of Swifts that were feeding on the bugs in the thermal.

John Smith was on the left of course to Wpt 2 and got down to 2000ft AGL and lost 10 minutes getting back to cloud base and put him into 6th for the day. The forecast wind had not developed which allowed around 20 pilots to make it to goal, three of those are on the Kiwi Trans-Tasman Challenge team, John, Hargen and Conrad.

Kurt Warren won the day.

Lisa put in another fantastic fly in her fluro red Moyes Malibu. Taking off at 13:00 she made a slow but steady pace around the course to land at 17:00. Four hours in the air to get within 15Km of turn point 2. Asking Lisa about her day all that was said was “Awesome!” Well done Lisa.

How good is DALBY, three fantastic flying days in a row. So far this has been an Out Standing Dalby!

Trans-Tasman Challenge; The Australians are winning with 12,505 points and the Kiwi team have 8991 points.

Captain Flockhart’s quote of the day:  "if you’re not in Dalby where the hell are you."

Advice for the day: Don’t always follow the gaggle if you think their decision is wrong.