14 April.
Task: West to Kumbrilla Rd intersection then west again to Meandarra Hwy.
A quartering tail wind with a slight dog leg lay ahead.
Again clear blue skies in the morning and clouds started to form around 10:00am. Winds light ESE.
It was forecasted to overdevelop from the east.
Briefing was at 9:00am with the usual banter and a few helpful remarks on the towing for the previous day. A pilot was missing but was found late at night due to not having a radio and having lost his cell phone.
It was decided to have the start gate at 12:15 due to the overdevelopment, so there was a bit of a rush to get set up and ready. The Sport class got away first followed by the Alternate launch and then the Main launch started.
Thermals were strong around the airfield with one sitting just to the east of take-off. A gaggle had formed high above the airstrip, with a second gaggle a few km to the west, both topping out at 6800ft.
Ten minutes before the start, the pilots over the airfield joined the main gaggle to the west and when the first start gate opened over 30 pilots headed west looking like a formation of planes flying off to battle. With around 30 pilots in the air thermals were found easily and height gained quickly but the top guns pulled away from the rest and as progress was made towards Wpt 1 the gaggles started to thin out.
A few top pilots landed on the first part of the course but they were pushing hard to get out in front.
After reaching Wpt 1 you found you had 71km to goal and not far away was a 6km stretch of forest that had to be crossed. This was not a problem as cloud base had gained height up to 7800ft and an easy glide over this part of the course was not a problem, even for the kingpost gliders.
Out past the forest and flying south of Tara I encounted two wedged tail eagles that joined me as I entered the thermal at 4600ft, and stayed with me all the way up to 7200ft hanging not far off my starboard wing. I was quite nervous that they might shred my sail but this was not the case, even though one of them passed over my leading edge with its talons missing my sail by 300mm while we looked each other in the eye, no aggression was shown.
For those of us who were a little slow around the course the clouds started to thin out and look raggedy but as the farmers were ploughing their fields late in the day and thermals were still popping off, goal was easily reached. Staying between 5000ft and 8000ft during the day meant you got cold but with every cloud working there was not much chance of getting low.
There were a lot of happy faces in goal with around 30 pilots reaching goal and among them a few king post gliders. Every member of the Kiwi Trans-Tasman Challenge team got to goal.
John had a lucky break 30km from goal when he broke away from the gaggle and found a good 700ft climb to cloud base and allowed him to go on final glide to goal. With this height he only had to top up slightly on course to goal which allowed him to win the day in 2hrs 17min and gaining 998 points.
Lisa, who has been doing a great job being the Trolley Dolly for the comp, bringing back the dollies once the pilot has been towed up, managed a fantastic flight on her Fluro Orange Moyes Malibu.
After everyone got away she flew cross wind to near Chinchilla where she to land before she entered airspace flying crosswind 76km. Even Floaters can do it!
With Dalby at its best for task two, can it get any better than this?
Captain Flockhart's log:
He was heard to say that with his winning pace to Wpt 1 he was leading the day and then a snail’s pace to goal followed after taking a different line to everyone else that did not pay off. Safety in numbers was the best course.
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.
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.
DALBY BIG AIR 11 - 18 APRIL 2015
Expats Conrad Logan, Kath Abott, Viv Clements, Dave (Rangi) Stevens.
11 April Practice day.
Winds ESE fresh in the morning but dropping off in the afternoon with morning cloud breaking up. Fresh juice was made by Rangi at Lisa and John's Kitchen at the airfield campground.
The airfield at Dalby turned into a campground over night with pilots turning up from Western Australia, Melbourne, Cairns, New Zealand and Brazil for the great flying at Dalby.
The comp was limited to 53 pilots and most of them took to the air when the wind dropped off to brush up on their towing skills and pick up thermals around the airstrip to 7000ft and if you did not get there on your first tow you could land and get towed up again.
Guy was busy most of the day putting a new RX sail on his RS frame and John got to fly Viv’s new Laminar which he said, “ flew better than his Combat L”, but he is aiming to win the comp after coming 2nd last year .
Winglets seemed to be in fashion on the Laminar’s and T2C’s. Will Moyes follow suit?
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