Forbes, NSW, Australia
The hot day that got cancelled was the hottest day in 18 years according to the local news, our driver had left a thermometer in his car, and it showed 98 degree inside the car…
Four days ago we had a 136 km task SE, I released from the tow too early into a thermal that died, landed, and had to join in at the end of the line. Got off as the third last pilot, by then the cirrus coming from the west moved in and made the whole area shut down. It had been blue all day. I flew with a Japanese pilot for about 40 km, the last glide was from 1800 meters and straight down to the ground without any thermal activity. The main gaggle met a seabreeze front just before crossing the goal line, and about 10 pilots went down a few hundred meters short of goal. Gordon 2,7 km short, and Andreas 20 something short. The next day was cancelled in very strong winds.
Yesterday the wind had changed to SE, clouds were forming, and we got a 130 km straight line task West. I got off early, and struggled to get to cloudbase for a while. I found the conditions quite shitty whith turbulent and difficult thermals, you had to resenter the core all the way up. It’s been turbulent all the days here, in Hay it was very smooth and predictable thermals, but here it’s really hard work, I have trouble getting all the way up. I was pretty tired towards the end of the flight, after 2 really low saves, and made a mistake just 20 km from goal. Came down in the middle of nowhere, found a thermal 100 meters off the ground and drifted with it in strong crosswind for 5 km without gaining any height. I came in over a farm and landed near the farmhouse 25 km out from the track. The farmer was quite suprised to see me, and his kids did not belive him until I showed them my glider :-) He let me use their radio so I could get into contact with the driver. He then drove me back to the highway planning to pick up Andreas, by then Gordon and Dale the driver had contact.
Gordon got to goal and won the day, Andreas bombed out on first tow, and had to pack up and get back to tow up again, he landed in the same area as I did. There was over 50 pilots in goal, and I only got 340 points for a 136 km flight.
Today it looked good from the morning, though no good clouds had formed in the area. We got a 226 km task NE, I towed up early, got a good thermal off the tow and climbed to 1200 meters above the paddock. The thermal got very weak, and I glided towards a gaggle of gliders circling a few km out. They had been in zero lift, and everyone glided back towards the towpaddock when I arrived. I was too low to reach back, and landed 1 km out after flying thru 6 m/s sink all the way back. I packed up and went back to town, just too tired and pissed off to set up and refly. Andreas came back down from 1900 meters, and just made it back over the fence around the paddock, Gordon locked out on tow at 200 meters, and almost went upside down, he towed up straight after me, we where in the same thermal but he flew to the right on the way back and got slowly up again. Last I heard they were struggling with strong crosswind around the first TP. We have two days of flying left here in Forbes. Gerolf is still in hte lead, but it’s quite tight in the top places.